RHNiles

I am looking at a Cannondale Los Dos and was wondering why they were only made for 1 or 2 years? Can anyone enlighten me on this? The one I'm looking at has had the bars and shifters changed to drops and STI's, so that is one thing I won't have to worry with. Also it has 26" tires, which is ok by me, but I wondered if I would need to upgrade the gearing for a better topend, since I was looking at this bike for fairlty fast century rides. One other thing, does anyone know if you can install 700 rims and tires on this frame? Thanks to all of you for the knowledge that you bring to this site.

Rick

TandemGeek

They didn't stop making it, they just stopped calling it the Los Dos after 1997. It was the generic name for 26" all terrain tandems sold by Cannondale. There was an entry level model below called the MT900 Los Dos, the mid-level MT1000 Los Dos and the high-end MT3000 -- we had a '98 MT3000/great bike.

Anyway, I'd give it a try as-is with the 48x11 to see if you "need" to go larger before shelling out the coin. You probably will and if so give Larry Black of Mt. Airey Cycles a call or drop him an Email (Email: abikie@aol.com or go to their Web site: www.bike123.com) as he might be able to steer you to some oversized MTB chain rings that are larger than 48t to extend your current crank capacity. You can also up the ante with a 110mm or 130mm crankset that will take the larger drive rings to give you a 700c-like top end using a 55t or 56t big ring.

However, you're stuck with the 26" wheels. But, don't dismay. They make some great 26" road slicks and you'll be hard pressed to know the difference in wheel size from a 700c bike once you're moving.

Again, Larry is perhaps the best tandem guy to talk to about 26" bikes. He is the proud owner of a bunch of 26" tandems including the only 26" all-carbon Calfee Tetra Tandem of about 100 or so Tetra Tandems in existence.

SDS

Mark, I wonder if you could give us a loaded rollout figure for some of the 26" tandem tires with road treads? I think my 700 X 32's are about 83.5" for the front, with me putting as much weight as I can on the tire during the rollout. Occasionally I hear grumbling coming from the back that the 53 X 11 is not a high enough gear...

TandemGeek

I can't speak to the actual roll-out numbers as I don't have any point of reference in our fleet. All we have are 700c roadies & 26 knobbies. However, there are only minor differences between the label diameter and roll-out when it comes to actual speed.

There are some links to gear calculators where you can punch in the various gear combinations and stock tire sizes in various widths to come up with tables that you can compare to your current set-up.

For example to get the same 130 gear inches that you get on your 700x32's with a 53x11t set-up you'd have to run a 60t chain ring on a bike with 26" X 1.0" (25-559) tires. If you're just thinking about upping your front chain ring to a 54 you'll get another 2" of travel per pedal stroke which is barely noticeable.

We usually run 54 x 12-27t with 700x23 or 70025 tires for about 118" gear inches and spin-out at about 45 mph. Back to Rick's potential set-up, a 56x11t set-up on a 26" bike would put his big gear in the 124" range.

Here is a link to Sheldon's calculator; it's probably all you'll need: https://www.sheldonbrown.com/gears/

There are others out there; just use this google search string:
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&i...=Google+Search

P.S. Sorry, I had to leave in the middle of composing this reply.

RHNiles

Mark, Thanks for the advice on the Los Dos. We went over and rode it on Sat and the wife wasn't impressed until I took the rear bars and turned them upside down for her. It wasn't 15 minutes until she was asking if we were going to take it home! She has a bit of a tail bone and back problem and needs to ride more upright and that has been our rub until now. Looking forward to many miles together with her!

Rick