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Our current tandem with the wheels removed fits in our Prius but with very little extra room. We're thinking of a new tandem but the tandem is a little longer and probably will not fit. However, the tandem will have S&S couplers.
Are S&S couplers easy enough to use and sturdy enough to repetively unassemble and reassemble in order for the tandem to fit in a car?
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I am no engineer, but I have little doubt that the couplers themselves are strong enough to withstand repeated opening and closing.
For the following, I am assuming you are just going to split the bike in half, and not spend an hour packing the thing in a suitcase:
1) If you're buying a Santana (or a bike with Santana coupler placement), you have to take the timing chain off (in addition to disconnecting the brake and derailleur cables--you should have quick release cables for those).
2) After splitting the bike in half, you're left with a couple of very awkward bike halves...expect a lot of scratches from loading in an out of the car.
3) The teflon lube recommended by S and S is incredibly expensive.
I would recommend a bike rack for car trips if you are going to be taking a lot of them...just don't drive into the garage.
I think the couplers would get old for doing quick trips. I think the last mention was that the process could be done in 20 minutes(?), maybe it was 10. Either sounded long to me for those "hey, let's go to...." type rides. That's 20-40 minutes added to each ride. Rack, interior or trailer seems much more convenient, cheaper too.
We are doing exactly what you plan. It works great for us. We have a co-mo speedster. We uncouple the front third and stuff inside our Toyota Matrix with a couple blankets between the sections. No messing with timing chain with the co-mo configuration. The coupling and uncoupling takes 5 min at most. Three S&S connections and three cable splitters. Not much to it. With the stokers help I think we are underway in not much longer time than it takes to put wheels on and pump the tires on two single bikes. Of course more time is spent carefully loading in the car to prevent scratches. No way around that if you value your paint. Ours was purchased as a travel bike so scratches go with the territory.
We go for rides directly after work, so secure storage inside the vehicle is a must.
As mentioned the Teflon lube is expensive. However, if you are careful to keep the connectors clean, it will last a long time. Its about $20 for a small syringe (10 or 20 mL?). But it doesn't take much to lube the connectors. I still haven't used even 10% in the first year.
Don't know about durability. We only have been doing this for a year. I have a couple minor scratches on the threads that don't seem to cause any problems. They appear pretty robust...as they should be given the $$$$ they cost.
Alternative:
Open hatch on the Prius, keep both wheels on the tandem.
Load tandem inside Prius, backwheel first. Put padding on sill of the hatch and leave front wheel/bars flop out of the car. Blanket on top of front half of bike. Pull hatch semi-closed and hook a bungee cord from inside hatch to bumper area. Used to do that with an '84 Honda Accord hatchback.
You could also remove front wheel to have less bike sticking out.
Went bigger and got a '97 Honda station wagon. Works fine.
With both wheels off we can toss in the tandem + my single racing bike and about 4 suitcases and stuff when we go north for the summer. A bit crowded, but heck there's only the 2 of us.
Where there's a will, there's a way.
If you are getting a new tandem with S&S do as suggested.
Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem
Our 2000-ish Santana Arriva has been uncoupled/coupled hundreds of times for plane trips or to fit in the hatch of our Prius. Seat backs have to be folded down but the bike is totally secure and it really does only take about 8-10 minutes to do. And ther's tons of room left over for other gear.
The one time we didn't bother and simply put the bike across the car with the strap on rack in the back cost 7-8 mpg on the highway due to the extra wind resistance. Fairly serious money these days. The couplers are absolutely bulletproof IMHO. They should last about forever.
Our 2000-ish Santana Arriva has been uncoupled/coupled hundreds of times for plane trips or to fit in the hatch of our Prius. Seat backs have to be folded down but the bike is totally secure and it really does only take about 8-10 minutes to do. And ther's tons of room left over for other gear.
The one time we didn't bother and simply put the bike across the car with the strap on rack in the back cost 7-8 mpg on the highway due to the extra wind resistance. Fairly serious money these days. The couplers are absolutely bulletproof IMHO. They should last about forever.
That's great to know. We have a rack but, as you said, it really reduces our mileage and subjects the tandem to the weather.
I assume you just take off the sync chain and disconnect the front three couplers. You leave the cables connected.
That's great to know. We have a rack but, as you said, it really reduces our mileage and subjects the tandem to the weather.
I assume you just take off the sync chain and disconnect the front three couplers. You leave the cables connected.
The cables do have to be disconnected along with derailing the sync chain - don't bother with the master link - just derail and rerail. I leave a pair of thin gloves in the car in a baggy for chain duty. It's also easier in the long run to take the front wheel off.
With a Co-Motion S&S tandem you would not have to remove sync chain.
The one time we didn't bother and simply put the bike across the car with the strap on rack in the back cost 7-8 mpg on the highway due to the extra wind resistance.
Just curious, was this with the wheels still attached or were they removed and this added resistance was from only the rack and frame?
Just curious, was this with the wheels still attached or were they removed and this added resistance was from only the rack and frame?
I had the front wheel removed and the rear wheel on the bike
Just curious, was this with the wheels still attached or were they removed and this added resistance was from only the rack and frame?
Priuses (Priei?) are very sensitive to interuption of their airflow. With two bikes on the top at highway speeds our mileage drops from 54 to 29 mpg.
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