Great Tire!

Posted by Snowman on 13th Nov 2012

I've only had these a day, but have done a lot with them on my MTB and are very impressed. I replaced some B* Comfort tires I moved from my tandem to my mountain bike after the original Joneses wore out. My MTB is mainly used on the road and hard trails and the Comforts were hard, slow and handled unpredictably. Schwalbe Sam's are totally different. They give a soft ride, roll very easily, corner in a very linear fashion and stick tenaciously. The bike doesn't slam into bumps any more; I can hit a curb straight on and just go over it without lifting the bars. The reduced rolling resistance is most noticeable exiting slow corners, it's much easier to get back up to speed again. The great grip makes powering around sweepers like I do in my road bike lots of fun. Before, it was scary. The biggest improvement of all, and the reason I went looking for better tires is the feeling of being stuck to the ground when I'm bikejoring with my two sled dogs. They're hitched to the right side and could easily slide the front wheel so I was almost always in a hard left turn. I've only been out once with them, but the NASCAR lean decreased dramatically, our run was much smoother and they seemed more relaxed. We went over lots of wet leaves, gravel, and a few small ice patches with no surprises. I've always appreciated the difference excellent tires make on cars and now understand the difference they can make on bikes. I put Marathon Duremes on my tandem a month ago and it too became much more fun. I like Schwalbe tires a lot!