Tandem Cycling - Ritchey Tom-Slick Tires

Has anyone used the Ritchey Tom-Slick tire on their tandem? (or mountain bike?)

They look pretty nice and for under $20 a tire ... I"m tempted.

The 26 x 1.4 are rated to 85 psi, weigh~400g.

I've used almost all of the Ritchey tyres at one time or another. I like them all ok save the fact that the lugs on the MTB tyres seem to rip out a bit easy. Of course the Tom slick has not lugs so not worry. I know a few folks using a narrower version of the T.S. and have good luck with them on the single bikes.

Hi,
I bought as pair of Tom SLicks during the winter. They are not a bad tire, but they're not a great tire, either. They changed manufacturers, and I don't think they are as good as they used to be. Get the belted version, I had a couple flats.

Tom Bruni of Bruni Cycles (http://www.brunibicycles.com) is a big fan of all Ritchey products and the foldable, 1.4 Tom Slick. He builds some really intersting steel road tandems in both 26" and 700c sizes and has a very good feel for the 26" road tire product offerings.

I'm sure he'd be willing to share some additional info/thoughts on the tire if you asked. You can reach him via Email: brunibik@bcpl.net

We use the Tom-Slicks on our "fast" Cannondale MT800 and like them very much. They take high pressure (=fast) and do corner nicely. We tried other slicks (like Schwalbe City-Jet) and allways had the problem, that while cornering the brakepads startet to touch the rim. Must have something to do with the shape of the tire - the Tom-Slicks seem to be rounder (?).
Santana-Europe (Mr. Haas in Rosenheim) recomends them too, but advised us to very closely inspect the sidewalls before mounting them. There seems to be an occasional problem with the reinforcement-strip, which protects the sidewall against being slit by the rim, being too small.
Hope this helps.
Bernhard from Munich
Germany

Bernhard and others,
Thanks for all the insights!

Maurice

Our Burley Duet came with Ritchey T-slicks (700C x25 I think) and I remeber they were good riding tires and cornered well...

Unfortunatly as is with many tires used on tandems, I found the TS to be short lived on tred life. I didn't buy new TS because at the time (3 years ago) they were quite expensive given the life of the tire.

I used the Specialised Turbo COMP until they were no longer made and they had a longer running life but they suffered from bead seperation if you did not carefully mount/remount the tire and blow it up slowly...

Now I am looking for a replacement. While I was in France I had to replace a tire that the sidewall failed and I borrowed/bought a Continential GP3000 and it seems like a really nice (but expensive) tire. If it holds up to the rear wheel tred life test I may start using them!

I use them on my Cannondale tandem. Always found them to be an excellent value and a great all around tire.