Just a short follow-up to yesterday’s “Are Bigger Tires & Rims Better…?”
The lovely Ms. Debbie and I both made a point of getting home from work early enough for a post-work-day tandem ride tonight. It’s not often that we can work out an in-week / afterwork ride, so this was quite a treat!
Given I made it home about 20 minutes ahead of our appointed rendezvous time I went ahead and replaced the 48° Velocity Dyads with 28mm Continental Gatorskins with the 36° Velocity Deep-Vs and my beloved 25mm Vredestein Fortezzas, re-adjusted the brakes, topped off the tires at 135 psi and also popped-in a freshly charged set of batteries for the diNotte taillight: yes, we remain fully committed to using very bright taillights in daylight and especially in the late afternoon / early evening / twilight hours.
I’m clearly biased here, so take it for what it’s worth when I say that it really felt good to be back on a more familiar tire. No, the ride is not as plush… not by a long stretch and as before Ms. Debbie really couldn’t tell the difference. But, at least in terms of how road feel and imperfections were transmitted through the front wheel, fork and handlebars I was definitely getting a lot of feedback that had gone missing on yesterday’s ride with the larger diameter Gatorskins. Cornering was once again sublime; point and shoot with spot-on accuracy. And, yes, our average time/speeds returned to their norm for this familiar, short loop ride.
I did discover — or at least was reminded during yesterday’s ride — that my front White Ind MI5 hub on the 36° Deep-V wheelset was sorely in need of an adjustment, as I’d already ruled out valve stem movement as a potential source of some rotational noise coming from the front wheel. After cooling down and having some dinner I returned to the garage and pulled apart the front hub so that I could check the bearings, clear out the crud and then re-set the front bearing pre-load collar to remove the slop that had worked its way back into the hub. I think this is the 3rd time I’ve done that with these wheels and I’m tempted to install a very thin washer between the pre-load collar and end cap as I’m not sure the four grub screws that secure the pre-load collar are getting the job done. We’ll see; fingers crossed that the noise will be gone and the grub screws will hold it all together without the kludgy washer installation.
Still no call back from our unmotivated seller… unbelievable. I’d be chomping at the bit if I had an interested buyer looking to buy something I had for sale and wanted gone.
The TandemGeek's Blog 
When switching from Michelin Pro3 to Continental Gatorskins on my single bike (both the same 23mm size) I noticed a measurable drop in average speed over a common route (similar power measurements and weather). Gatorskins definitely have high rolling resistance. I did manage to go many months (2700+ miles) without a flat on the Gatorskins, which was the reason I switched in the first place.
I recently had a Deep V rim joint fail, with Avid Ultimate linear pull brakes it kept pulsating more and more till it was a shudder. Just a slight lateral movement of the sidewall on one side. Looking for a good WELDED tandem rim that is 23-24 mm wide.
HED Belgium C2 clincher ($$) or MAVIC CXP33 (about the same as Deep-V) would be worth a look as both use welded joints.
Agree that the Velocity joints are sometimes not the best; the Dyad on our Triplet has a weak joint that becomes a bit disconcerting on hard braking with dual-pivot calipers. Our Deep-Vs have been pretty good.
Two questions:
What is the current weight of your tandem team? and
What was behind your decision some time back to go from Vred. Fortezza 23c to Vred. Fortezza 25c?
We’re currently a combined 265 lbs; we were closer to 300 lbs about 1.5 – 2 years ago. after sneaking up from a historic average of around 275 lbs.
Without fact-checking myself, it was mostly about being practical with what I kept on hand. The 23s are more than suitable for our weight and road conditions at home. However, when we would go to events or explore areas away from home where the roads are not as pristine I’d switch out the 23s for 25s, just to gain some extra volume to deal with chip-seal, etc. When I last stocked-up on tires in March of 2011 I simply decided to stick with a single tire size and the 25s made more sense since there’s not a meaningful downside to using them on home turf. Frankly, I still prefer the ride feel of the 23’s at 145psi and we use them on our single bikes; but the Vredestein Fortezza 25s at 135psi also offer up very nice ride qualities.