JSNYC

The mail today was particularly good…



Scantily clad, ready to be undressed soon…



Yep, this thing’s pretty light!

jnbrown

Now the fun begins!

JSNYC

frame weight is a little under 8.5lbs as you see it there, with eccentric & headset--however much those weigh combined.

JSNYC

forgot to add: i weighed the frame and it's just at 8.4lbs including the ck headset and bb eccentric.

i have no idea what the bb eccentric weighs, and i'm going to take it out and re-weigh the frame. most published weights of the ck headset put it at 125 grams (hey, it's a high priced quarter pounder!).

am guessing that the 2 items combined are a half pound or so, which would put the frame in the high 7's--which i gather is still very respectable.

pathdoc

Looks great. I hope you enjoy it for years to come.

JSNYC

thanks. it was a bit of a surprise (even though she's seen me looking at tandem bike pictures a lot on the internet over the past couple of months, which is normally unusual for me), and it went over pretty well as an anniversary gift.

JSNYC

sLife has a funny way of taking different paths. Have had an interesting journey in the interim since last post, and now back to getting this built up.

Progress thus far:

wheelspeed

Looks like a great build! Hope you can pick it up where you left off and enjoy it this summer.

JSNYC

Some more progress....

As it sits here, it's 24.1lbs. Mishmash of things to go on still. Am figuring it'll come in around 30lbs., maybe slightly less. I didn't buy stuff for lightness right now, leaving lots of room for future upgrades. Will post build list & final weight when done.

zonatandem

My stoker of 37+ years, Kay, prefers not to use a suspension seatpost.


She also prefers the c/f round stoker handrest that Bob Davis of Zona tandems builds, rather than the dummy levers that are used by many stokers.
Pedalon TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

wheelspeed

Oh sure! Tease us with unobtanium! ;-)
I looked for those, and it appeared to me that he doesn't make them any more. However, I'd go in on a group buy if he could be persuaded to make a few more sets.

waynesulak

Do you wrap those with bar tape or leave them exposed?

JSNYC

Anyone who uses the DaVinci cable splitters (especially the brake cable splitter) feel 100% comfortable entrusting their chamois-padded tails to these little things?

My torque wrench doesn't go low enough nor do I have as small a required allen socket to tighten the little retaining screws per spec. To get a feel for it, I took a spare piece of brake cable and practiced tightening to see how many turns it'd take before crushing it. Got that out of the way, then filed down the rear cable head (the "B" piece) just a tiny bit so a new cable would fit in the DaVinci splitter barrel. They seem to hold really well, and at full strength grab I can't get the brake lever to touch the bars, so that's a good thing. All standard Shimano housing & cables by the way.

I'm considering just getting xtra long cables and going that route instead. (Note: for now, I'm not worried about the convenience the splitters would otherwise provide if traveling, since that won't happen for awhile.)

zonatandem

When we had our Zona built in '03 we asked Bob to build us a set of custom round stoker handrests out of c/f and also a c/f rear rack. He has made more stoker handrests but no more racks.
Hey, 33,000+ miles later everything still works great.
Unobtainium? At our ages (80 for Rudy this year and 77 for Kay) what are we going to do? Wait to get older to get what we want/like? Not really . . . it's now or never!
Pedal on!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

zonatandem

Wayne:
Yup, we wrap them with bartape, but not really necessary.
Pedal on!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

JSNYC

Zonatandem--you guys are an inspiration. My wife and I were talking last night regarding at what point does retirement come into play for us (believe me it's many years off...), but more importantly, what exactly does "retirement" mean? I hope we are able to do even just a fraction of what you folks do on your bike not only today, but in the future well.

Tom Spohn

Our Bike Friday tandem came stock with the Da Vinci splitters. Never had even one problem with them--except when I lost one of those dang little allen set screws! I don't have gear to torque to spec so I just tighten till "tight". Work great.

wheelspeed

LOL!
An example that sometimes you need to treat yourself while an item is available. :-)
Our stock dummy hoods are a ridiculous 205g per pair.

specbill

JSNYC.....regarding your splitter, I'm a firm believer in keeping all mechanical things as simple as possible and with as few of parts as needed. If you do not have to split your cable on a regular basis why have an extra part inserted in the process....just one more thing to maintain, weight to carry, another part to worry about having a freak failure of etc, etc. If it is not contributing to function or comfort why have it?
Should you carry one in your spare parts bag for emergencies on a long unsupported solo tour to the middle of nowhere??....well that is another question.
BTW...that is a great looking frame, glad you got back to building it.


Bill J.

JSNYC

specbill--agreed, i've already ordered the long cables. anyone want to buy a davinci splitter set? barely used. actually, 2 out of 3 never used, only 1 (brake splitter) tested while bike on workstand!

(they are a pretty slick design though. i spoke with todd at davinci--who was very helpful on this topic for me--and they sell the set screws if you need 'em. very inexpensive, literally pennies. they're "4mm x 4mm dog point" set screws, fyi.)

DubT

What are brake cable splitters used for on a tandem with standard caliper brakes? Actually what are brake cable splitters.

Tom Spohn

Here is a pic of a brake splitter.
https://www.bikefriday.com/thestore/...ath=10&&page=2

JSNYC

they allow for the use of 2 brake cables if you need to configure it as such, i.e., if you travel alot, have an S&S coupled frame, etc.

BUT: stock shimano cable ends are too fat to fit in the barrel, you have to shave/file fractions of a mm off of it in order to slide all the way down inside. which means if you're in timbuktoo, in addition to carrying an extra cable, you need a flat metal file (or your wife's nail emery board!)

i got 'em originally because i didn't know they made single brake (and derailleur) cables in tandem length. i recently discovered this fascinating thing called the internet, which informed me otherwise....

DubT

My LBS has tandem length cables. Champaign Illinois is not that big either.

Wayne

JSNYC

Done! Will take better pics in the daylight, if it stops raining. Was just so happy to finish I wanted to at least post something.