We also took the plunge into Compass 26" tires. When we first put the 1.5" tires on, we concluded that these were simply the best tires we had ever ridden. I stopped being banged around as stoker and thus could expend more energy pedalling; that alone made them faster than the 1.25" 100 psi Serfas Seca tires they replaced. Of course they roll like dreams. We found we preferred inflating them to just under 60 psi for our 300# team.

After Jan Heine suggested we should put the widest tires on that we could fit, we bought a set of the Compass 26X1.75. There is a large difference between these and the 1.5" tires, and not for the bettter. After about 500 miles, we figured out that they handle much better if we inflate them to only about 50 psi. Those first few rides were a bit like riding a tractor, but at the lower pressure they are fine, just not as nice as the 1.5".

The Compass 26" tires have a lot of rubber. They're apparently a supple tire casing with the rubber made in the same mold as a lower performance tire. Jan Heine maintains that there just isn't enough of a market for true high performance 26" tires to justify making new molds. That sounds odd coming from the person who has popularized the 650B size, but it's his call. On the bright side, we roll through a lot of glass and none of it seems able to penetrate all that rubber, although a small piece of motor vehicle tire steel belt did make it through once.

I'm not sure about people inflating these to 75 or 80 psi. They are marked for 65 psi max, and unless there is some error there it seems somewhat risky to overinflate, especially when they perform so much better when inflated below their stated max.