teamdonterri

Got the first picture of our custom Calfee tandem frame being built! Dosen't look like much right now but it should be light and comfy.

Completion is scheduled for mid April and the frame will be kept in the nude finish with white decals and an ENVE 2.0 fork. The frame will have the rear disc caliper mount should we decide later to add disc. Also sticking with the tandem standard 145mm spacing to fit true tandem spec wheels and clearance for 28mm tires.

The rest of the build up includes;

Ultegra 6703 levers with Gore cables
Ultegra tandem crankset 170x170 with 52/42/30 rings
Ultegra front derailer
Ultegra chain
XTR 11x34 cassette
Ultegra SPD-SL carbon pedals
Ultegra rear derailer
DuraAce dual pivot caliper brakes
FSA carbon K-force compact drop bars with Lizard Skin DSP tape
FSA carbon K-Force Light seat posts holding our favorite Specialized Roubaix seats
FSA OS150 captain stem
Co-Motion adj stoker stem
Chris King head set
Gates belt drive with 69t sprockets
Continental GP4000S in 700x25mm tires

We're also going to fit the Topolino True Black wheels that DubT and his wife likes so much for the light weight and comfortable ride.

Mike Moore has been great to work with and helped keep it under 10k.

We didn't go gram pinching on most components but leaned toward reliable quality parts that didn't break the bank. Many of our selections were based on recomendations posted here. We were mainly interested in being comfortable on a lighter bike than our KHS for our favorite hilly century rides here in California.

DubT

Is the FSA K-force light seat post strong enough for the front seat post? You could save some money and weight if you used a standard stem for the stoker if you know the length. If you don't you could borrow an adjustable and determine the correct length.


Wayne

Team Fab

Rear cassette Ultegra(sb max 11-28) or is it XT XTR
For some reason I seem to remember being told to stay away from the Shadow version, also I was told 9 speed not 10

teamdonterri

Your right TeamFab, it's actualy an XTR Cassette. I will have to check back with Mike to be sure it's not the shadow version. I had a 9 speed version on my KHS and it worked fine.

And DubT I expressed the same thought to Mike and he assured me The K-Force seat post was plenty strong enough for the stoker stem. That's a good idea, once we get her position comfortable we could switch to a lighter standard non-adjustable stem later.

akexpress 

We are changing to the Ultegra cranks from the Calfee carbon cranks and Mike fitted our new cranks on a frame at the factory to make sure it would work with our gates belt drive as ours are first set that they have received so far. This should work out any bugs for your new bike. We also use an XtR nine speed rear derailluer and it works great on a 11-32 cassette (sram). You will love your new bike.

woodrow5

XTR Shadow with dyna sys technology, won't work with Ultegra 6703 shifter.... I tried last time =[

Kjkc

Sounds like an awesome bike. We took delivery of our Calfee 2 weeks ago. We went light and fast with the concession of a BB7 for the hills we have in western NY. We choose the Ultegra di2 (there goes the 10k barrier) which is really phenomenal. With the longer cage and cassette swap we have not had problem with some pretty good hills. With your couplers, we will look for you on the road...

JSNYC

Sweet!

DubT

Did Michael have any news on the availability of the Gates CDX belt drive? The last I heard it was not going to be available until very late 2012. And why the XTR rd rather than the Ultegra, just curious.

merlinextraligh

Personally, I'd go with an ultegra rd, and a 11 /28 cassette.

If you need lower gearing you can drop the inner front ring to 26 or lower, but preserve better spacing and shifting by staying with a standard road derailleur and cassette

DubT

I agree!

Kjkc

I spoke to gates as I was building ours- they said CDX would be at the end of the year.

teamdonterri

When I last talked to Mike about the belt drive he didn't know about the new center track system. Thanks for the input on the cassette and rear derailer choices, after some thought I wrote and asked Mike to go with the the Ultegra rear derailer but sticking with an XTR 11x34. We have many 16% to 20% climbs in our area.
Thanks guys.
I don't think the small gear on the crank can be droped to a 26 though, I read somewhere the attachment has changed as the inner gear now mounts to the middle one..???

CaptainHaddock

Man, that's a sweet looking ride. Colour me Carbon-Fiber jealous!

Kjkc

With a couple hundred miles now on our new bike, the 11-34 can give us the ratio to climb pretty longs and steeps, the trade is the step from the 18 to 22 tooth cogs is 22%- not always a smooth step leaving me, the masher, a bit harder than I want and my stoker, the high cadence spinner, a little faster than she likes. Would I trade it? No, for the benefits at the hill climbing, I'll keep it. If we were to go for a trip with prolonged flats though, I might swap the cassette before I left.

mburchard

Dunno' if things have changed, but when we specced 28mm clearance on our bike we ended up with a rear brake bridge that required long reach brake calipers, so frame went back to Calfee to get that changed back to a standard brake bridge (we run 25mm tires, and selection of long reach brake calipers is pretty limited).

teamdonterri

We drove up the the Calfee production facility this past Friday to take delivery of our Tetra Tandem. We met the owner Craig Calfee and Mike Moore the Sales and Marketing Manager who we worked with to spec out the bike, and Ian the mechanic that put everything together and got us fitted up.

We got a tour of the facility and it's a very impressive operation with the new bikes that they design and build along with an apparently booming carbon bike frame repair business with all brands and types being sent to them to work their magic. If you're ever in the area give Mike a call to arrange a tour.

We got about 70 miles in on the new bike this weekend and we are very pleased with the ride quality of a full carbon frame and the amazing feel of the Topolino wheels. We have the black and gold spoke version on for now and can exchange for the True Blacks that are on backorder. Also as DubT has noted the new Shimano Ultegra 6703 chainrings are a revelation in smooth shifting in a triple. Much smoother up and down than our previous FSA rings on the KHS.

Here are a few pics of the new bike which weighed in at 27.40lbs with pedals and seats installed, and 2 other bikes we found interesting that were recently displayed at the North American Hand Made Bike show.

DubT

Looking good, enjoy!