The last word in durability, with predictable off-road handling without completely sacrificing speed on tarmac…

Indestructible rubber for when the going gets tough…

The Marathon Mondial is Schwalbe’s flagship expedition touring tyre – the last word in durability, with predictable off-road handling without completely sacrificing speed on tarmac.

If you aren’t going to be riding on unpaved roads, the Marathon Mondial is probably not for you. While Schwalbe have done a great job mitigating the effects of the tread and tough build of the Mondial on rolling resistance, it’s very noticeably slower than a slick road tyre – no surprises there!

At the time of writing, Chain Reaction are doing a healthy 28% discount on the 700C and 26″ sizes. Wiggle might be worth a look too for both 700C and 26″ (currently 10% off).



The Marathon Mondial makes short work of a river crossing, Cuba’s Sierra Maestra mountains…

Rolling resistance

The Marathon Mondial rolls much better than you might expect from a photograph – the chunky tread is carefully designed so that an almost smooth centre ridge is presented to the tarmac under normal riding conditions.

On a mixture of sealed and unsealed surfaces, the Mondial might just be the perfect compromise. However, if you expect tarmac rolling performance along the lines of the Marathon Supreme you will be disappointed – there are no miracles!

Comfort

The width of the Mondial makes it very agreeable from the rider’s point of view. Potholes, debris and rocks and boulders on dirt trails are eaten up without drama.

Altering the tyre pressure sensitively to conditions is very important. At 85psi the tyre is as rigid as possible to minimise rolling losses, and jarring if you ride down steps or similar. Off-road I go for 50psi to improve comfort and handling – still plenty of air in a 2″ tyre to protect the rims from sharp impacts.

A wide tyre is probably the best investment you can make in protecting your bike. There’s so much adoration of steel that it sometimes seems that everyone in a shack in the third world is supposedly ready to leap into action and weld up your frame before the next big mountain descent… hedge your bets with a bit of extra air in the first place 🙂

Reflective bands

The Mondial is fitted with reflective sidewall bands. Although arguably the least important type of safety feature, if you’re likely to get caught out at dawn or dusk with no lights, this sort of thing certainly won’t hurt:

Grip

The Marathon Mondial is designed for off-road use and has a wide hybrid tread.

The centre studs are very large and closely interlock to keep the tyre stable on tarmac and minimise rolling losses. Beside this, two rows of side studs are provided to dig in when the going gets rough.

The Mondial is extremely stable in descent on mud and dirt – I proved this to myself with a shakedown on local mud before hitting Cuba, and the Mondial continued to prove its worth on a big day’s crossing of the Sierra Maestra.

The rubber formula, Schwalbe’s Endurance compound, is shared with the old Marathon XR, and designed for ultimate durability. Intuitively, the tyre must be less grippy if the rubber is longer lasting (not as sticky), but I found them very reassuring in all sorts of conditions, from high speed wet descents on tarmac to river crossings and sloppy muddy climbs, all fully loaded.

Flat resistance

The Schwalbe Marathon Mondial loads it up on puncture resistance with Double Defence (SnakeSkin sidewall protection and a high-tech fibre breaker strip) combined with the extra hard Endurance compound.

Mine are looking very good so far, but I’ll update this if and when I encounter problems (I commute a substantial distance on a disused railway path covered in glass, putting any tyre through its paces).

Durability

Others who have put much more time onto the Mondials than I will be able to speak of their ultimate lifespan, but after plenty of hard use with a 30kg / 65lb load mine still look pretty new.

This is where Schwalbe really focused their efforts, delivering a tyre that can be expected to give many thousands of miles on the road, and it shows. The tread and sidewall construction are absolutely first rate.

So far I have a thousand miles or so and the mould lines are still visible. I’ll be editing this section with mileage updates in future, to see how we go…

Weight

At 650g for the 700x42c folding version, the Marathon Mondial is not the lightest tyre ever made – the same size Marathon Supreme comes in at 495g. But then, how heavy is “heavy” for an expedition tyre anyway?

You probably don’t want to risk an expedition with no spare tyre, but confidence in the Mondial might allow you to conscience a trip with only one spare, and that could end up being a pretty big weight saving.

Conclusion

I bought into the Marathon Mondial because I wanted a tyre that would perform predictably and reliably on muddy trails, yet not be ridiculously slow on tarmac. With a 30kg load-out I wanted something fat enough to protect the bike, and to give me the confidence to risk one (relatively fragile) spare.

The Mondial is a tremendous expedition tyre and absolutely didn’t disappoint. I was able to plough through deep muddy tracks and ford rivers with aplomb, while I didn’t feel it was too hard to keep up on tarmac sections either.

I haven’t done enough mileage on mine yet to be definitive about durability, but I think it’s encouraging that they still have their mould line after 1000+ miles.

Just be warned – because they are big and designed to go everywhere they just aren’t going to be as fast as a road touring tyre!

At the time of writing, Chain Reaction are doing a healthy 28% discount on the 700C and 26″ sizes. Wiggle might be worth a look too for both 700C and 26″ (currently 10% off).



The Mondial dwarfs the 40mm Marathon Plus (and there’s not much weight between them!

Vital Statistics

Folding version:

ETRTO (mm) Imperial (“) Pressure (bar) Pressure (psi) Weight (g) 50-559 26×2 2.5-4.5 35-70 720 37-622 700x37c 3.5-5.5 55-85 580 42-622 700x42c 3.5-5.5 50-85 650

Wire version: