Our tandem

[mrfish]

Here is a picture of us and our tandem on one of our first few rides before I started changing things (like setting the stoker bar to the right angle for a start).

Now it has different bars, rear stem, saddles, shorter brake and gear cables, a right hand side gear indicator, shorter steerer and slightly lower bars. The kink in the rear brake cable as delivered didn't do braking any favours. Also repositioning of the brake pads helped improve braking. Only remaining planned change is to move the STI levers up the bars a bit and to try different tyres once these ones wear out.

Our ride this weekend was the first where it just 'clicked' and we pedalled along nicely together. Also we're riding it a bit more like a single bike and getting out of the saddle a lot more on short rises.

[pel]

Wicked machine and great pic! Am I headed for a pile of mods too on the new C'dale?

[TandemGeek]

Here is a picture of us and our tandem on one of our first few rides ....

Nice...

FWIW: You might want to tilt your "blinkie" up a little so that it is perpendicular to the road instead of pointing down. Blinkies with LEDs like the Cateye model you're using tend to be somewhat directional so you want to make sure they are aimed towards the drivers eyes to get the most out of it; not down, up, or to the left or right. Best bet for getting them properly aligned is to have a helper stand about 100' back from the bike with the LEDs in the constant-on mode while you adjust the "aim" based on their feedback.

[Brian]

Nice tandem, even with those skinny tires. :D

Pel, when do we get to see yours?

[zonatandem]

Great lookin' tandem duo . . . bike's pretty nifty too!
Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

[mrfish]

Thanks guys, especially the sagging blinkie tip.

[R900]

Love it, but then we have the exact same bike. It's just so smooth and a joy to ride. I've done a little tinkering, but only odd and ends. I still want to add a drum brake, and would like to switch to a 7 degree rise stem instead of the 17 degree. However I think I'll get a few more miles on her before I change much else.

John

[57commuter]

Beautiful machine. Are there enough spokes in the wheels? It seems to have less than my trek touring bike - I thought tandems needed more?

[mrfish]

All things being equal, putting 2 riders on a bike will stress the wheels more than one rider, so the wheels do take more stress. In general this means that tandems use more spokes, heavier rims and beefier hubs. It's quite an interesting topic, and very complicated engineering-wise as any change in one component affects the others. However it's my opinion that where 36 spokes used to be necessary on a single bike, materials have moved on significantly over the last 50 years so that 22 or 24 spokes can safely be used on a normal-looking rim, or fewer on a deep rim. The only drawback is that fewer spokes means more tension per spoke, and therefore more deflection when a spoke breaks. Anecdotally my 36h training wheels used to break spokes regularly, then could be ridden home after adjusting the brakes, whereas my 22h early Campag Proton wheels would not clear the frame after popping one spoke.

However, in exactly the same way as it's quite possible to intelligently change the design of the wheel to make it stronger using normally a deeper rim and fewer spokes (16 now normal for single bikes, 12 or even 10 on some of the latest wheels), a few more adventurous manufacturers now also make similar high-performance wheels for tandems.

The wheels pictured are specially designed Bontrager tandem wheels with large flange slotted hubs, large bladed spokes and heavier rims than usual. The design of the slotting on the hubs is clever as the flange diameter, number of spokes and crossing all combine to allow the slots to extend between spoke holes, so no stress risers. Front and rear have 24 spokes, and come with a nice pair of quick releases. According to the website they weigh 2245g, which is about 500g heavier than a light pair of single bike wheels, but a bit lighter than the usual tandem wheels. So far I've been riding the wheels for about 2 months, and they are still perfectly true, which probably means they will stay that way unless something breaks. They don't have a weight limit and reputedly can handle anything you can throw at them, and can take standard spokes in case you break one on holiday. Only weak point may be the freehub, which some early users said could fail. Can't comment on whether they go faster than any other wheels, but they look good, so have my vote. I think if I were building a tandem from scratch I'd probably use some velocity deep v rims with 36h rather than these as they're not cheap, but the T2000 bundle makes them attractive.

Rolf also makes a similar set of wheels with a slightly deeper rim, while Shimano do their Sweet 16 wheels, which are spaced at 160mm for Santana tandems. Both are similar in concept, but vary in their execution of the details.

Some links:
http://www.bontrager.com/Road/Wheelworks/Wheels/5773.php

http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/index.php/t-21565

[57commuter]

Thanks for all that. Very informative. Like all of us I guess, I've popped a few spokes over the years on ordinary bikes doing not very extraordinary things. I remember reading once, and I can't remember where that if you've travelled 1000k on your bike, each individual spoke has tensioned from nearly zero to its full front or rear load a million times. From that day on I assumed that more spokes would be better to spread the loads - didn't think of the other ways there might be to build rigidity and strength into the wheel - as you've described.

Good tip about velocity rims - they're made here in oz (by an ex-pat citizen of the USA) - my LBS owner also raves about them.

[zonatandem]

Use Velocity Aerohead rims, 32 H front, 36H rear with Chris King hubs and DT Revolution spokes. So far so good after 10,000 miles.
Tandem team weight about 245 lbs.

Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

[Brian]

Funny thing about Velocity - they're made here, and still cheaper in the US. Go figure.

[57commuter]

Funny thing about Velocity - they're made here, and still cheaper in the US. Go figure.
If I hadn't slept through 2 years of economics lectures i might have been able to work it out! I think the short answer is that the exchange rates are set by some arbritrage seeking merchant banker/trader types who skim off tiny bits of the global flows of money according to whether or not they need a new ferrari/beach house while keeping the exchange rates where they think they should be. How else could anyone explain the relationship between the pound, the euro, the yen and the US dollar against ours?