Here's the pic fo our new daVinci on the top of Mt. Diablo last week. Our first ride on this bike!

No and yes: it's caused by the amount of torque you're putting into your cranks which at the moment likely exceeds anything you could create on the flats, never mind being static. It is highly likely that you are also overpowering your stoker's efforts which is related to power differences, but not in and of itself the reason the top run of your sync chain is under max load: that's all you.

As for where all of that excess chain comes from, a lot of it comes from the chain's own elasticity, some comes from bottom bracket spindle deflection, and tandem frames will also deflect a bit under torsion loads and a Calfee is not immune from that either... but I'd bet your eccentric probably slipped a bit on that climb and that's where most of it came from.

Our latest trip to Tennessee included a 95 mile / 7,000' out and back over the Foothill Parkway and US129 into North Carolina, aka. The Tail of the Dragon. As often happens, anyone who travels along 'The Dragon" will have their photos taken by 3 - 5 different photographers who make a living selling photos to visitors.

While most of the photos showed how out of shape we were... trailing way behind the two far more fit tandem teams who shared our day-long journey or, worse yet, with strange looking mid-waist bulges peer out under our lycra-clad bodies, there were two that were pretty cool. The one I didn't include is actually one in a series of photos where we were caught behind a 60ish lost black sheep / HD pirate who dropped $25k on a brand new Softtail, another $1k on his brand new leathers, $5 on a plastic yamika and about 5 minutes on "how to steer a motorcycle". No kidding, we waved this guy by on a climb and within 15 minutes we were going through the downhill twisties and son-of-a-gun if we didn't end up stuck on his rear wheel. The temptation to pass was quite high but I restrained myself.

Anyway, here's the other photo taken on our way back West on US129 setting up for a series of esses as we passed by "the dirt corner".

http://thetandemlink.fatcow.com/Dragon_31Aug09.jpg

Nice shot!

The "tail of the dragon" is legendary in the car/motorcycle scenes.

Wow!

I've driven "Tail of the Dragon" and it looked like a real challenging climb. The scary part for me would be going down. Looks like you did it with only rim brakes. I'd be stopping more than once to cool the rims.

Mike
2002 CoMotion Supremo

Last rode The Tail back about 2004 on a Harley, and Maggi got motion sick from sitting on the back. We've wondered if that would happen on the tandem, (since it never has yet), but never had the chance/time/money/grit to go try! maybe one day!

Nice ride, Mr and Mrs TG!

Moved to new thread entitled: Riding the Tail of the Dragon... Woohoo

Didn't want to hijack or otherwise clutter of the photo gallery....

I would have passed those Harley guys up. I hate slowpokes ruining a good descent. :speedy: I passed about a dozen of them coming down off the Climb to Kaiser (Sierra Nevada's)one year. Got thumbs up from them too as I went by.

Haha, I bet you he had to crop you guys out in order to show all his Harley friends the pics.

I've been BEGGING my wife to Captain the Screamer... she LIKES enjoying the scenery.

Luis & Trudy on the near-vintage Kuwahara:
http://i32.tinypic.com/2d7vb6t.jpg
I can see by the single-bike Reynolds fork that this picture was taken in 2007. That fork is now on my fixed gear bike (too flexy for the tandem, especially under heavy braking, but durable), and the tandem is using a much beefier (too beefy - looks too much like a mountain bike fork!) Wound-Up carbon fork. Hard to find good carbon forks with 1" steerers.

taken at MTR 2009.
I like it, because it implies speed, something we usually lack :)
Duppie
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_jm8Vwc9ea5Q/Sq...2/MW1_7404.JPG

After finishing Everest Challenge on Sunday (9/13/09). There will be a thread/post about this with more pics and a report eventually :)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3529/...bde1d65d_o.jpg

Wow! Congratulations, I bet Marin was a piece of cake compared to the Everest.

So USPSPRO, how was it compared to DMD? Steepness of climbs, etc...

Please include in your report any modifications of descent braking technique to avoid front rim Bohlmanization.

There will be an EC ride report, once I get around to making a nice one.

As far as the brake, that was mostly fixed in this update around a month ago: http://www.bikeforums.net/showpost.p...0&postcount=42

Since then, I installed the Avid Clean Sweep G3 rotor, and got some new EBC pads. I am pretty happy with the brakes now. There was a very technical and steep descent at the top of the last climb of day 2 of EC. The brakes worked fine.

As far as technique, not much different than before, except that I use the rear brake more that I did with full rim brakes. Rear brake does most of the slowing, and front brake provides power for turning-in.

Test run
 

I signed up for this thread...
The third pic was the start of HHH this year. The easiest century we have ever done, and our first HHH.

The red Supremo is smoking :D Excellent choice.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3522/...a6014ecf55.jpg
At the completion of our tour from Pittsburgh to D.C. on the GAP and C&O trails.

I saw your CGOAB journal. I was curious how you'd contend with a sloggy C&O trail. Now I know!! We had a similar, though far less harrowing, experience last summer.

Here is the triplet at ETR in July. Don't tell the Mrs. I posted it! :) Unfortunately, since I am the ex photographer, there are not any pictures of us doing our local TT or just us on the tandem. Trying to teach my sister how to shoot!

Paul

Finally a picture of our recently acquired Santana ('93 Visa). Almost two months we took the plunge. It took about two weeks to take it apart, clean it, and install some new parts (brake levers and v-brakes, stoker suspension post, stem, handlebars, cables and housings, rack, tires, and saddles). We are really enjoying it.

http://logisoftinc.com/photos/biking/tandem_couple.jpg

This is our 2002 Raleigh Coupe my wife Lida and I bought new. We have used it to tour a few of the San Juan Islands in Washington state.

http://pointerfamily.smugmug.com/pho...29_yD6kY-M.jpg

http://pointerfamily.smugmug.com/pho...74_jyAf8-M.jpg

Me and my 9 year old stoker daughter with our recently acquired and fixed up 1986 Nishiki tandem. This was on our first "official" ride on the Silver Comet Trail down in Georgia. We had done a couple practice rides prior. We are getting a pretty good rythmn and communication going! This bike is a lot of fun and I hope it gives us at least a few years of great times!

http://johnkscott.com/wp-content/upl...1-1024x768.jpg