Perusing this forum, it appears to be fairly standard procedure to install disc brakes on the rear of a tandem and keep cantilevers of some sort on the front. Why not the disc in front, and canti's in the back?

From what I understand, the majority of braking force comes from the front of a vehicle whether it is a bike or a car. Seeing as how it seems near impossible to lock up the front wheel and jackknife or endo on a tandem, wouldn't you want as much braking force up front as possible, as opposed to the rear?

My stoker and I just purchased our second tandem, a Santana Sovereign. Loving it so far! It came with a rear mounted drag brake, which I like as a parking brake at stoplights and on long extended descents it is a nice feature given we are in Colorado and love climbing rides. However, the weight on the thing is pretty ridiculous, I don't like the extra cable sticking out of my right drop, and considering how rarely it is actually utilized it seems like a waste.

The brakes are pretty decent, but it would be nice to have more bite, overall force, and modulation, especially when riding in group situations. It seems to me, the most effective and perhaps economical solution to increasing overall braking performance would be to remove the drag brake, and install a disc in the front of the bike. This would require rebuilding the front wheel, and replacing the fork with something with a disc mount. Our Santana has a mount for the drag brake, but it doesn't appear anything for disc mounting on the rear, so I am assuming a disc in the back is not feasible?

Anyone suggestions on improving braking performance, and what to do with the drag brake? I almost took it off the other day but couldn't figure out how to detach it from the HUB! Advice for this if I decided to remove drag brake? Do I have to insert a spacer of some sort to take up the extra space on the 160mm axle?