Originally Posted by
Carbonfiberboy
I have a 6'7" riding buddy, also with a custom bike - a Ti bike. It's a full-on road bike with clip-on aerobars and 700c wheels running fast tires. He's a very strong rider, in his 60s, rode the last PBP, probably weighs about 215. We run our tandem - 285 lb. team - on 28mm Conti 4000IIs tires, which measure 32mm on our 23mm rims. That's the sort of tire you want. We don't run latex tubes in them.
So how much advantage do you get from having narrower tires? I've wanted to go narrower, but going from 26 x 1.5s down to 26 x 1.25s made my destroyed-tire rate go way up, and now I'm back to 26 x 1.5s. I could try again with 1.25s or narrower, but then I'd probably have to be carrying a spare with me on the major rides. Which I might do, if it were worth it... so how much average speed do you gain from something narrow?