Tandem Cycling - Looking at a new tandem

After two seasons on our Cannondale, Bittersweet and I are looking at new tandems. Based on stuff I have seen here and read on Mark's site we have narrowed down our choices to two. I sent essentially the same email stating our desires in a new tandem our riding style and specifications to both and one has already replied. I am waiting for the other to reply before we make a final decision as to whom we will have building our new ride.

The two vendors we have settled on are Calfee Designs and Rue Sports. Obviously we are looking at a composite tandem. Several factors went into our decision among which were sizing, comfort, component selection. I am trying to document the entire process for my blog and hope that some of my experience will be of value to others (The Incidental Cyclist (http://www.incidentalcyclist.com)).

Once they have both responded I will make sure to let everyone know.

Hopefully you will get an email back from Rue sports, when I was looking for a custom frame I did the same thing and never got anything back from them.
Craig was quick on answering questions and helping out.

Went with an off the shelf model at this moment, and some day will make the jump.

Waldo, me and the Missus have a C'dale. I'm curious why the switch after only 2 seasons? What's driving your desire to move away from the C'dale after such a short time?

Andy

Andy, its basically about fit. I am a firm believer in riding position relative to BB is constant from bike to bike. So in order to get more room for my stoker we need a longer rear top tube for her. I think TG posted a chart of rear top tube lengths and from memory I recall that Cannondale had one of the shortest if not the shortest top tubes. Second was the need for more comfort. I tend to roll over a lot of stuff and not call out the bumps, bad habit from racing days. We dumped the suspension seat posts right away and I have never believed that carbon seat posts are the way to go if comfort is your concern. I wrote all about the other reasons in my blog.

I still think the Dale is great, a fantastic value, but we have already outgrown it in many ways. That is why we are looking at something new.

Have ridden Calfee tandems; seen and hefted the Ruegamer (but not ridden it).
Own a full c/ Zona (no longer being built).
You'll notice a huge difference in weight/ride with c/f compared to alu and no shock seatpost needed.

Waldo,

We met you and your daughter at the Memorial Day ride in Matthews. We parked beside each other and we were riding the Trek. I may be interested in buying the C'dale if it becomes available. You can reach me a sclark563@carolina.rr.com

Thanks,

Steve

Waldo, me and the Missus have a C'dale. I'm curious why the switch after only 2 seasons? What's driving your desire to move away from the C'dale after such a short time?

Andy

A thousand answers possible, only one necessary .... because they CAN! ;) Nothing particularly wrong with our Trek either, but we'll jump on a custom built carbon fiber tandem as soon as we can afford it! Why not?

I am a firm believer that if new equipment keeps you motivated & in the sport go get it!!!!!! My wife & I just got her a new (first) set of clip-less pedals & shoes. We are having a blast on the tandem. It is worth ever penny! I hope that we ride enough to feel the need to upgrade to a new bike! Keep us informed!

@zonatandem: We are expecting a huge difference, besides that we are also changing up our training, hopefully to get a little stronger and a little faster too.
@cyclesteve: Email sent
@Onegun: Of course that answer is obvious, but I thought it would be nice to give just a little more.
@embankmentlb: Thanks, we are on course to double our tandem mileage over last year. Now tandem riding is 1/3 of my annual total, and 2/3's of Bittersweet's.

WheresWaldo:
Being in our mid-70s we no longer train or do the hard/long/mountainous rides. Our nose-to-the-wheel-days are behind us! But still manage to get in a hundred miles a week on our twicer.
The carbon fiber tandem is a huge upgrade over the other tandems we've owned/ridden.
While our other custom tandems were the best/lightest we could afford in their day, carbon has brought weight/comfort (and price!) on a twicer to a new level.
Planning the new bike is always a fun project! When we are asked how come we have such a nice/light tandem, we say: "What are we gonna do, wait 'til we get older?!"
Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

Pulled the trigger, sent a deposit to Brent Ruegamer today! Now comes the hardest part, approving designs and waiting!

Pulled the trigger, sent a deposit to Brent Ruegamer today! Now comes the hardest part, approving designs and waiting!

Having commissioned a few custom bikes and tandems over the years, if you haven't made plans to do so I'd recommend keeping the C'dale for at least 3 months or so after the delivery of your new custom tandem just to ensure you don't get caught without a tandem should any adjustments need to be made to the new bike and for a few other reasons.

IMHO, given the expense and emotional investment that goes into something like a custom, high-end tandem, you don't want to get yourself boxed into a corner by selling off your only tandem "just in time" for the new one's arrival. Delivery dates slip now and again, which is one source of angst that can be exacerbated if you've found yourself without any tandem. Moreover, despite everyone's best efforts and intentions, communication is a fickle thing and often times what you receive may not be exactly what you thought it was going to be, never mind potential issues that can come about from the components needed to build the machine. Even after you've gotten your hands on your new custom it will take a few hundred miles to get settled-in and to shake out any issues which might result in some down time to address. Again having a spare tandem around will allow you to take your time in getting the new tandem sorted out. Finally, after riding your new tandem for that first 500 - 1000 miles or so, it's nice to jump back on the tandem you have attempted to improve upon just to quantify the differences, to solidify your decision, and to eliminate any nagging doubts about the expense.

Customs and high-end 'things' are what we use to reward ourselves for achieving a level of financial security so we can indulge in our hobbies and interests. However, having tasted fine wines, driven exotic cars, and enjoyed a few of lifes other fine things, at the end of the day they must all stand up to the test of objective critique. Having the ability to change your mind or to compare and contrast is a great way of maintaining your objectivity... if only for your own piece of mind.

Having commissioned a few custom bikes and tandems over the years, if you haven't made plans ......

Thank you for you thoughtful response. When I spoke with Brent we both have the same design philosophy and seemed to be on the same page when we spoke. If you hadn't noticed from my previous posts in this and the Road Cycling forum. I have very strong opinions about what I like and don't like about cycling, bicycles in general and Brent is willing to work within those parameters.

It's funny I hadn't thought about keeping the old ride especially since I have already had 4 local inquiries about selling the old one, and I hadn't even mentioned that I was selling it to anyone.

Since I believe I have a firm grasp on how the bike should ride and handle, its dimensions and steering geometry and myself and my stoker are firm in the type of riding we do. I have mentioned in the past that we do absolutely no loaded touring, we are not interested in that type of riding. We are all about short group rides with an occasional single day event thrown in for good measure. We find that we have very different needs than many who post here. We are also not trying to create a bike that does it all either. So with those things in mind some of our decisions are easier as the goals are simpler.

The other thing about our bikes that I can say with all certainty, although cycling literally saved my life, cycling is not my life! We are not as hardcore, for good or bad, as some of the riders here. If we put 1000 miles on the tandem each year that is a good year for us. Although every moment riding with my daughter is a treasure, I still prefer to go out on my single bike.

As far as setup. It took me a whole season to figure out our current Cannondale, I am sure I will have the same learning curve on this. But since I believe I know what works for me I am thinking that there will be fewer surprises than we saw when we bought the Cannondale.

Since this is not an off the shelf tandem that we are making work for us (BTW we are both very average for our height/weight/build so off the shelf works very well for us). The geometry we have already discussed will be a closer match to out single bikes. I believe this is a very good place to start from, as opposed to guessing what the geometry should be. Two seasons on the Dale has also enlightened us with the knowledge of what we like and dislike about their design and this helps us with some of the decisions we need to make in the future.

Sorry for the length of this post but I did have a few things to say. Again thanks for your post as it has given me some more things to think about that I hadn't considered prior to this.

We learned much from our very first tandem in 1975 . . . since then we've owned 4 custom tandems and each time the builders built exactly what we specified. But, if the builder offers suggestions/alternatives, have an open mind.
We tend to put mega-miles on our tandems before retiring/selling them and ordering a new one. However, this may be our last tandem . . . but then Kay says 'that's what you said the last time' as we designed a new one after our Co-Mo surpassed 57,000 miles on the odo. Only have 20,000 miles on our Zona c/f twicer so far . . .
Enjoy the project!
Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

So how long will the stoker compartment be and what are you going to build it up with?

So how long will the stoker compartment be and what are you going to build it up with?

Stoker top tube will be in the 75 cm range, as long as we can get it within the design limitations of required seat tube length and standover height. This will make it about 3.5 - 4 cm longer than the Dale.

Build up will most likely be Dura-Ace 7800, with FSA Carbon tandem cranks. Not sure about wheels, but it will have 130 mm road spacing and most likely be tubulars. Before anyone says anything about the rear spacing please remember this is a performance tandem, not a tourer, so no need or desire for disc or drag brakes.


We learned much from our very first tandem in 1975 . . . since then we've owned 4 custom tandems and each time the builders built exactly what we specified. But, if the builder offers suggestions/alternatives, have an open mind.
We tend to put mega-miles on our tandems before retiring/selling them and ordering a new one. However, this may be our last tandem . . . but then Kay says 'that's what you said the last time' as we designed a new one after our Co-Mo surpassed 57,000 miles on the odo. Only have 20,000 miles on our Zona c/f twicer so far . . .
Enjoy the project!
Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

Rudy, I will never even dream of reaching the level of riding that you and Kay have achieved. I only have one bike that is 50,000+ miles and that is my Klein Quantum, and that was when I was racing. It seems like that was another lifetime ago. I already have made the offer to Brent that if he feels I am off-base in any of my requests he needs to tell me and then we can negotiate. As for us this will also probably be our last tandem, as my daughter is in her senior year in HS and four more years of college, she may not want to ride with such an old man. The good thing is that this gives me about 5 years to convince my wife that she should start tandeming with me!

If you have not yet decided on wheels, take a serious look at Topolino; and they do make tubular ones . . .