Tandem Cycling - MTB to Road Conversion?

After a month of riding my new Calfee Tetra road tandem, I am seriously looking at converting my MTB Santana Rio to a complete road set-up. FYI, the Calfee is my State side summer vacation ride and my Santana is my Sicily tandem.

My Santana is built with a road Triple crank, 105 FDR, XTR RDR with 9 speed Mega cluster cassette, SACH twist shifters, on flat bars & bar ends. I currently have both V and drum rear brakes, but I’m considering going with a lighter wheel set and using just the V brake.

So! What are you 26” wheeled road tandem riders using?

Not too hard to do:

9-speed STI's will index fine with both derailleurs. You'll need Travel Agents for the V-brakes. If you decide to keep the drum brake most folks use a bar con shifter to set a drag on it. Flight Deck computers come into their own on tandems and you're good-to-go.

What are you 26” wheeled road tandem riders using?

Retro's got it right. I did the same conversion on the same bike. Drop bars, Ultegra brifters w/TA's ... I had to change the FD too, though I don't remember why. I slapped some Specialized 26 X 1.25 tires on it and presto-chango, instant road bike.

My tandem is a 26 inch off road frame that's set up as a road machine. Its worked out great.

I'm intersted in wheel options for my Santana Rio? I'd really like to change my wheel set. Have any of you had custom race wheels built for your 26" road tandems? I'd like to get wheels with more areo spokes, lighter construction, and smoother spinning hubs. My rear wheel (with hub break) does not spin that freely due to the freewheel & hub construction.

So! What are you 26” wheeled road tandem riders using?

I've got a 1992 Burley Rock N' Roll (http://www.bikeforums.net/showpost.php?p=9073857&postcount=310), which was sort of a hybrid. I awaiting arrival of a Calfee road tandem, and in the meantime have been using the Burley on the road. I've not wanted to spend any money on upgrades. So, all I've done is get the thinnest tires that will fit on my 26 x 1" rims. I started this thread (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=515757) (on the Mt. bike subforum) to figure out how thin a tire I could use.

I ended up with 1.25" Panaracer RiBMo's. Tires make a huge difference, I think if a bike has >1.5" or knobby tires, smooth and thin makes up 40-60% of the difference between a mt. bike and a road bike. The tires are low hanging fruit. Change the tires first, try using it as a road tandem, and then make further changes based on experience.




RiBMo (http://www.panaracer.com/urban.php)

RiBMo is the newest addition to our urban tire line. Available in a multitude of sizes, the important feature of RiBMo is Protex puncture resistance technology. Protex delivers 3x the puncture resistance of Kevlar® belted technologies.

26 X 1.25 ....Aramid ....32-559 ....330g.



http://www.panaracer.com/images/product_page_images/urban/ribmo.jpg

But the bead failed on my front tire, and I just got another alternative (which I'll try out this weekend), the 1.25" Specialized Fat Boy (http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bc/SBCEqProduct.jsp?spid=42215).

http://www.specialized.com/media/equip/001-0341_d.jpg

[QUOTE=Ritterview;9618514] "I ended up with 1.25" Panaracer RiBMo's. Tires make a huge difference, I think if a bike has >1.5" or knobby tires, smooth and thin makes up 40-60% of the difference between a mt. bike and a road bike. The tires are low hanging fruit. Change the tires first, try using it as a road tandem, and then make further changes based on experience."


I've already got 1.5 Gatorskins on velocity deep section 40 hole rims. I want to keep this bike, and be able to change back to MTB if required. I want to get away from my current heavy 40 spoke drum brake wheels. Thinking CK hubs, Light bladed spokes, and deep section Velocity rims. Anyone running something like this on their 26" tandem?

Attached is a photo of what my Rio looks like now.

Depending on the hills and your strength, you will probably want to change to a smaller cassette with closer gear splits, i.e., 11-21 to 11-25. I have never used anything like an 11-33, but I do find that the MTB derailleurs shift across a tighter and smaller cassette just fine.

We only started the tandem bit in January this year. Our bike is a 26" tired Burley which was sold as a mountain bike type, but with a solid fork. It had flat bars and 8 speeds with SRAM twist shifters. The front shifter was a micro type and worked with the 105 front DR.

We now run drop bars, 9 speed Ultegra, still 105 with XT rear D/R. It all works fine.

One of these days when we get a custom (and stoker is already talking about it), I might convert back to flats bars with some wider tires. We'll see.

I like showing these before and after pics.

BEFORE

http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm11/monoborracho/Burley%20Rock-n-Roll/100_04781.jpg

We've made the following changes:

Stoker stem and bars changed out to raise it substantially.
47cm stoker bars
Soft ride stoker seat post riser
Stem riser for the captain
48 cm Deda shallow drop bars
Black captain's seatpost
Upgrade to 9 speed LX cassette (we torqued an XT and ruined it) 12-32.
Ultegra grade R-600 short reach brifters
Travel agents on the brakes - retained LX V-brakes
Wheels rebuilt with new DT's 3X 40 spoke
Continental Sport Contact 26" x 1.3"
Tubus rear rack
Brooks B-68 (captain) and B-68s (stoker). We tried a set of Terry Liberator X & Y to begin with.
New Aria drum brake with Suntour barcon.

And here it is now.


http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm11/monoborracho/Burley%20Rock-n-Roll/BurleyJune092.jpg

Oh yeah, the timing chain is now tight.