jethro00

We ride our DaVinci Grand Junction every day. Part of our ride is on roads with potholes and part is on smooth paved paths. Sometimes we ride over grass or dirt, but no rough off road trails. We have 26 x 1.95 tires pumped to about 75 psi. We also have a pair of 26 x 1.25 tires that will fit on our rims. But, we have never tried them. Are we missing something by not trying the 1.25 tires? Would the 1.25 tires be less work on longer rides? Our thinking has been that the 1.95 tires are more comfortable. Thanks for any input.

scycheng

Watch out for cornering clearance. We tried to use 26x1.6 slicks when we first got the tandem but was grazing the pavement on not sharp corners. Now using 26x2 slicks and switched to 90 degree out of phase.

OneIsAllYouNeed

I think 60-80psi is the sweet spot for tire pressure on paved roads (for comfort and least rolling resistance). Stick with the 1.95" tire size. Consider nicer tires certainly, but only around that size.

Brian25

You know there is so much diversity when it comes to what different couples get out of tandeming. Trolls out there please hold off. O.K. - I admit that My wife and I are the polar opposite - well different. We only ride our tandem on the smoothest surfaces and avoid pothole roads/ off road tandeming. We are a relatively light couple, so we ride 1-1/8" - 28mm tires and like the speed that we get with them, would we go wider - no. Wider has more rolling resistance, so yes your 1.25" tires would roll faster.

geoffs

From the sound of the roads you ride on stick with the wider tyres. You might want to try something with less rolling resistance like Schwalbe Supremes. We are using the 26 x 2" as a touring tyre and they are fast as well as giving a great ride at 60psi on blunt35 rims.
I'm just about to build up a set of much lighter 650b wheels that I'm going to use these tyres on for a set of fast and light wheels to use on club rides and gran fondos

lichtgrau

There's a very simple way to figure out what you were asking for: Everything you need is there and in less than 45 minutes you have changed your tires and you can give it a try. (okay, you probably need new bicycle tubes as well). Like probably everyone else I have an opinion on that too and I'm more than willing to share it but in your case it just seems to be easy to gain experience instead of relying on opinions or experiences of others. (That was just my first thought on your post and it does not mean that I think you shouldn't have asked. Of course not. I just thought: I would simply give it a try since everything you need is probably there anyway ;-)

My two cents here are (and according to your thread you probably assume that too) that the advantage of "easier rolling" on your narrow tires is not as big as the disadvantage you will face on "challenging" roads.
We use our tandem mainly for tours where we ride sort of unplanned. We prefer good pavement but we don't want to be stopped by an unpaved road. Especially here and since a tandem has a considerable force to put on the ground we faced some problems with tires under 1,5" width.
A more experienced captain than me would have taken that probably more easily but we landed at 1,75" as our best compromise. Just yesterday we slid aside between some cobblestones and I was glad about my "bigger shoes" on the wheels. And there was not a single moment when I felt I could have narrower tires for more speed. Have fun figuring out your own best way :-)

fitlerbend

We have been riding Schwalbe Marathon Plus 35mm (1 3/8") tires on our In2ition with really good results. Most of our riding is on rail trails and back roads with varying surfaces. After a group ride we are going to next weekend, we are going to change over to 47mm (1 3/4") Marathons in expectation of riding some rougher trails this summer.