Tandem Cycling - Questions about a Los Dos

I am fairly new here and hope this question hasn't been asked a million times. My wife and I are thinking about getting a tandem. We both stand about 5'-10" and found a used Los Dos in 22x20. We test rode the bike and liked it, but, there are a couple of things we would like to change if it is possible.

1. I don't love the twist type shifters. How hard would it be to put a more conventional shifters on?

2. Would anyone recommend disc brakes and is this even possible?

3. They are asking $900 and I think this is a little high. It has a fair number of miles and they have cut the end bars off the stokers handlebars. It is in good shape and they have put road tires on.

Any help or opinion with this would really be appreciated. THANKS!:thumb:

1. I don't love the twist type shifters. How hard would it be to put a more conventional shifters on?

Not hard at all; just the time and expense associated with finding and installing the correct 7 or 8 spd (?) trigger shifters.

2. Would anyone recommend disc brakes and is this even possible?

Just looking at the so-so photos, it doesn't have any provisions for discs on the fork or rear triangle; just a pac-man for a supplemental drum brake. However, it does have Magura hydraulic rim brakes which area actually pretty good brakes. That's a good news / bad news story in that if you decide you'd like some different brake levers you'd need to change out the entire front & rear brake system. I believe brake blocks are still readily available. You'd want to make sure the hydraulic lines are all in good shape and not dried-out and cracking as well.

3. They are asking $900 and I think this is a little high. It has a fair number of miles and they have cut the end bars off the stokers handlebars. It is in good shape and they have put road tires on.

Yes, it's a bit high and by the time you get done 'tweaking' you'd probably find you could have found a newer C'dale for about the same money that you had sunk into this one. $600 - $650 would seem more reasonable. A new 'Street Tandem' which is about the same as the Los Dos in terms of purpose and equipment is about $1,875 and that's the rub... Cannondale lowered their tandem prices back in the earlier part of this decade and wiped out the resale value of what were fairly expensive tandems back in the 90s.

So, do your homework and be sure to take a good look at what else is out there on the market in terms of used tandems and don't be afraid to low-ball.

I'd agree with the TandemGeek about the price. I'm not sure about what photo he was able to see though. It seems I don't have a photo nor link or just couldn't find it.

We have Magura rim brakes on one of our Cannondale off-road tandems. With the Salmon pads they work very well in the dry. I believe the Magura rim brake stuff is still available, at least in the HS33 model. One thing about some versions of Maguras is the early types do not have adjustments on the levers. This requires you to make all adjustments at the wheel, which can be a pain. If you do purchase the bike, contact Magura and see if it's possible to purchase upgraded levers.

Our Cannondale MT series, which is a 98, is in the Los Dos family. The frame has no disc tabs. I had considered designing and making my own bolt on tab setup, but opted out and waited for a good deal on a newer bike.

In regards to the frame size, your stoker being 5'10", is probably going to require that 22/20 size frame. This may be a touch large for you but I'm confident it can work. Our Los Dos is a Large/Small and really is to small for my wife. I've worked hard to open it as much as possible. She loves the bike, mainly for technical off road singletrack. However, she will comment how much more room there is on the road tandem, which is a proper size for her. Our Los Dos replacement, I was hoping to be a Large/Medium sized off road frame. The bike I found however is an XL/med, so this thing fits her great, and with a couple of stem adjustments is fine for me also. The standover with a suspension fork is marginal, but not much worse than the previous bike. Time will tell.

PK

It seems I don't have a photo nor link or just couldn't find it.

More TandemGeek secrets revealed:

3 out of 4 times these postings are about bikes on Craigs list, so you can usually find the listing in a nano-second using a specific Google search string, e.g., site:______ (search terms)

So, in this case: site:craigslist.org Los Dos 22x20

http://denver.craigslist.org/bik/1446763997.html

site:craigslist.org cannondale los dos would have also worked

Now, bear in mind I'm just guessing that it's the same tandem based on the OPs description & location; so I could be wrong. But, there were a lot of details that sync'd up as is often the case with tandems.

Very Nice

I have sometimes done similar with Jax, but not a specific search as you had shown.

PK

FWIW, after looking at the link posted by TG, if that is the bike, those levers will work, but don't have the adjusters.

All, adjustments are made at the wheel. You can fine tune reach with a small allen wrench also, but normally this has limited range and can't adjust while riding.

PK