[veloellen]

Took our 57/47 (or close...I don't recall exactly) Trek tandem to the bike shop to get stoker kit installed. We bought it used a few weeks ago. What have you all used for shims? Obviously not all tubes are the same size and we need another shim to beef up the tube a bit. Also, has anyone had problems with the cranks coming in contact with the front derailleur - how did you remedy. There really isn't a tandem shop near us but we certainly took it to a high end shop to install - I just don't think they do a lot of these set-ups.
Thanks
Ellen

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[ftsoft]

I wish I could help. Our stoker kit was on a much bigger rear (55) and fairly small tubes. We used the Burley stoker kit and it seemed as though there were a lot of options for different size tubes. Good luck. It was a nice experience riding with the kids at that age.

Frank

[Tandemranch]

Child stoker kits are also different sizes. We have had several over the years (on Comotions, Santanas, Treks, KHS, etc). I would suggest you talk to Mark at Precision Tandems (www.precisiontandems.com) or Mel at TandemsEast (www.tandemeast.com). Tell them what you have and they can outfit you with the proper set up, including shims. Your cranks should not hit any derailer, although it may be close.

[JTGraphics]

Lots of variables here but I once use flat aluminum stock for shimming depends on the difference needed. Being that its a short stoker 47 a stoker kit may not be the best option if you can lower the seat as far as it will go crank shortener's may be the way to go if reach is with in range for the stoker its needed for.

[SDS]

If you have the sort of child stoker kit with which I am familiar, they come in (clamp) sizes appropriate to fit specific seat tube diameters. If yours isn't a perfect fit for your seat tube, it is a pretty good bet that you have the wrong child stoker kit. Perhaps you have a steel Trek, and the stoker kit was intended to fit a larger-diameter aluminum seat tube. You should be able to notice that the diameters of the inside of the clamp and the outside of the seat tube are not a perfect match.

I suspect the best solution to the child stoker kit cranks contacting the FD will be to lengthen the chain between the child stoker kit chainring, and the child stoker kit timing ring on the left side of the rear bottom bracket. Then you can run the child stoker kit up the stoker seat tube, run the saddle up, and the problem will be solved.

Twice I have seen short cranks on the back of a tandem, and some sort of wood block arrangement used to get the pedal circle up high enough so that a child can reach from the saddle on top of a regular tandem seat tube. That might be an intermediate solution as the child grows.

[simsi]

I've just checked and our tandem is 20" front and 16" rear, which is about 51 x 41 cm. I bought the child stoker kit from Precision Tandems, that included a polypropylene (or similar) shim for the seat tube. I've had no problems with hitting the front derallieur when setting it up for our 4 year old.

http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc266/betaglucan/tandem2.jpg

Ian

[veloellen]

Here is the finished bike. This picture was taken this evening at Lake Montebello in Baltimore.