jksu2000
07-04-06, 05:41 PM
howdy,
after reading through the forum, we purchased a burley tosa online a couple weeks ago. i've mountain biked for years, got into road biking a few years ago. my girlfriend, now fiance, has been a great sport -- first joining me mountain biking and then road biking. well, we thought a tandem would be a great next step.
the burley's got great "mojo." the original owner and fiance had a great time with it and are moving on towards a custom tandem. my fiance and i were looking at an introductory tandem, and for the price of a new introductory burley, we got a very solid used burley tosa with some nice upgrades that will last us for a long time. the black amber was a nice bonus. if we had bought a new bike, we were either going black or red. most of the older tandems were 80s purple or turqouise, etc (no offense to the 80s!)
my fiance loves the sparkely black amber...looks green sometimes, purple or amber others, black in the shade, definitely more amber in the photo. i removed the tosa decals....i just like the cleaner look and have done the same with my other bikes. i'm still thinking of removing the 2nd burley decal on the bottom tube.
we got the bike yesterday dhl, so i spent all night putting on the pedals, adjusting stem/saddles as close to our single bikes as possible, putting on some bottle cages (tacx) and installing/configuring the cyclocomputers (astrale 8 stoker, flight deck front). skipped dinner, skipped watching the tour, but it was worth it!
we took it out for a test ride this morning. it was just a cruise around the neighborhood, but it was a blast! much stiffer and easier to control than the low-end cromoly burley we had test rode. front v-brakes and rear disc stop solidly -- still getting good at starts, communication, etc. but it's fun. the medium fits great (i'm 6', stoker's 5'3)
flight deck's nice -- tempted to get another for my road bike (ultegra 9), with the biggest benefits being able to see the gears and shifter buttons. i used the tip found online to file down the mounting ridges to have more rotational adjustment and was able to get the computer to fit above the stem, centered. my backup plan was to skip the stock mount altogether and just use velcro. shimano should make a mount that provides more clearance...
we may replace the suspension post with the stock one in order to use a seatpost mounted rack for more storage +/- panniers. the special racks required with the disc brake are pricey.
anyways, we're happy campers and can't wait to get out on pch on one of the weekends! big thanks to dr. pete who really hooked us up.
john
after reading through the forum, we purchased a burley tosa online a couple weeks ago. i've mountain biked for years, got into road biking a few years ago. my girlfriend, now fiance, has been a great sport -- first joining me mountain biking and then road biking. well, we thought a tandem would be a great next step.
the burley's got great "mojo." the original owner and fiance had a great time with it and are moving on towards a custom tandem. my fiance and i were looking at an introductory tandem, and for the price of a new introductory burley, we got a very solid used burley tosa with some nice upgrades that will last us for a long time. the black amber was a nice bonus. if we had bought a new bike, we were either going black or red. most of the older tandems were 80s purple or turqouise, etc (no offense to the 80s!)
my fiance loves the sparkely black amber...looks green sometimes, purple or amber others, black in the shade, definitely more amber in the photo. i removed the tosa decals....i just like the cleaner look and have done the same with my other bikes. i'm still thinking of removing the 2nd burley decal on the bottom tube.
we got the bike yesterday dhl, so i spent all night putting on the pedals, adjusting stem/saddles as close to our single bikes as possible, putting on some bottle cages (tacx) and installing/configuring the cyclocomputers (astrale 8 stoker, flight deck front). skipped dinner, skipped watching the tour, but it was worth it!
we took it out for a test ride this morning. it was just a cruise around the neighborhood, but it was a blast! much stiffer and easier to control than the low-end cromoly burley we had test rode. front v-brakes and rear disc stop solidly -- still getting good at starts, communication, etc. but it's fun. the medium fits great (i'm 6', stoker's 5'3)
flight deck's nice -- tempted to get another for my road bike (ultegra 9), with the biggest benefits being able to see the gears and shifter buttons. i used the tip found online to file down the mounting ridges to have more rotational adjustment and was able to get the computer to fit above the stem, centered. my backup plan was to skip the stock mount altogether and just use velcro. shimano should make a mount that provides more clearance...
we may replace the suspension post with the stock one in order to use a seatpost mounted rack for more storage +/- panniers. the special racks required with the disc brake are pricey.
anyways, we're happy campers and can't wait to get out on pch on one of the weekends! big thanks to dr. pete who really hooked us up.
john