Schwalbe Marathon Mondial 26 x 2.0

After 15.000 kms of cycling, we changed from the Continental TravelContact tires to the Schwalbe Marathon Mondial foldable tires.

The Mondial is the successor of the Extreme and the XR. The XR was always the tire for world travellers. The XR was very durable but also has a lot of rolling resistance.

Fortunately, mounting the Mondials went very smooth. Other than the TravelContact tires, the Mondial have studs all over the surface.

How do we like the tires? We rode about 13.500 kms (8400 miles) on the Mondials. We noticed that the rolling resistance on paved roads is higher compared to the TravelContacts and they also are less comfortable. Also without luggage, it’s not a nice ride on the Mondials. Even with low pressure you bounce around a lot. Downhill and on roads with bad pavement they also don’t feel very stable.

On unpaved roads, the Mondial is better than the TravelContact. It’s easy to feel that they have better grip.

Because of the harder rubber, pebbles and small stones don’t get stuck in the surface.

The Mondials have a better leekprotection and are more durable than the TravelContacts. For us, besides better grip on unpaved roads, that’s a big advantage of these tires. But if you’re planning a trip on, mostly, paved roads we would choose the TravelContacts over the Mondials. They are much more comfortable.