Tandem Cycling - Dyad rims, which tires?

I've been lurking here & at T&H since September. I guess it's time to chime in with my first question.

I'm using Dyad rims and Continental's Ultra 2000s, 700x28, with the wire bead. This year I want to switch to the same tire but foldable. Is anyone else using this combination? Any trouble blowing them off? Team weight is 280 lbs.

Thanks

Rick

We have put a few thousand miles on Dyads with foldable Ultra 2000 tires with no problems.

Should not be an issue.

We're not using the combination you describe; however, I'd offer the following....

We're about 280lbs and have never used anything but foldable tires in the 8.5 years that we've been riding tandems. We've use both 700x23 and 700x25 folders inflated to 135-145psi on Mavic T217s, CXP-30s, and Velocity Deep-Vs which I can usually mount and dismount by hand and have never had a blow-off or a roll-off when flatted at speed. The majority of the folks whom we regularly ride with also use foldable tires -- Continentals, Michelin, Avocet on Dyads, Deep-Vs, Mavic -- without any fitment or blow-off issues.

This is not a recommendation to follow suit; rather, just an anedotal reference point to suggest that some teams can safely use folding tires.

Thanks for the answers. I guess I should have given some history behind my question. When we wore out our first set of tires on the tandem, we switched to foldables. This was in 2001 and we still had our fir rims that came with the bike. I mounted the tires the night before a ride. The rear blew off during the night & I assumed that I had made a mistake during installation and reinstalled it with a new tube in the morning. The rear blew off twice about 18 miles in to our ride. I assumed we had a defective tire and reinstalled the old wire bead tire. The next day we blew the front tire off.

By this point I was finally seeing the light & we went back to the wire beads. We switched to the Dyads that fall due to the failure of our rear fir rim, twice.

About a month ago I contacted Velocity with this same question. They said that foldables shouldn't be a problem but recommended not going smaller than 700x28 with the Dyad rim on a tandem.

We'll be going with the foldables this spring. Thanks for the answers.

Rick

Update

Nashbar has these Continental 700x28 foldable Ultra 2000s on sale for $19.95. They are out of the 700x25.

YT-CU2KF

Rick
2000 TeamTi700
TH=2.50

On Velocity Aerohead rims we run anything from 23 to 28mm folding tires.
We did blow off a couple tires like you did (brand not mentioned) when we were testing tires for a company years ago and they had were non-foldables. No fun!
Rear tire blew up with a single bike drafting us. Blew so hard that shreds of innertube hit the drafter and tube got mangled in our rear cluster causing an instant stop.

In October of 1999 we were riding our first tandem (97 Trek T200). I put a new Specialized Armadillo on the back and we took off. About 8 miles from home the tire blew. The bead was still on the rim and the tube had come out of the sidewall near the bead. The shop I purchased the tire at claimed that I had installed it incorrectly and refused to even look at it. I then took the bike to another shop in the same chain and they admitted that they knew there was a problem with the latest batch of these tires. Having walked the 8 miles home after the blowout, I was furious with the shop. They were the local Santana dealer and when it came time to upgrade to our TeamTi700 you can bet we went to a non-Santana dealer.

Velocity's web site lists the outside width of their rims.
Deep V = 19mm
Aerohead = 20mm
Dyad = 24mm

I think the width of the Dyad is the reason they recommend not going less than 28 on the tires. Is anyone using a narrower foldable with their Dyads? I was also wondering if you need to use tubes with longer stems when using the Deep V's.

Rick
2000 Santana TeamTi700
TH=2.50