Tandem Cycling - Carbon Fiber Stoker bars with integrated hoods

Just sold a set of Cane Creek Stoker Ergo hoods, that we ended up not using. It struck me how heavy these things are. At 230 grams, they're heavier than a set of pedals, and heavier than a lot of handlebars.

It struck me that the lightweight answer would be CF drop bars, with integrated CF faux hoods. The weight savings would appear to be substantial.

Does anybody make this? I'm assumming that the market is just too limited.

I'm sure Calfee could make one, but I imagine it would be pricey, and likely not as light as something with the hoods just integrated into the original shape.

Carbon Fiber Stoker Pegs: 60 grams (http://www.stealthcycling.com/product/ZCARBSTOKPEG/Carbon_Fiber_Tandem_Stoker_Pegs_Hand_Rest_Dummy_Levers.html)

http://static.zoovy.com/img/stealthcycling/-/S/stoker_grip2http://cracklecdn-e7.simplecdn.net/img/stealthcycling/W200-H156-Bffffff/S/stoker_grip1.jpg

Stoker has 'em for the past 22,000+ miles on our tandem. They're great.
Bob Davis is the originator of the carbon fiber design after we prompted him several years ago.
Stoker Kay likes the round handrest over the phoney brake hoods. Bought our original yellow plastic rounds handrests back in 1977 from the UK Tandem Club who at that time got them from an Italian manufacturer (no longer being made).

We have the original c/f prototype set. Believe they set us back 30 bucks . . . about the same as the Cane Creeks . . . and considerably lighter.
Stoker Kay likes a bit more upright position as you can see where they are located on her EC90 bars.

Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

It struck me that the lightweight answer would be CF drop bars, with integrated CF faux hoods.

While I can see where some stokers might prefer the round shape, I think integrating them into the bar would be a bad idea and here's why.

I have seen more than one Calfee integrated bar/stem get tossed because the bar angle could not be adjusted. Joining these two parts eliminates the possibility of adjustment for a small weight savings. If you don't have the positions set exactly where you want them, you're out of luck.

Today all the bike fits I do concentrate as much on bar angle and lever position as they do on saddle height/angle/setback. If the levers are fixed onto the bar, the option to adjust them is removed and the only option left is rotating the bar up, which can completely ruin the position in the drops. With an uncomfortable drop position, you are left with what effectively has become a bullhorn bar that weighs more than it needs to because you could hack off the drops and save even more weight.

I have had so many people tell me before a bike fit that they can't use drops and had them realize that they just couldn't use theirs the way they had been installed. Some of the bike fits I have done have come back months later, not because they didn't like the changes, but after experiencing this style of fit they felt that the lever positions could be more finely tuned.

With a fixed lever, this is not possible. To get the positioning right, you would have to ride a similarly equipped bar for a least a month before finalizing where the levers would go.

Stoker Kay likes the round handrest over the phoney brake hoods.

The round stoker posts though look like an interesting option, however the stoker gets to make the calls on that one. The first thing that popped into my head when I saw the picture of the carbon ones is how many tops of carbon steerer tubes get thrown in the trash and would 1 1/8 pegs be more comfortable.

What about standing climbing?

Those stubs aren't very substantial... obviously the stoker is not controlling the bike. However a lot of riding a bike fast has to do with muscle memory, and doing the same things over and over. Emulating the single bike as much as possible seems like a good way to train to go fast. Unless, of course, your stoker only rides tandem.

Stoker Kay no longer has a single bike; she felt no need for it any more as for years we averaged 10,000 miles annually on tandem.
Being older now (mid-70s) we no longer ride aggressively and only half that many annual miles.
As for standing while on the tandem, we felt better/more effective not doing that and utilizing the gears and leg/arm power to get up our long AZ hills/mountains.
Longest hill we've done is a 30 miler up the Mogollon Rim in northern AZ . . . would your team stand for 30, 5 or even 1 mile?
The only time standing was utilized by the pilot is when we went around a corner somewhere and there's a very steep instantaneous climb facing us and we're not in the proper gear to tackle it; and that only has happened very few times.
Agree an integrated stoker stem/faux hoods could present issues that were mentioned..
Heck, even a fixed stoker stem could be an issue. Stoker Kay asked to adjust her adjustable stoker stem 1/8-inch after about 15,000 miles on our current tandem . . . nice to be able to do that.
While the round c/f stoker pegs may not look 'substantial, they are; however someone with very large hands may not be comfortable with those.
Just our expereinces.
Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

Stoker Kay no longer has a single bike; she felt no need for it any more as for years we averaged 10,000 miles annually on tandem.
Being older now (mid-70s) we no longer ride aggressively and only half that many annual miles.
As for standing while on the tandem, we felt better/more effective not doing that and utilizing the gears and leg/arm power to get up our long AZ hills/mountains.
Longest hill we've done is a 30 miler up the Mogollon Rim in northern AZ . . . would your team stand for 30, 5 or even 1 mile?
The only time standing was utilized by the pilot is when we went around a corner somewhere and there's a very steep instantaneous climb facing us and we're not in the proper gear to tackle it; and that only has happened very few times.
Agree an integrated stoker stem/faux hoods could present issues that were mentioned..
Heck, even a fixed stoker stem could be an issue. Stoker Kay asked to adjust her adjustable stoker stem 1/8-inch after about 15,000 miles on our current tandem . . . nice to be able to do that.
While the round c/f stoker pegs may not look 'substantial, they are; however someone with very large hands may not be comfortable with those.
Just our expereinces.
Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

We have found that standing lets us ultimately get up steeper hills faster.
1) Switching muscle groups to spread the workload.
2) Increased TQ (which should be utilized to go fast on a tandem)

YMMV... This is just our team's experience.

Last weekend, we did was 80 miles with a boat load of climbing including these ridiculous hills in San Francisco at 18-20% :twitchy: We could never get up that stuff seated, and this is with a 30x32 low gear.

re. standing for a long time, once I went on a ride with a pro rider and another friend. We ended up riding out to a cafe 65 miles away at 22-25mph all the way. I was of course dead after about 66 miles, so the pro guy changed into 53x12 and rode the whole of the rest of the way home out of the saddle in that gear. He said he needed to do it for strength training.

The next step is of course removing the saddle and seat post altogether. Another friend did this for the club hillclimb to lighten his bike. He did OK riding out and up the hill. We didn't seem him again for a few weeks afterwards as he said his legs hurt too much to ride.

As for standing while on the tandem, we felt better/more effective not doing that and utilizing the gears and leg/arm power to get up our long AZ hills/mountains.

I use the out of the saddle riding position not only to get some relief from sitting on the saddle for long periods of time but also to change the muscle groups I am using on longer climbs. By changing from sitting to standing I can climb a hill faster and with less fatigue than if I were to ride the entire hill either just sitting or just standing.

My stoker on the other hand goes all out whenever we are out of the saddle. While this does limit how long I can stand on the tandem, it does feel nice to have those quick bursts of acceleration while climbing.

Kay asked to adjust her adjustable stoker stem 1/8-inch after about 15,000 miles on our current tandem.

1/8-inch can be a huge difference when considering comfort. This is a good example of what I was getting at. It took 15,000 miles to come to that decision to change the position.