replacing old tandem

[cdkassner]

My wife and I are in the process of replacing our 30+ year old Gitane tandem. We are looking at a Co-motion Speedster Co-pilot. We are going to be taking this tandem to Italy in September for three+ weeks of day tours. Does anyone have any suggestions for upgrades? We are looking at a Wound-up fork, Thudbuster, Arai drum break and Chris King headset. Any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Dave

[DBC Steve]

My wife and I are in the process of replacing our 30+ year old Gitane tandem. We are looking at a Co-motion Speedster Co-pilot. We are going to be taking this tandem to Italy in September for three+ weeks of day tours. Does anyone have any suggestions for upgrades? We are looking at a Wound-up fork, Thudbuster, Arai drum break and Chris King headset. Any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Dave
++ for the drum brake (steep hills in Italy) and Thudbuster. Our Speedster replaced a 1978 Gitane! You will truly enjoy the improvement. Our LBS also recommended we get the 48 spoke wheels -- same price as the 36 and 40 spoke wheels. For every spoke over 16 you will get 25 opinions as to the proper wheelset.

[zonatandem]

For touring either the 40 or 48 spoke wheels. The FSA c/f crankset and the Tubus racks would be a +.
After a whippy Gitane the Co-Mo will feel like heaven!
Ciao!
Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

[JayB]

I bought a Speedster Co-Pilot with Thudbuster for stoker, WoundUp fork, Arai drum, 40 spoke Shimano hubs front and rear. Our first foreign holiday was to Umbria and Tuscany and as DBC Steve said, the drum brake came in handy. Great bike. I'd advise going for Ultegra or DuraAce dual pivot brakes front and rear. We did, having tried V-brakes and cantis. Dual pivots provide plenty of stopping power and much better feel & control. And you'll have the drum brake to scrub off speed on long descents. If you go for dual pivot brakes, though, you will not be able to mount a normal fender on the front and maybe not on the rear as well. The WoundUp dual pivot model has no mounting points for fenders. We haven't missed fenders and anyway they can be a pain when packing up for a flight.

[SDS]

Make it longer in back. Look, for example, at Mark Livingood's road tandems in the tandem owner's gallery thread. That's more room to move forward when standing up, and more room to adopt more positions, as on a single bike.

[bikeriderdave]

I'd advise going for Ultegra or DuraAce dual pivot brakes front and rear. We did, having tried V-brakes and cantis. Dual pivots provide plenty of stopping power and much better feel & control. And you'll have the drum brake to scrub off speed on long descents. If you go for dual pivot brakes, though, you will not be able to mount a normal fender on the front and maybe not on the rear as well.

In addition to limiting fender options, spec'ing Ultegra or DA brakes will also limit you to fairly narrow tires -- a real concern for many teams. No wonder that most touring tandems are spec'd with V-brakes. Shimano does make scaled-up dual-pivot brakes, which IMO are ideal for many sport/touring teams. They leave plenty of room for 28c tires with fenders and work extremely well -- especially if you replace the stock pads with salmon Kool-Stops. We have 'em on a couple of our tandems and really like 'em. They're much more effective than any cantilever brakes I've tried and, unlike V-brakes, don't require "Travel Agent" style brake boosters to work with STI or Ergo levers. Current models are BR-R600 (Ultegra level) and BR-R550 (Tiagra level); Shimano is replacing them later this year with slightly modified BR-R650 and BR-R450.

[ElRey]

teh Speester is a V brake frame. You get the Supremo if you want dual pivot. That's just about the only difference when you get S&S.

[becnal]

Are you selling the old tandem? Are you in Germany? :)

[Cave]

You can get sidepull brakes with enough clearance for wider tires +/- fenders from Paul Components or from Rivendell Bikes if this is a deal-killer.

[Fenlason]

Your new bike is going to be sooooo much better that the old, you will belive the difference. While I do not have personal experience with them... I would think about using a disk brake on the rear.. vs a rim brake and a drum. can anyone enlighten us on the subject???

glenn

[JayB]

We ordered our Speedster with the WoundUp fork and said we wanted to dual caliper brakes. Was no problem. As for skinny tires, we can fit any 700x28 and some 700x32 tires under out Ultegra dual calipers without any rubbing at all. This is without fenders under brakes. I have rigged us short fender on the rear but this does not extend under the Ultegra brake.