Tandem Cycling - Old ride, new ride photos...

Well, this was our ride until 9days ago...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v66/KRhea/IMG_9932-1.jpg

And here's our new ride...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v66/KRhea/P1010041.jpg

And here's our new ride with a custom paint job and completely built...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v66/KRhea/Bikes/IMG_0297.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v66/KRhea/Bikes/IMG_0309.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v66/KRhea/Bikes/P1010278.jpg

It was an exciting build as well as my first tandem build. I've built tons of singles from frame to complete bike over the years but this was a first. Certainly took some patience. We rode it 30 some miles on it's maiden voyage and then did a 25mile hard time trial like effort a couple days ago( boy did it fly!), we'll roll for about 3hrs tomorrow and then rest in prep for it's maiden century ride this coming weekend, Reach the Beach from Portland OR to the coast.

Here are the build details:
Frameset- Tsunami 7005 Easton Aluminum with Ti boom

Fork- Alpha Q PRO-Z full carbon

Bar/stem- Easton EC70 full carbon
Bar tape- Fizik

Headset- Chris King

Brakes- Front, Campy Record
Rear, Avid road disc

Shifters- Campy Chorus carbon

Front/Rear derail- Frt, Record
Rear, Chorus

Cassette- Custom Campy Record 12-29

Seatposts- Thompson Elite

Stoker bar/stem- Ritchey Biomax bar w/Control Tech adjustable stem and Fizik tape

Cranks- front, FSA SLK carbon w/external bearing
rear, Truvativ Elita w/FSA rings

Pedals- Crank Brothers Quattros, ignore the clips/straps in photo

Wheels- Rear, custom built 145mm White Ind 32spoke w/titanium freehub on a DT Swiss RR 1.2 rim, DT spokes w/alternating red/black nipples
Front, currently we're running the wheel from our old bike, a Campy Scirocco G3 design until I complete the new front build, a DT Swiss 240 hub and 1.1 28spoke rim built 2x

Tires- Conti 4000 25s

Saddles- Captain, Fizik Airone
Boss, WTB Deva

Custom Paint- Del @ Class Act Paint & Powder Inc
Custom decals- FastSigns

This bike was like going on a "Jenny Craig plan" for us as we lost a tad over 10lbs from the Santana and boy did we notice that on the climbs.
It'll be a fun bike for us and will never see more than maybe 500 to 800 miles a year as our singles will always be our primary rides getting close to 8000-10,000per year but we do love riding together "in unison".
The best part about the build was it only cost us $1050 out of pocket!!!!!! I had everything in my parts bins except the frame, rear wheel,Truvativ crank and the $200 paint job.

It's unique, fast, stiff, climbs very well and my wife says the ride is nothing but pure silky smooth. And yes, the steerer will lose about another inch for final fit.

By the way, the Santana will be for sale in about a week. It's currently Campy Record and I will be removing that and installing a Campy Veloce group. Anyone interested...?

Thanks for the look, take care and ride safe,
KRhea

- did you get the frame (the Ti Boom) from Chuck's?

Is that an adjustable stoker compartment? Also do you cut the seat post to length once you get it adjusted correctly so there is no excess post showing? What does it weigh (you said you lost 10 lbs over the Santana).

That is beautiful!
Don't really know anything about the components, but that is one looker bike.

What size is the Santana?

Thanks for the comments. To answer a couple questions:

1. Yes, the frame came from Chuck's. I've purchased numerous items from him over the years and everything has been excellent, any problems I've had have been rectified immediately with no hassles and I've always been a happy customer. This spring I've built 3 carbon bikes for friends that came from Chucks and the bikes are great.

2. Yes the stoker compartment is adjustable using the titanium boom. I did cut the post once my stoker was dialed in. You don't have to but I did. I think it gives the bike a cleaner look.

3. Bike weighs 33.7lbs

KRhea

What's the dropout spacing in the back?
Does the ti boom have a suggested weight limit? I know that ti spindled pedals sometimes do.
Nice looking bike.

Spacing is 145 and the ti boom can be purchased tailored to your stoker's weight. My wife's immediate reaction after our first couple rides was, "wow, this bike is really smooth". The boom obviously has some flex as ti does and she appreciated that. Much more compliant than shock post in her opinion.

KRhea

Does the ti-boom have the same/similar dampening effect as the carbon fiber Softride beam?
Now that Softride beam is no longer available, suspect the ti-boom will be a real good option. Have seen 2other brands using the Ti-boom.
Ten lbs. lighter than your 'tana . . . (what year/model/frame material on the 'tana?) . . . and thou$and$ cheaper than a new 'tana too!
Very nice build-up and unique/clever configuration in stoker cockpit.
Great/distinctive lookin' twicer!
Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

The ti boom does have a similar dampening effect as the Softride beam however, from what I've read and what my stoker says there's less noticeable "boing" than the with the carbon boom. If you're familiar with the Softride boom you'll notice how different the attachment/pivot points are between the two designs as well as how our bike's boom is virtually horizontal as opposed to the "curved" design of the carbon boom.
The concept was designed by Tom Piszkin of San Diego.

Here area a couple pieces of detailed info on the design:
titanflex-usa.com


KRhea

Did put in several hundred test miles (for an article we were doing) on a Softride equipped tandem.
Stoker's complaint was that at high revs, there was exessive bounce to the beam. By dropping it down one cog, bounce was elimated.
Another, but unscientific observation by Kay . . . Pilot was sweating before stoker on climbs/efforts and that never happened before! Her conclusion: she was contributing less push and losing some of her effort due to the beam effect.
How much of the ti-boom tube has to be left into toptube to be safe and are there different guage ti-tubes for 'weightier' stokers?

Her conclusion: she was contributing less push and losing some of her effort due to the beam effect.

You can see the same thing happening on a few tandems with shock posts that have insufficient pre-loading for the stoker's weight and/or pedal stroke. It's hard to appreciate just how important a "solid mount" can be relative to an efficient pedal stroke.

Zona, the ti boom insertion depth is similar to a seatpost in terms of how much needs to be below the clamp "line". The boom itself was not marked w/ a safety line so I called and inquired.
There are numerous boom gauges so it can be tailored to stoker weight. We went with the thinnest gauge due to my tiny 5'2" 105lb stoker and we're not experiencing any undo "boing" at all even at high revs.
We're both climbers, she's an outstanding masters runner whose best races are hilly, challenging courses and my best cycling events always have been those with considerable climbing. We're finding climbing to be much easier and more efficient on this new bike.
We live at the base of the Oregon Coast Range mountains west of Portland so every ride for us is a hilly affair.

KRhea

Have seen the wasted motion with some of the stoker shock-posts. Am fortunate that Kay is of the old school, before shock posts became a so-called necessity. Steel tandems were always a more forgiving ride than alu for us. That's one of the reasons alu tandems finally caught on:a stiffer ride, ligher frame but harsher on most stoker bottoms. Our first heat-treated alu tandem ride was a 3 month testing on a C'dale prototype 'bout 2 years before production/introduction and she complained about the harsh ride on the back perch. The re-introduction of shock posts made the stoker compartment on later C'dale's comfy.
Before C'dale's heat treating of alu, the metal was consider too soft/flexy.
Now we have even more material choices: ti, magnesium, carbon fiber or combinations thereof.
Think the use of a ti-boom is an excellent way to increase stoker comfort.