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Old 03-01-10, 11:21 AM
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TandemGeek
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Originally Posted by mrfish
If a man weighing 140kg or whatever can ride a fork comfortably on a single bike, why should a man and a woman weighing 75kg plus 60kg on a tandem stress the fork any differently?
None in the grand scheme of things if we assume max braking or an impact with a road obscacle are the thresholds, but the number of cyclists that weigh in excess of specific fork limits pale in comparison to the number of tandem teams who would. For reference and while not truly scientific, Question #6 of my Winter '05 Tandem Survey indicated 63% of the respondents claimed a team weight in excess of 140kg .jpg. Given that most folks understate their weight with about the same frequency in which they over state their average speed there aren't a lot of folks out there that would meet the threshold of a fork limited to about 300lbs. Oh, and don't forget to add in the weight of the tandem as ridden which is typically twice that of a single bike.

So, at least for manufacturers, why should they waste their time and profits certifying forks for tandems that are severly weight limited in terms of the standards used for mass-produced tandem bikes? I want to say that 400lbs - 450lbs is often times cited as the benchmark.

Conversely, since there are so few 'tandem-rated' components available, nothing prevents a lightweight team (noting I would peg lightweight at under 275lbs) from doing their own research to establish which forks are, in fact, rated for enough weight to accommodate the gross weight of their tandem. Again, I have over the years contacted a number of manufacturers to ask those very pointed questions "off the record" with regard to how well-suited a given compoment might be for our lightweight tandem team. Some will speak off the record and make it clearly understood, "you're doing so at your own risk... however..." before sharing if the design limits will accommodate. But, again, for general consumption by the masses, weight-limited components on tandems are just not worth the liability burden for anyone in the business.
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