Tandem Cycling - Questions on Bike Friday tandems

All, We are thinking of purchasing our first tandem and I had a few questions. First a little about us: We're a married couple and did our first longer tandem ride (RAGBRAI) last summer on a rented Trek T1000. We loved it for all the reasons that are so well documented on this fourm. We plan to use it for daytrips / multiday trips/ weeklong tours and would like to air travel with it. We are definitely 'stop and smell the roses' types and I don't foresee us doing tempo group rides anytime soon. Our combined weight pushes 360 pounds. Captain is 6'2", stoker is 5'2".

We were thinking of a Bike Friday tandem, probably an XL, because a comparable S&S equipped tandem from the main vendors is considerably more expensive. Also, we have a BF dealer in Chicago that we may try out once the weather clears up.

1. I do understand that BF tandems have more flex than 'normal' tandems, but does it impede on normal riding?
2. Are BF tandems frames safe to be used for our weight class? (I expect we will have a drum brake in addition to the normal brakes)

Thanks, Duppie

My wife and I are pretty close to your size. We had a Tandem Traveler XL. We bought it primarily for use with our daughter, but we did use it together several times when we traveled.

It is more flexible than a conventional tandem with an adult stoker in the rear. That said we pushed the bike pretty hard (climbing 10% grades,and 50mph descents) and never hand any problems with it. My wife did not care for the feeling that came with the flex, and didn't feel real secure on the bike.

IIRC BF puts a weight limit on it of 400 lbs.

You can travel by air with a full size non coupled tandem. If you're not going to be flying often, that may be your best option.

Check the regional ride board for Northern California regarding a recent ride on Mt Hamilton (uspspro may have more details). One of the riders crashed on the way down when he blew out a tire on a bike Friday single or similar 20" wheeled bike. Made me think that a given amount of material on smaller wheel will have to go past the brake pads more frequently then a larger diameter wheel. More friction, less time for a smaller amount of material to cool, less air volume in the tire to absorb the heat all that and now you are thinking of adding the weight of an additional rider. Just an opinion but it sounds like a recipe for a tandem teams worst nightmare....front tire blowout on a descent.

stuff happens on any bike. We did fairly decent descents on our BF (10% grade 2,000 vertical feet) at 50 mph without a problem.

Probably not the bike of choice for big mountain riding, but if you pay attention to what you're doing I think you'd be fine riding a BF most anywhere.

Someone on BF did L'Alpe de Huez on a BF single.

Check the regional ride board for Northern California regarding a recent ride on Mt Hamilton (uspspro may have more details). One of the riders crashed on the way down when he blew out a tire on a bike Friday single or similar 20" wheeled bike. Made me think that a given amount of material on smaller wheel will have to go past the brake pads more frequently then a larger diameter wheel. More friction, less time for a smaller amount of material to cool, less air volume in the tire to absorb the heat all that and now you are thinking of adding the weight of an additional rider. Just an opinion but it sounds like a recipe for a tandem teams worst nightmare....front tire blowout on a descent.

A couple that we ride with often has had nothing but trouble with these tires. We rode the tandem at Hellweek for about 50 miles and it was ok. If the tire issue can be resolved it would be a decent tandem.

That was me. I posted about my crash in the folding forum. I was an idiot and probably overinflated my pretty worn out tires. Stuff happens. If I had a drum brake it probably wouldn't have. ;)

I should mention that I've done numerous technical descents in the Bay Area without any issues on the BF.

stuff happens on any bike. We did fairly decent descents on our BF (10% grade 2,000 vertical feet) at 50 mph without a problem.

Probably not the bike of choice for big mountain riding, but if you pay attention to what you're doing I think you'd be fine riding a BF most anywhere.

Someone on BF did L'Alpe de Huez on a BF single.

My fiance (stoker) and I did Alpe d'Huez on solo folders. She rode a Dahon (but a nice one), and I was on a Downtube mini. Her bike with 20" wheels did fine on the descent. Mine with the 16" wheels not so much (see tube).



Just for fun... here I was going up ;)

Have ridden BF tandems; nicely done machines and very adapatable size-wise without spending a bundle.
For difficult mountain descents, a 3rd brake would be advisable.
But then folks with full wheel sized tandems also prefer a 3rd brake. Depends on what you as a team are comfortable with.

All,
Thanks for your replies. I doubt we would do the long and steep ascents/descents described in the replies. Mrs. Duppie astutely commented on the fact that January is not a good time to test ride any bike. So that has been put off for a little while. I am sure I will be back with more questions once we testride one.
Thanks, Duppie

Look up Rob English and his website on Google. Email him. He works for BF and has a tandem. If you don't like something about the bike in its standard form I'm sure he will be able to make you happy.

Also for others, his website is a very good read.

Hi, my wife and I have a BF XL family Triple - took it to Germany this past summer for the girls to ride on with me. We (wife and I) have used it as a double locally. I don't think the flex is really all that bad... mind you, I'm 5'5" and 195 (captain), and the wife is 5 11" and I suppose (not supposed to ask, now am I!!) around 200#'s herself. It handles fairly well, and speeds along nicely. The fit's much better than on my roadbike. The XL's have butted tubes... if I were to buy new (I found this one used), I'd have gone with the std tubes (but with the 451 wheels vs. the 407's) as they should be less prone to a flex. Having said that, I don't really notice it at all.

I wouldn't worry about the tires (we have the 451's). Currently have Comet's kevlar belts.. surprise..! They've held up well... even on dirt and gravel roads (1 3/8" width).

Putting the bike apart and together is a bit of a pain (fully dis assembled for the trip to Germany) it took about 30-40 min to take apart... and about 30 min to put together. Mind you, for local trips, I just pull the tubes apart to transport in the car.. and that's about a 15 min job tops. The hardest part is that the chain tension is set by how far the seat tubes are from each other. Once you get the hang of it (and a large part for me is the going from triple to double configuration... I ended up using electrical tape to mark the tubes better).. it's gone much faster.

Short of the length of time putting it together again, I LOVE our BF!
Mind you, the one without our helmets was staged for my in-laws... I always have them on!
Marc