Tandem Cycling - Converting to STI

I have a 1997 Santana Vision And am considering converting to STI shifting. Is this something that would be a worthwhile upgrade?? . Plus what other ideas and upgrades are recomended

Is this something that would be a worthwhile upgrade??

It all depends on what you're trying to accomplish and your budget for the exercise.

Your decision process might also include taking a look at the total end value of your upgraded tandem (current fair market value + cost of upgrades) and then comparing that to the cost of a new or newer used tandem that already has the componentry you are considering. In some cases, you will often times discover that the best value can come from upgrading to a new or newer tandem and selling your existing one to recoup a portion of the upgrade cost.

It really does depend on what you're trying to accomplish. If you want to go to 10 speed STI, it's going to be pretty costly.

And unless your racing where it's important to be able to shift while sprinting out of the saddle, there's not going to be a huge advantage to STI.

Personally, I'd save my money toward a new bike.

We have a late 90s Co-Motion with bar end shifters & Diacompe 287V brake levers & V brakes. The setup works well. What are you looking to accomplish by going STI?

Yes, STI is worth it. Cost depends on what you have/want 8/9/10 sp, etc...

Assuming you have road bars already all that is needed is Shifters, front and rear derailluers chain and cassette. New chainrings might be in order also. My 07 Santana came with Ultegra 10sp and works great.
You can probably find all the parts online for under $600.

Warren:

Based on your other post: You can replace your 8 spd barends with 8 spd Sora STI for about $100, plus new front derailleur (STI pulls a different amount of cable than MTB) - Sora - would cost ~$15, and pair of In-line Travel Agents to compensate for the diffence in travel between STI levers and "v"-brakes; cost $15 ea. So for ~$150 you could have Shimano's least expensive STI. From there the upper limit is a Campagnolo Record groupset - 10 spd chainrings, cassette, chain, front and rear derailleurs for around $2k (ya, I know you can get Record stoker cranks to truly have the groupset but they are stupid expensive). Does not include new wheels / bottom bracket as they are absolutely required (assuming existing wheels take a cassette versus freewheel).

Prairie*boy

p.s. SRAM Red might be more expensive but its close and I haven't heard of anyone building a tandem with it yet.

And unless your racing where it's important to be able to shift while sprinting out of the saddle, there's not going to be a huge advantage to STI.
i totally disagree with that, especially for a tandem. as a captain i have a lot more weight on my hands and arms riding the tandem than i do on a single and having the sti levers makes shifting a lot easier with out having to move my hands around especially when climbing and try to keep going straight.

I am in the process of converting my tandem to STI. We bought a used 1997 Trek T-100 last summer. It came with 8 speed bar end shifters, 13-26 cassette, 105 brake levers, LX front and rear derailleurs, and cantilever brakes. The main reason to upgrade was to change the brakes and gearing. I already had a set of ultegra 9-3 STI shifters, so no cost there. I bought a XT 9 speed 11-32 cassette, XT rear derailleur, Ultegra 6503 front derailleur, Avid single digit 7 brakes with travel agents, and a 9 speed chain. I am still waiting on the front derailleur to arrive. I know I will be happier with the STI and I think the upgrades will be worth the cost. Added a few pictures, if anyone is interested in takeing a look.
http://community.webshots.com/user/cyclesteve999 (http://community.webshots.com/user/cyclesteve999)

Steve

I would second ZZ's post, that STI makes a great deal of sense for tandems. Putting the
brake, steering and shifting in the same place is a no brainer on a tandem. You will find that
STI allows shifting in response to minor cadence or torque changes so easily that you end
up shifting a lot more often. Stokers that are significantly shorter than pilots can't always
see changes in terrain and if there are significant strength differences as well the stoker will
appreciate the fine tuning in cadence/torque that STI makes second nature and that barends
do not, especially in situations where the pilot might prefer to have access to the brakes
rather than the shifters, such as group rides. Really annoying in groups on rollers to have
to brake on approaching a hill when your momentum would easily carry you 50-100yds up the
hill if only those singletons weren't in the way. So you brake and have to ride the brakes
and meanwhile you are 20 gear inches too high but have no way to shift. OTOH, Shimano
doesn't make it easy to get older groups, and the only 8-9spd groups are the bottom end
ones. The 8-9spd brifters have doubled in price the last 5yrs and the 10spd shifters cost
2x what the 8-9spd shifters do. If your hands can accomodate the Campy form factor (an
acquired taste in my experience) they are repairable and have better ergonomics in my
opinion in shifting with their style of ratcheting compared with the Shimano. Life span of
brifters (mainly a problem for the R hand brifter) is 8-12 Kmiles in my experience with 2 8spd,
and 4 9spd brifters. One went bad at 2 Kmiles. It is still on the bike but won't stay in the
24T cog on the 12-27 cassette.

i totally disagree with that, especially for a tandem. as a captain i have a lot more weight on my hands and arms riding the tandem than i do on a single and having the sti levers makes shifting a lot easier with out having to move my hands around especially when climbing and try to keep going straight.

Heard of bar ends?

Also, if you have a lot more weight on your hands riding your tandem, your tandem isn't fitted correctly.

8- to 12 K-miles on right STI brifter?
Got over 57,000 miles on Shim barends on our previous Co-Mo . . .
Tried DA brifters for 3,000 miles on our Zona tandem; had issues with front shifting, so went back to barends at stoker's request (gotto keep her happy!)
Got 14K miles on these barends, no issues at all.
What ever works best for your team!
Pedal on TWOgether!
RUdy and Kay/zonatandem

Heard of bar ends?

Also, if you have a lot more weight on your hands riding your tandem, your tandem isn't fitted correctly.

We ride a Burley Duet with bar-ends and use Ultegra STI on the "racing" tandem and the triple. I like the fact that the bar-ends shift crispier and the brake levers do not require a travel agent on the Burley. On the triple the STI comes very handy when for example the rear stoker decides to change his/her center of garvity unannounced. The tandem with STI comes somewhere in between.

I do not know about you... but I am very rarely on the drops while climbing on the tandem/triple... to shift with bars ends would require to focus some attention/effort getting my right hand down there.

Overall i prefer to ride with the STI's.

Overall i prefer to ride with the STI's.


I'm not anti STI. We've owned 2 tandems, one with STI, and one with Bar Ends. I just question the relative value of putting STI on a ten year old tandem.

It's going to be reasonably expensive to do it right, and IMHO, it's not a huge advantage.

I'd save for a new bike with STI on it from the get go.

Well, perhaps the OP will eventually get back to us and explain what he's actually trying to accomplish and what he's learned since he's posted this question or variations thereof + the flat vs drop bar question to this forum, the touring forum, the bicycle mechanics forum, and the road cycling forum.

I guess there are just some decisions where it really does take a village...

Well, perhaps the OP will eventually get back to us and explain what he's actually trying to accomplish and what he's learned since he's posted this question or variations thereof + the flat vs drop bar question to this forum, the touring forum, the bicycle mechanics forum, and the road cycling forum.

I guess there are just some decisions where it really does take a village...
It's a no brainer for me. I ride and have ridden STI ever since it first came out on my singles.
I want my tandem to feel as close as possible to the single bike experience.
When I first put it on my race day bike I thought I could ride the otherone and go back and forth.
I ended up trying to break the brake levers off the non STI bike and was reaching down to shift on the STI bike.:rolleyes:
Muscle memory, good or bad, exists.

I ended up trying to break the brake levers off the non STI bike and was reaching down to shift on the STI bike.:rolleyes:
Muscle memory, good or bad, exists.

The same happens to me when I switch between the ultegra STI in the multiseaters and the Campi record on my single...

Heard of bar ends?
Also, if you have a lot more weight on your hands riding your tandem, your tandem isn't fitted correctly.yeah, i've heard of them, got them on all my old bikes. i rode with stoker much lighter than myself and it was much easier on my hand and arms than many of the other stokers i ride with who weigh as much or more than i do.