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09-26-09, 04:08 PM
This morning I took the 26x1.3 Conti Sport Contacts off the tandem. With 1000 miles on them I was just amazed at the difference between front and back. The back tire is much thinner and more flexible than the front. Also, the bead on the rear is starting to fray. The difference between the front/rear was eye-opening. I know I'm new to tandems, but I've never seen such difference in wear on a single bike.
I installed the 26x1.5" Kenda Kwest Tandem tires that were recommended by Precision Tandems.
To begin with, I pinched one tube and had a devil of a time getting the front one on. I finally used the Kool stop tire jack to get it on. I baked the rear tire @145 degrees for 15 minutes (really, stoker found it in the oven and lit me up) and it went on somewhat easier, but was still tight.
With 100 psi (rather than 80/85 on the Sport Contacts) my stoker noticed the difference in the form of a smoother ride immediately as we headed up the street and hit the usual patches of bumps getting out of the neighborhood. Also, she said her pedal stroke felt smoother.
Are they slower? I'm sure they are but for us it doesn't matter too much. They seem huge looking down on them but the ride quality is definitely smoother than the other tires.
All in all, we'll keep them for a while. We did 20 miles on them this AM and I didn't really see any negatives. The do look bigger than I'm used to seeing. We'll do some rail trail riding this fall and they'll be great for that.
I installed the 26x1.5" Kenda Kwest Tandem tires that were recommended by Precision Tandems.
To begin with, I pinched one tube and had a devil of a time getting the front one on. I finally used the Kool stop tire jack to get it on. I baked the rear tire @145 degrees for 15 minutes (really, stoker found it in the oven and lit me up) and it went on somewhat easier, but was still tight.
With 100 psi (rather than 80/85 on the Sport Contacts) my stoker noticed the difference in the form of a smoother ride immediately as we headed up the street and hit the usual patches of bumps getting out of the neighborhood. Also, she said her pedal stroke felt smoother.
Are they slower? I'm sure they are but for us it doesn't matter too much. They seem huge looking down on them but the ride quality is definitely smoother than the other tires.
All in all, we'll keep them for a while. We did 20 miles on them this AM and I didn't really see any negatives. The do look bigger than I'm used to seeing. We'll do some rail trail riding this fall and they'll be great for that.