Tandem Cycling - New Santana

Just picked up our new Santana Arrva SE. Looks sharp, will be riding as soon as possible. Upgraded to carbon fork, disk brake, and the couplers.

This replaces the old XL Santana; it will be nice to have a tandem that fits right!

2592

Enjoy the new ride TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

Congrats on the new ride -very nice! ...fit is everything ....white is fast!

Bill J.

I have an Arriva SE that's about 5 years old. Still runs like new. Enjoy it! BTW, I just have the V Brakes and despite thinking that I should have a rear drag brake of some kind (it's hilly around here) I've never needed it.

It's not hilly here in Houston area, but we plan some riding in Colorado and the rear disk should do the job. The old tandem had the drag brake which I disconnected for riding here; I never like the 2 rear brake setups that I tried.

This bike gets to set in the garage for another week before we can ride as we are sailing in the Thistle Nationals next week. Too many hobbies...

Wow. That has to be the biggest brake rotor I have ever seen. What is the diameter?

Wow. That has to be the biggest brake rotor I have ever seen. What is the diameter?

As I recall 10"

Just picked up our new Santana Arrva SE. Looks sharp, will be riding as soon as possible. Upgraded to carbon fork, disk brake, and the couplers.

This replaces the old XL Santana; it will be nice to have a tandem that fits right!

2592

I beleive that I now own the legacy Arriva. Although, I'm about to lose my mind waiting for Ric to install a new freewheel. If they don't hurry my sons are going to take up some video game before I have a chance to get them on the bike!

Your new ride looks fantastic. And I agree with the comment left saying that white is fast. That is what all the guys up at "the barn" say.

Also as we have never spoken to each other, I appreciate the chance you've given me to get the boys out on some longer rides. The youngest one is pretty fired up.

Thank you sir!
Craig

I like the way Santana tucked the rear caliper between the frame tubes. On our C'Dale the caliper hangs out behind the seat stay, getting in the way of racks and fenders.

I like the way Santana tucked the rear caliper between the frame tubes. On our C'Dale the caliper hangs out behind the seat stay, getting in the way of racks and fenders.

I agree, it should make putting panniers on easier. We are planning the Trans Am in two years!

Bruce

The wife and I rode our first real ride this weekend. We did the 100K route on the HHH. Bike rode wonderfully. Turns out my wife is a back seat driver, kept telling me when to shift, we are working on finding a comfortable cadence for both of us (I try to keep at 90, she likes 75, I think we ended up at 80-85). Ended up with a couple of rear wheel flats do to walking the bike in the grass, I'm guessing thorns. Looking forwarrd to the MS 150 Bike to the Beach in October with my 15 year old daughter.

2592

Glad to see another tandem rider in Katy. There are not many of us. You may have seen me around the area with my 5 year old son and then sometimes with trailer bike with the 6 year old also. We usually try to ride with Bike barn on Saturdays. Be sure to join us if you have a chance. There are lots of people to ride with although I am sure I can't keep up with the two of you, though.

I've been riding with the Bike Barn group for years, normally I ride my Lemond. I will be riding the tandem more now with my daughter getting ready for the Bike to the Beach.

Bruce

Nice bike. But the stoker's not pedaling. (literally,she has no pedals):)

Just two items:

1. Nice bike!
2. Flickr, Picasa, Photobucket, etc.

I like the way Santana tucked the rear caliper between the frame tubes. On our C'Dale the caliper hangs out behind the seat stay, getting in the way of racks and fenders.

This is something I have only seen done on Santana frames. The reasoning behind this was that braking would push the wheel up into the dropout instead of pulling it out of the dropout.

This is something I have only seen done on Santana frames. The reasoning behind this was that braking would push the wheel up into the dropout instead of pulling it out of the dropout.

I'm not sure if he was the first, but Glenn Erickson was installing disc calipers between the rear stays well before Santana configured it's first rear-disc tandem as a custom-mod for a client down in Orange County.

http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=40493&d=1174845442

As for disc ejection and disc rotor orientation, the rear drop-outs on typical road tandems have never presented a problem using either of the commonly seen configurations. While it's true that this particular orientation will drive the caliper/rotor brake forces more directly into the deepest part of the rear drop-out, the more vertical mounts don't pose any problems since they still direct the brake forces into the drop-out, albeit at a more rearward angle, but not toward the opening of the drop-out which is when problems develop.

However, Ventana's off-road tandems had early problems adopting the rear discs as they used a very unconventional, rear-facing drop-out orientation. They simply changed the orientation of the drop-outs to a more conventional, downward orientation on all of their subsequent rear-disc compatible swingarms. We were one of the teams who had to upgrade our "wheel ejecting" swing arm to the new design on our first Ventana. There were also a few issues where front forks were fitted with discs that had a poor relationship between the drop-out orientation and the calipers position. The most well-known and well documented incident happened to James Annan, which was the subject of much debate on MTB discussion forums and within the bike industry a few years back. They had a worst-case scenario where a set of conventional fork drop-outs intended for use on a raked fork were installed on a straight-bladed fork -- creating something of a rear-facing drop-out orientation vs. straight down as found on most forks, and the disc mount coupled with the use of a very-aggressive 203mm four-pot, downhill brake caliper that created a situation where the brake energy drove the front wheel right out of the fork drop-out. Had that fork used drop-outs that had a straight-down orientation and something like a 185mm Avid BB7, the geometry of the braking forces would have been less likely to eject the wheel. Again, if you're really interested or really bored, just search on Annan and disc brake or wheel ejection and you'll a plethora of information on the various discussion forums and articles in most UK MTB publications.

TandemGeek, I see that you added the spring to the brake. My brake is with Ric at House of Tandems right now, seems that it was not quite fully opening and the rattling/ringing of the disks pads on the disks was a bit disconcerting. The brakes worked fine, but I don’t like any noises coming from my bikes. I might just add the spring to help out.

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This replaces the old XL Santana; it will be nice to have a tandem that fits right!

2592

I'm trying to educate myself on sizing. Can you share how you knew the XL didn't fit (assuming it's not something obvious like you couldn't straddle the top-tube)? Did it seem to fit at first, and later you decided something wasn't quite right?

I'm trying to educate myself on sizing. Can you share how you knew the XL didn't fit (assuming it's not something obvious like you couldn't straddle the top-tube)? Did it seem to fit at first, and later you decided something wasn't quite right?

It was the obvious; I could barely straddle the top tube. I inherited the bike from a friend to try out tandeming. At 5’7” I was as short as you could be and captain. Rode it for almost three years though,