New ride

[regomatic]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v66/rullmann/Bush3.jpg


The photo does not do it justice, it is freaking gorgeous.

It arrived on Monday, we put it together that night, and only got a few laps around the block Tuesday before it started getting dark.

We'll try to get some daylight outdoor pics soon.

Stoker bar will be changed out for drops with fake hoods that should arrive tomorrow, a slight miscommunication, I think we got the real important stuff right.

Bottle cages (and the winter "trunk" rack) will get painted to match at work in the next couple of weeks.

We'll do an easy "shakedown ride" of about 35 miles on Saturday and choose from 40, 50 or 75 miles Sunday .

Thanks to Jack and Susan at Tandems Ltd. http://www.tandemsltd.com/ and to Dennis Jenny, Toby and the rest of the crew at Bushnell http://www.bushnelltandems.com/ for making it all happen so smoothly.

[zonatandem]

N-i-c-e!!!
Enjoy the ride TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

[transam]

Awesome! We'll be looking for you guys and the new bike at the Sebring Tandem Rally in a couple of weeks. Enjoy!!!

[regomatic]

I added a couple of parts just completed in time for STR.

Painted to match bottle cages and custom machined GPS mount for the Stoker/Navigator;

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v66/rullmann/customparts3-1.jpg

[mrfish]

Yum yum. That is a tasty bike.

What are the cranks? I haven't seen ones like that on a tandem before.

[regomatic]

Yum yum. That is a tasty bike.

What are the cranks? I haven't seen ones like that on a tandem before.

FSA Carbon Fiber. They are not that uncommon on new bikes this year or last, maybe before.

Check them after the first couple of rides though. We had the Captain's right side loosening up yesterday and the small combi "pack" tool did not apply enough torque to tighten it up enough on the roadside.

We needed the proper "long wrench", provided by one of our well prepared and knowledgeable friends at the end of yesterday's ride to prevent us from "creaking" today.

[thalver]

Beautiful bike. Your purchase was apparently well-timed vis a vis the increase in S&S prices.

I'm certain the 'gearheads' among us would love to hear how you chose to equip the bike. I see you chose Campy shifters....did you use campy deraillers as well? Are those Fusion, or deep-v rims?

[Hermes]

Very very nice looking bike. I like the colors. One OCP comment...think about carbon water bottle cages. The expense is totally ridiculous and you need four, but if you can get past that I think they would look very cool on the bike and compliment the other high end component choices you have made. I have Bontrager on my Trek Madone and Santana. Also, I think it is much easier to insert and remove the water bottles.:)

[regomatic]

Just lucky on the timing, like we were on the "windfall" that paid for it and basically bought us a really cool bike for free.

Most of the equipment was chosen with a fair bit of research and plenty of compromise, tact, and diplomacy, just like we live our lives and make successful relationships with our stokers/ partners/ wives in many cases. The rest was chosen just because we can or we liked the way it looked.

Huge chunks of knowledge that sent me in the right direction for research came from this forum. The rest came was very good advice from an experienced local independent tandem mechanic and from the dealer that we bought it from Tandems Ltd. http://www.tandemsltd.com/

Thank you to ALL CONTRIBUTORS who post and reply here at any time. Even when you ask a question that I had not thought of or had an occasion to consider, you are benefiting the tandem community by contributing to the base of knowledge found here.

And special thanks to ZonaTandem and TandemGeek who contribute to nearly every thread, imparting their many years of experience and vast knowledge about all things tandem.

Among the first priorities when we decided on buying the new bike was that it wasn’t going to look like anyone else’s. Our first tandem, purchased just about two years ago was a mid 90’s Burley Duet that was the exact size and color of the only tandem team that we rode with semi-regularly. Then we found a Trek T2000 that was a deal we couldn’t pass up, and saw two exactly like it at our first tandem rally a couple of months later.

I have Campy Chorus 10 sp on my single and really like the more comfortable feel of the wider hoods and the more intuitive and tune-able shifting method of the Campy system vs. Shimano.

Brifters are Campy Record, partly because they look cool, partly because we could. Derailleurs are Campy Centaur, not as light as Record, but more robust for the strain of the tandem.

We could have put lighter wheels on, but our mechanic has had a couple of bad experiences with the Rolf’s. We may move into some “credit card touring “later on and decided to go with a sturdy wheel set of Phil Wood’s hubs / Velocity Dyad rims built by Jack at Tandems Ltd.

The bottle cages are not super-light , but they should be super-cool when they’re finished soon. In the back we carry two double cages. This puts two bottles higher and more accessible to the stoker than single cages and has two in reserve. Both are now painted to match the bike including a fade on the front of the stoker’s forward set of doubles.

The captain’s two single bottles should have a gold to blue fade on the upper cage by this w/e. Pics to be added later.

[transam]

Stoker seatpost, is that a Thudbuster? What's the stoker's initial impression?

[regomatic]

Stoker seatpost, is that a Thudbuster? What's the stoker's initial impression?

Bump absorbtion is about the same or "just a little better" on the new Thudbuster, and the saddle doesn't rock left-right like the shock seat post that was on our last bike.

The stoker bounces some when the gear is too low/ cadence too high on the new bike / seat post. The Captain needs to learn to adjust gear / speed choices to eliminate the bounce.