Metal Man

I have a 08 Cannondale Street tandem
https://www.cannondale.com/bikes/08/cusa/model-8ST.html
What would I need to look for to buy a used set of 26" road wheels for this. My son and I weigh about 250. Any suggestions?

TandemGeek

Try running a set of nice set of 26" x 1.125" (~28mm) road tires such as the Continental Continental Ultra GatorSkin Black Duraskin or a Schwalbe Stelvio on your existing wheels and see how that goes.

Unless your Rhyno Lites or what ever rim you have on your tandem has a bead-seat (interior width of the rim) that's wider than about 22mm, a 28mm tire should work just fine and give you nearly all of the useable benefits of a second set of wheels with a few less spokes and a somewhat more ligher-weight narrow rim, that is unless y'all are going to be doing some serious time trials or other timed / competitive events.

Anyway, just an option that'll save you a few bucks... at least for a while.

Metal Man

Thanks for the response. I did put a set of 1.5 Specialized Nimbus tires on it. They have worked good so far for on and off road (rail trail) I'm not planning on racing with it , just trying to make up for our lack of ability.

justcrankn

We have Avocert FasGrip City 1.25 on RhynoLite rims. They're okay but I wouldn't go any narrower.
With two wheelsets my only concern is that the rim brakes line up properly when switching wheelsets. Anyone know if that is a valid concern?
FWIW the rim is 20mm wide inside.

TandemGeek

Yes, different wheels and rims will often require a minor adjustment of the brake blocks, both with regard to the alignment / brake block contact point with the brake tracks and with regard to brake lever travel if the rims have a different width at the brake track.

justcrankn

Another option would be to build your current hubs with some narrower rims, like a Sun 0 Degree XC or Velocity Aeroheat. That would be a good compromise for swapping between 28mm road tires and 2" fat tires, like Tandemgeek suggested.
I think you'll find 26" tandem road wheelsets rare on the used market.
We just picked up a bike with 26" wheels to try as a convertible. Traveling will be easier with just one tandem that we can use for road and off-road, with just a wheel swap or tire swap.

Metal Man

The flaw in my plan was thinking that an older set of road wheels would be 26". I was checking out tires at the LBS and realized they would be 27", I haven't been around those bikes for a long time.