Tandem Cycling - Light trails on a Raleigh Coupe '05?

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TeCKis300
04-13-05, 02:49 PM
My wife and I are about to pickup a Raleigh Coupe '05.

I'm a newbie so please excuse the ignorance.

Is this bike capable of some off ashphalt light trail riding? Would I just need to swap in some more terrain oriented tires or is it capable in it's stock form. And if I do need to change tires, are these wheels compatible with off road tires?

Lastly, what exactly is meant bo a "700c" wheel?

Thanks for any help!

http://www.raleighusa.com/items.asp?deptid=10&itemid=245&va=0

halfbiked
04-14-05, 04:36 PM
You can find out more about wheels here:
http://sheldonbrown.com/wheels/index.html

and about tandems here:
http://sheldonbrown.com/tandem/index.html

Though this forum is an excellent resource for all things tandem. The short answer on the wheel question is: its a size, the standard for road bikes. Mountain bikes typically have 26" wheels (smaller diameter than 700c) with a wider rim for wider tires.

Regarding the raleigh on a trail. Depends on the trail. We ride our road tandem (entry level cannondale) on gravel 'rails to trails' paths. They're fine gravel, but a pretty hard surface, so it works pretty well. I'm leery of loose gravel, sand and the like.
TeCKis300
04-14-05, 06:04 PM
Ah...thanks for the info and links. So looks like the bike will be just fine. The bike has Alex DM-21 rims. Can't find much info on the wheels but I assume the mounting width is 21mm. There will be plenty of options for tire choices.

zonatandem
04-14-05, 11:18 PM
Sorta strange from Raleigh to switch from 26 inch to 700c wheels on a mountain bike configured tandem!
Light offroad/trail riding should be fine, but would not advise singletrack.
There should be some 700c tires out there, possibly for cyclocross, that run some hefty semi-knobby tread or even the Conti Top Touring 2000 tire could do the trick for you.
You can also go wider perhaps 32c on the rear for better traction.
But try out what comes on the bike first before swapping tires.

Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/Zonatandem