Best rear tire for 26" DD hub motor

So I finally got a donor bike, a trek 4500. It is a hard tail mountain bike. I will be using one of those 1000W 26" ebay DD rear hub motors. It is a 26" x 1.75" rim. I am assuming the tire that comes with the motor is less than ideal.

I am looking for something with good puncture resistance and cushioning as I don't have rear suspension and plan to average around 20 mi/h. This will be for mostly road use and occasional light trial use.

I am assuming the front tire choice isn't as critical. What are the current recommendations? I have seen the big apple mentioned here a lot.

Thanks.

The best one I've found is the Schwalbe Marathon Plus HS 468 SmartGuard MTB Bicycle Tire. I put about 2200 miles on my last set on a DD running 3600W with ZERO flats. They're expensive ($45-$50 a tire), but worth it when you're not having to take off your rear wheel all the time.

You can get it in the 26" x 2.35" which gives you more air volume allowing you to play more with pressure to adjust ride comfort.

Thanks for the recommendation. I run a marathon plus on my human powered, hybrid commuter. The price is definitely worth almost never having to deal with flats. The only flat I ever got was from a 1" wood screw that went in perpendicular to the tire. It would probably have punctured any bike tire on the market.

I'll have to see if they offer something with a bit less tread than in the picture.

WTB Thick Slick Flat Guard 26x 2.0
WTB Cruz Flat Guard 26x2.0
Panaracer RiBMo 26x2.0
Schwalbe Big Apple Plus 26x2.15

It's hard to find a really fat 26" tire that has top quality anti-puncture features built in. Wolfeman's suggestion is the fattest heavily armored tire I've seen, but I would not want to ride on those knobs.

They make a knobless marathon plus in a 26 x 2.0. I think I'd rather have the slightly smaller tire in a more slick package.

What about the SuperMoto X with GreenGuard 26 x 2.4 ?:
https://www.schwalbetires.com/bike_tires/road_tires/super-moto-x

That was going to be my choice over the Big Ben Plus but the SuperMotoX didn't come in 24"

I've ridden a few hundred miles on the Marathon Plus MTB, and surprisingly, I didn't find the knobs to be really noticeable or bothersome at all on tarmac. The center tread rides smoother than it looks like it should, and that makes it an excellent all-around tire if you ride mostly pavement but occasionally dirt.

That said, it's as stiff as any other Marathon Plus. If you don't mind sacrificing a bit of puncture protection in the name of comfort, I'd sooner recommend a Big Apple or Big Ben for on-road use.

pwd said:

What about the SuperMoto X with GreenGuard 26 x 2.4 ?:
https://www.schwalbetires.com/bike_tires/road_tires/super-moto-x

That was going to be my choice over the Big Ben Plus but the SuperMotoX didn't come in 24"

Click to expand...

I still think the Crazy Bob is the best street / light dirt tire in the 24" size, 24" X 2.4" to be exact.

motomech said:

I still think the Crazy Bob is the best street / light dirt tire in the 24" size, 24" X 2.4" to be exact.

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Maxxis Hookworm 24 X 2.5" is surely a worthy rival, then.

Both of them are good quality, robust tires without any special anti-puncture belts built in. They rely on thickness and strength to do what other tires do with textile and/or rubber breaker belts.

Balmorhea said:

motomech said:

I still think the Crazy Bob is the best street / light dirt tire in the 24" size, 24" X 2.4" to be exact.

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Maxxis Hookworm 24 X 2.5" is surely a worthy rival, then.

Both of them are good quality, robust tires without any special anti-puncture belts built in. They rely on thickness and strength to do what other tires do with textile and/or rubber breaker belts.

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I use both, but they really are apples and oranges. The Crazy Bob's are 2 or 3 times the price of the Hookworms and the CB's carcass is 2 or 3 times thicker as well. I've had cactus spines go thru the Hookworms sidewall. But the HW is a great value tire, I have one on the frt. now. But not the rear.
I run the Crazy Bob "ghetto" tubeless and it doesn't lose any more air than if it had a tube. It's a high quality tire I. M. O.

My only experience with the Crazy Bob is the 20" version, which is no beefier than the 20" Hookworm. It's a satisfactory tire. If I need a 24" tire, I'll try out the Crazy Bob.

That Schwalbe has a feature I look for. The knobs in the center connect, making a continuous center rib that rolls easy on pavement. But in the dirt, the knobs on the side of the tire take effect.

I have so much trash on the roads here though, that I have had tires slashed by metal junk in less than 4 miles, and often enough, a month or two and the tire is cut by glass, metal, or bent nails in the road. That led me to run whatever beach cruiser tire was cheapest, and to go out and sweep some of the bike lane nearest my house about once a year.

So much shit falls off construction workers trucks, and I live in the area of the town that is growing, and or where the workers live.

pwd said:

What about the SuperMoto X with GreenGuard 26 x 2.4 ?:
https://www.schwalbetires.com/bike_tires/road_tires/super-moto-x

That was going to be my choice over the Big Ben Plus but the SuperMotoX didn't come in 24"

Click to expand...

The 2.4" superMoto X looks pretty perfect. I am just unsure that it will fit on a 1.75" rim.

transposon said:

pwd said:

What about the SuperMoto X with GreenGuard 26 x 2.4 ?:
https://www.schwalbetires.com/bike_tires/road_tires/super-moto-x

That was going to be my choice over the Big Ben Plus but the SuperMotoX didn't come in 24"

Click to expand...

The 2.4" superMoto X looks pretty perfect. I am just unsure that it will fit on a 1.75" rim.

Click to expand...

The "1.75" designation of your room doesn't mean anything specific; it's just a legacy nominal size. Bicycle rims don't really have a dedicated tire width. It will fit fine. If the inside rim width is much less than a third of the tire's inflated width, you'll have to use a higher minimum pressure than would otherwise be necessary.

For what it's worth, the Super Moto is a thinner and more fragile version of Big Apple. Any version of the Big Apple with be more puncture resistant and streetworthy.

Balmorhea said:

For what it's worth, the Super Moto is a thinner and more fragile version of Big Apple. Any version of the Big Apple with be more puncture resistant and streetworthy.

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Hmm, according to the schwalbe website the moto-x is slightly heavier and can take a slightly larger load than the big apple plus.

https://www.schwalbetires.com/bike_tires/road_tires/super-moto-x
https://www.schwalbetires.com/bike_tires/road_tires/big_apple_plus

transposon said:

Balmorhea said:

For what it's worth, the Super Moto is a thinner and more fragile version of Big Apple. Any version of the Big Apple with be more puncture resistant and streetworthy.

Click to expand...

Hmm, according to the schwalbe website the moto-x is slightly heavier and can take a slightly larger load than the big apple plus.

Click to expand...

It's a bigger tire by .35", which is substantial.

Is a larger diameter tire going to increase the WH/mi of an ebike? Does rolling resistance/friction generally scale with tire width?

transposon said:

Is a larger diameter tire going to increase the WH/mi of an ebike? Does rolling resistance/friction generally scale with tire width?

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It's more accurate to say it's an inverse function of tire pressure, and the fatter the tire, the lower the appropriate pressure will be.

Instrumented tests have shown that for tires of the same construction and at the same pressure, fatter tires have less rolling resistance. But you generally don't use different width tires at the same pressure. If you do, you're sacrificing some of the benefit of a wide tire.

The more rubber you have changing shape when it passes through the contact patch, and the greater degree to which it changes shape, the more rolling resistance you'll have. So thicker-treaded tires, knobbier tires, and softly inflated tires are slower. Thinner-treaded, smoother, and higher pressure tires are faster. The tire width makes almost no difference compared to these other factors.

Edit:
Note that the rubber used for anti-puncture "breaker belts" is usually a kind that has less energy dissipation than tread rubber, so it doesn't slow you down as much as an equivalent thickness of tread rubber. It's also designed not to provide tread-like grip, so it's more likely to eject sharp foreign objects rather than hold them.

Great reading, "bicycle myths" series: https://www.renehersecycles.com/12-myths-in-cycling-1-wider-tires-are-slower/

IMHO marathon plus is as good as it's gonna get. Which is only 7mm of rubber.

Check my post history if you're looking for some tougher options than that. 22" and 20" bicycle rims have the option to run 16" and 18" motorcycle tires, which will get you 10mm or more of rubber, and of a harder compound. You'll pay a penalty with extra tire friction, but a flat will be a very rare event and likely due to a roofing nail or something else that would have taken out a car tire..

transposon said:

Is a larger diameter tire going to increase the WH/mi of an ebike? Does rolling resistance/friction generally scale with tire width?

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Check the ebikes.ca motor simulator for the answer.

Some hub motors are more efficient than others at various tire diameters and speeds. The simulator will help answer that question, as there's no such thing as a blanket answer.

Tire friction doesn't necessarily scale with width, surprisingly enough. part of that is because a big fat tire can baloon out at high PSI and have a similar road patch size as a skinny 700c tire. This of course depends on rim width too.

One unfortunate thing is that there's a big correlation between puncture proofness and tire friction. More rubber means more rubber to deform under motion, means more power used to move, unfortunately.

A moto/scooter tire can have 2-3x the friction of a bike tire.

Oops, I meant to ask if a larger tire width effects Wh/mi.

Wolfeman said:

The best one I've found is the Schwalbe Marathon Plus HS 468 SmartGuard MTB Bicycle Tire. I put about 2200 miles on my last set on a DD running 3600W with ZERO flats. They're expensive ($45-$50 a tire), but worth it when you're not having to take off your rear wheel all the time.

You can get it in the 26" x 2.35" which gives you more air volume allowing you to play more with pressure to adjust ride comfort.

Click to expand...

I agree with this, and have two of them as rear tires so far. I do need to test how well they lean on pavement more, however.
So far they have been fine. The 26x2.25" on Amazon recently dropped from $55 to $40 for the first time ever, but is now back up to $46. Looks like the 26x2.10" finally fell to $49.

NCC1941 said:

I've ridden a few hundred miles on the Marathon Plus MTB, and surprisingly, I didn't find the knobs to be really noticeable or bothersome at all on tarmac. The center tread rides smoother than it looks like it should, and that makes it an excellent all-around tire if you ride mostly pavement but occasionally dirt.

That said, it's as stiff as any other Marathon Plus. If you don't mind sacrificing a bit of puncture protection in the name of comfort, I'd sooner recommend a Big Apple or Big Ben for on-road use.

Click to expand...

dogman dan said:

That Schwalbe has a feature I look for. The knobs in the center connect, making a continuous center rib that rolls easy on pavement. But in the dirt, the knobs on the side of the tire take effect.

Click to expand...

Totally agree about the continuous center. Provides more meat for a longer life as well.

thundercamel said:

I agree with this, and have two of them as rear tires so far. I do need to test how well they lean on pavement more, however.


Totally agree about the continuous center. Provides more meat for a longer life as well.

Click to expand...

I'm wondering how well the side knobs handle dirt to pavement transitions. After crashing with my Crazy Bob's, when they didn't hook up when going from the dirt shoulder to the pavement, I'm looking for a tire with decent side knobs to replace them when they wear out.

CST City?

It's a smooth slick center, about an inch wide, relatively flat, with knobbies along the edge just "below" the curve; so they dont' contact smooth pavement utnil you're tilted over a bit. They're also pretty sticky / soft compound, so they grip well on pavement. (though this means they wear faster).

I've been using them for several years as my front 26" tire on CrazyBike2, and then the SB Cruiser trike (which doesn't see dirt almsot ever).

But CB2 was used relatively frequently (every few weeks on average) on the canal bike paths, which at least at the time were often dirt/gravel for long stretches, though most of it's paved now, not all of it is. Worked pretty well for both steering traction, braking, and motor power (2WD front and rear). I used Maxxis Hookworms and similar stuff on the 20" rear wheel; didn't have as good a traction in dirt/etc by far since it was all smooth (well, a little tread, not much).

Kenda Kross is a similar "slick center, knobby edge" but their construction is...lacking, and the rubber is harder so it doesn't grip pavement as well. That *would* make them last longer, but their sidewalls tend to flake the rubber off, leaving just the threading, and then that starts tearing off the bead, so I don't like them much. :/


Neither one is puncture resistant, they're just regular tires, so I usually use a slime protective strip, and then a circumferentially slit tube minus it's valve stem over the actual inflated tube (partly to protect it from the slime strip, partly for further puncture resistance for stuff coming in from the sides).