Originally Posted by K&M
I've never been much of a fan of high tire pressure. It seems like any gains due to reduced rolling resistance are more than lost when your rock hard tire loses traction on gravel or under hard acceleration. I usually run my tires on my single bike at around 100psi and have never felt like I was at a competitive disadvantage. On the tandem, I've been running the 28s at about 120psi in the rear and 110psi in the front. I'm wondering if with smaller tires it will really be necessary to go above 120psi to avoid pinch flats?
I wasn't either, but those are Vredestein's spec psi recommendations and, for whatever reason, the Vred's don't seem to suffer the usual effects of rock-hard tires; very reminiscent of tubulars. Regardless, everyone just needs to figure out what works best for their personal preferences, local conditions, etc... to find the right balance between road feel, traction, comfort, and reliability.
As for avoiding pinch flats with narrow tires & the Rolfs or any other psi restricted rims, I would expect that you'd have no more problems with 25's at 110/120 than the 28's at 110/120. However, 23's would probably be a different story. Again, the best answer will come with personal experience and experimentation on your local roads.
Anecdotal Entry: When we toured the California coast in '02 we used our 25's with perhaps 120 - 125 psi on most days. No problems and no flats during the entire two week tour. I wish that had been the case for some of our fellow teams, all of whom were running larger tires. Of course, for one couple it was bad tubes that were at fault for three flats and for another it was the wire bead coming apart that led to the blow-out.