Tandem Tire Width - What is yours?
 

Our tandem tire width is 32 (Schwalbe Marathon Plus). We just returned from a 10 day tour on which Google Maps was sending us on mixed terrain from regular roads to pretty bumpy gravel paths. I wished for a wider tire on some of the sections as well as during some of the steep downhill turny roads. I'm kind of considering 35 or 42. Anyone riding those widths on pavement and how do You like it?

We're running Donnelly (formerly Clement) Explor' USH (something like that) 35 mm tires on our tandem, where they barely fit in the rear. Although we're primarily on the bike path, I like the wider tires for the potholes and road construction in Northern Virginia and DC. If I could go wider, I would. We have the 120 TPI version of the tires, which seem to roll well without being fragile.
--Tom

We use tires measuring 40 to 45mm wide on paved roads when we want to go fast. Those include Panaracer Gravelking 38mm and Parimoto 42mm. They're faster, more comfortable, less flat-prone, and grippier than the 28 to 37mm tires that preceded them. We sometimes use a handful of wider (48 to 60mm) tires, too, but they are a little slower on pavement. We're a 320lb team for reference.

Our Ibis takes 26” and we are using 1.75” Paselas.
We have run wider; would like to try Compass Rat Trap Pass eventually and see if they are as good as everyone says.
Our Cannondale is wearing 700c x 37mm Soma Supple Vitesse. That’s as big as the frame will take.
Both bikes ride great, and the tires help out a lot with absorbing bumps.

Our setup contains 26“rims and 1,75“Schwalbe Marathon Plus Performance tires.
I didn’t listen to my mechanic who built our wheels when he mentioned the bigger rolling resistance of those “puncture-proof” tires and that this could take away some of the joy of riding.
For us this is not true at all. On the one hand, I like the feeling of those really robust tires (one step below a tank track ;-) and the fact, that I don’t really have to care for the roads (as long as there are roads at all). And on the other hand, regarding rolling resistance, they perform surprisingly better than I thought. When I give them enough air pressure (what you usually do on a tandem), I can’t recognize any difference from other tires of that size.

After 4000 km I just ordered a spare set of those tires only to realize: Our first set has probably many miles more to go until they are really worn…

We ride with 25mm x 700 on a Santana Ti. Our rides are exclusively on paved roads and the narrow width is not an issue.

700x38 Gravel Kings on our tandem. Fast and comfortable at 60 psi (we are a 310 pound team). We run on a lot of gravel roads without any trouble. Occasionally we go for ATV track type riding and then we switch to 650x48 Gravel King SK's at about 45 psi. We used to have a Comotion Speedster and were limited to 700x28. I had to run them at minimum 100 psi and we didn't ride many dirt roads because even then we were prone to pinch flats on gravel.

Same with our Santana. I have used RH tires on several other bikes, and they are as good as everyone says, but they also cost 3x more than tires that are almost as good and last a lot longer.

We ride 32mm Gatorskins on a set of Spinergy alloy wheels most of the time around local. We may also ride them when we go away from home for base touring. Overseas touring have a set of 40mm Scwhalbe Dureme (advertised for tandems) on 48spoke Phil Wood hub/Velocity Dyad rims. I'm not sure you can buy the Duremes any longer. Stoker likes the Duremes @75 psi or less and if we lose any speed to rolling resistance we're so slow we don't notice.

We have done our last 2 tours on Schwalbe G-One speed 650B x 40 tyres and found them to be really good both for rolling on road and on the gravel. I recently installed 650B x 47 Gravelking Slicks and while my lovely stoker loves them I feel they are just a bit to wide. They measure 51mm across on the Lightbicycle rims we are using. I'd like to try a slightly narrower Gravelking but they only make those sizes for 700c not 650b.
I would never run narrow tyres again especially as they have a higher rolling resistance
https://www.bicyclerollingresistance...000-comparison

I don't have that much tandem experience yet, but what I have found so far is that on the tandem I'm less comfortable (from a handling perspective) to use narrower tires than the road calls for.

When riding alone I'm used to riding gravel of mixed quality and for my cross/gravel bike I prefer to set it up for smoother gravel for speed and then just deal with it when I need to pass a section with poorer surface.

With the tandem I'd rather want to have a bit extra tire width to feel planted and safe on the road when getting into some rougher surfaces, and instead take the drawback on some extra wind/rolling resistance on the smooth stuff.

If we know it's going to be a 100% tarmac route and we want to go fast we use 28mm GP5000 tires. I don't think there is any need to go narrower, as we don't have aero wheels and we're not *that* fast.

On gravel/mixed we've run Hutchinson Overide 35mm tubeless tires (with tubes though). These are real 34mm on our 24mm (outer width) rims at least when new. Those don't have much knobs so fast on tarmac and good for hardpacked dirt or fine gravel roads. For coarser gravel not that great, I would want wider.

As our tandem (Cannondale Road Tandem 2017) don't have massive tire clearance (~4 mm left on the tightest spot with the Overide tires) we need to get a 650B wheelset if we want to go much wider, and I'm actually thinking about making one as a coming winter project, as there are routes I'd like to ride which will be a bit too rough for these tires. I'd probably like to go to ~45mm on the tandem to get the same all-aroundness I feel I have with the 37mm gravel tires I use on my solo bike.

We run 47mm tires on our 650b which gets a lot of gravel use. The handling is different than our 700c which gets 32-35 tires. Some of that is down to the wheel size, but also generally the bike is not going to handle different as you go wider and lower pressure. It's similar to the change on single bike. It's sort of a less railing of corners feel. It's fine, just different.

We ride 28c and 32c on our two tandems. I am planning to add 35c to our extra set of wheels to try out a little wider tire, especially for when we ride bike paths with the grand-kids.

Odd duck here. My tandems generally roll with 2.2" tires. The catch is that my captan
 

Odd duck out here. My captains and I usually come out to around 400lbs, so my gravel tandems each roll with 2.2" regardless of the tire. This provides us the best cross between comfort and stability on a variety of gravel types. Otherwise, I have been on 28 to 35 on a variety of roads. For determining the width, base it on the comfort level of the captain and the stoker, then work down to narrower tires.

specialized saw-tooth 700 x 42 super comfy ride, good grip both on and off road

I run 28c or 32c in both front and rear.

We took it in baby steps. We went from 26 X 1.25 at 100 psi because that's what our tandem came with. Then we tried the first 26" tires Compass came out with and were blown away at how much lower the rolling resistance was. These were heavy rubber 26 X 1.5 because Jan Heine wasn't certain there was a market for 26", so rather than making molds he just used existing molds. Then we moved on to the 26 X 1.75" Compass tires and they were faster still. When the Rat Trap Pass came out, we jumped in and have been super happy. They last forever, even on the gravel logging roads we often ride, are comfortable and are the fastest tire we have ever experienced. Flats are a non-issue, likely because of the low psi they allow us to operate at (tires can deform to sharp objects instead of cutting).

I've mostly used 32mm Gatorskins on the tandem with fairly heavy wheels, but do have a set of lighter wheels with 28mm Gatorskins.
I would want something wider for gravel, but there's not much room inside the fork (radial dimension, not width) to go bigger.
Friends that ride gravel tandems have one set up with 650 wheels and fatter tires, but I don't know the details. They have a second tandem set up for road.

Now 27 front, 28 rear 130 PSI each. Used to run closer to 23/24 @ 170 PSI. I think this is better, as the tires are better.

Running 650x42 (actual width) Marathons (GreenGuard) on 650B conversion tandem.
One reason for conversion was to be able to use wider tires on gravel. BIG difference going
from 700X32; more comfortable, handles better on paths and can now fit fenders.

Currently, 20x1.5" and 26x1.5". Previous tires were both 1.6"

I run Conti Ultra Sports 32mm - very compliant ride.

We have 26" MTB wheels on our tandem. We had 2.1" wide tires, and they tended to rub the fenders, etc. When it came time to replace them, I got Michelin Wild Run'R tires in 1.4" size (36mm). I didn't need to go that narrow, but I liked the tires because they're slick and lightweight. I find the narrower tires are not any harsher, so I'm happy. I inflate the tires to 80 psi. The team plus bike weigh 332 lbs.

We ride 700 x 28 on our Cannondale.

2.35in tyres on 50mm supermoto rims (559), that's the maximum i can get in the GT's STS rear suspension frame or i'd go bigger.