2006 C0-Motion?
 

Greetings all-Tandemgeek (Mark L) mentioned (in a different thread) dual discs on 2006 road Co-Motions. Tell me more! Any other news on what the folks in Oregon have up their sleeves for next year?

I've heard to versions of the new front disc brake offering. The first was, all '06 Co-Motions will be spec'd with dual Avid mech. disc brakes, with rim brakes and/or rim & Arai drum being offered as options / custom order. The second was, all '06 Co-Motions will come dual-disc ready but with similar standard brake hardware as is offered today.

Which is it? Well, as I look at the below photo from Interbike of an S&S equipped Co-Motion Periscope / Trident than can be configured as either a tandem or triplet, I would say the fork on it is definitely a dedicated disc fork as no brake bosses are visible. Could be that this was a one-off for Interbike or.... who knows. I'll be interested to see what finally comes out in their literature for '06 and/or what others begin to post who actually attended.

Also of note will be the all-carbon Wound-Up fork offerings and, yes, there is a disc compatible OEM Model. The aluminum crown that has been used on previous Wound-Up forks is being replaced by a carbon crown which should significantly reduce the overall weight of the very sturdy Wound-Up tandem forks.

For equal time, it's also noted that Santana has apparently discontinued the Formula disc and, instead, will now be offering a dual action "Winzip" mechanical rear disc with 10" rotor. I didn't pick up upon whether or not they will also offer the road tandems with dual discs.

Last news worthy item: Trek's tandems will have Shimano R600 (Ultegra) and R550 (tiagra) long reach brake calipers instead of Avid cantilever brakes for '06.

http://www.bikemagic.com/news/images...motion_big.jpg

I spoke with Alan today (really about something else, but we talked about the disk brakes). As I understand it, there will be custom mounts on all frames but the primera designed for dual disk brakes. However, the brakes themselves will not be standard, only the mounting brackets.

Bruce

Concur. My first source understood that the brakes would be on the bikes, but a second and third source have indicated what Alan told you... the mounts are there but the stock brakes are rim models.

Dig that straight fork on the Peri-dent!!

Top-the-line option Robusta has Campy, discs front and rear and WoundUp fork with carbon crown and steerer tube. Looks good and is lighter. Also showed double discs on Trident Convertible.
CroMo disc forks also available.
Mounts for rear disc plus mounts for standard caliper brake + threaded hub for Arai are standard for 2006. Gives you optional choices.

Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

According to Mr. McC there will be no front disc . . . yet . . .
Winzip dual disc pad brake looks 'humongous'! Also showed a one-of (so far) EXOgrid (not Isogrid) Dual Moto.
Calfee had 'Open Frame' design (no lateral) . . . nice! + a Bamboo (yes, bamboo!) frame/fork rideable 'woodie' prototype tandem.

Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

According to Mr. McC there will be no front disc . . . yet . . .
Winzip dual disc pad brake looks 'humongous'! Also showed a one-of (so far) EXOgrid (not Isogrid) Dual Moto.
Calfee had 'Open Frame' design (no lateral) . . . nice! + a Bamboo (yes, bamboo!) frame/fork rideable 'woodie' prototype tandem.

Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

Is it the caliper that looks huge or the 10" rotor? I've seen some of their calipers and they appear to be on the same scale as Avid's BB7

http://www.winzip-diskbrake.com.tw/p.../MAX-P1816.gif

However, the 10" rotors at nearly 35% of the rim's size must look very odd.

As for the ExoGrid Dual Moto, I'm assuming this is the similar to $10-$12k IsoGrid tandem built for Howard Lindsay for the '93 Interbike show, e.g., built around Titus Horst Link rear-end, etc... as shown in this photo from the '03 show:
http://leelikesbikes.com/Stories/Interbike03/Tandem.jpg

I think they've only built one or two more of the IsoGrid Dual Motos so it makes one wonder why ExoGrid would be any more attractive.... other than it's very attractive and perhaps a bit more bullet-proof than IsoGrid due to it's external titanium skeleton.

I'm actually pretty concerned that Alan said they're dropping the mount for disk brakes from the Primera. I know it's their "low end" bike, but one of the reason I've been looking at them is it's still a great frame with an upgrade path. Removing the upgrade path makes me think that if I'm not willing to spend $4K now, maybe I should just look elsewhere.

Bruce

I agree; that sure sounds like short-sighted business decision. I can't imagine that they wouldn't offer at least an optional disc-tab equipped steel fork as a moderately priced option for the Primera.... Did you discuss that aspect of their '06 specs? For example, I could see them leaving it off in an effort to keep the price point for the base model Primera where it is today, vs. adding the $50 - $100 and popping it into the next big price bracket. I guess we'll have to wait and see what they put in their '06 specs.

Possible there was miscommunication, but I believe we were talking about the rear disk option. What he told me is that it would no longer be offered as an option on the Primera because the mounting tabs would not be on the frame. (I'm not sold on a front disk right now, personally.) My impression was that the new mount would be a better quality mount than what they have right now, but to save money it wouldn't even be an option on the Primera frame.

Bruce

Mark:
It's the 10 inch disc that looked humongous, not the rotors. Looks out of proportion, but then again takes getting used to.
The EXOgrid is same type of joining carbon/ti but with a distinct difference. EXO is basically ti tubes that have lasered cutouts in designs (similar to Cielo model in the Merlin line last year), etc. including the 'tana logo. Lots of bling, more $$ and more weight than ISO. According to Mr. McC this was was built for Lindsey . . . sort of a 'this is what we are capable of' project.
Next issue of R&TR will have coverage of Interbike and Charles took lots of photos . . . we'll see what develops!
Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

Here's a response from Pat at co-motion that I think clears up my confusion. Also, I noticed that their 2006 prices are already up at http://www.co-motion.com/price2.html and I believe the disk brake option has dropped from $165 to $125.

Bruce

----------------

The disc dropouts (and FYI the whole dropout includes the disc mounts--this
is how we do it)going in the other frames are made here in-house and are
then brazed in to the frame. More work and more expensive. Disc bikes also
have beefier seatstays to withstand braking force back there.

It's not that the Primera is losing a disc mount--none of the frames came
stock with disk dropouts last year, it's that the Primera is sticking with
it's weld-in dropouts to keep the costs down. It's staying the same, where
all other models were upgraded to be disc ready.

If you prefer, we can build your Primera with our disc dropouts and stays
for a custom upcharge.

I don't know if we've settled on a charge for that yet, but I'm sure we'll
run into it again.