CFB,
I'm hoping to meet you sometime since we're practically neighbors. I bicycle commute year round from Snohomish to the Big B in Everett, so maybe we've seen each other and didn't know it.
I've been using a SON hub, Lumotec IQ Cyo headlight, and B&M Toplight Line Plus tail light on my commuting/solo-touring bike for 3 years.
On my new Rodriguez Classic Tandem that we picked up a week and a half ago, I got the new SONdelux Wide Body hub, the new Lumotec IQ Cyo T headlight, and another Toplight Line Plus.
Notes on each item:
1. The new
SONdelux Wide Body hub is great for a tandem. Rolling resistance is imperceptible and wide flange makes a solid wheel.
2. The Lumotec IQ Cyo has the same reflector/beam-pattern as the Edelux and it's about $70 less expensive, but I think the best setup is the new
Lumotec IQ Cyo T model which has 4 bright pinpoint LEDs which automatically come on during the day -- it makes you more visible during the day and has the same great light-up-the-road beam at night. I'm itching for an excuse to replace the old model on my single bike with the new "T" model...
3. The
Toplight Line Plus is a good, solid rear light, but if I'd have seen it in time I would have ordered the new Toplight Line
Brake Plus which glows brighter when you're slowing down like a car brake light. However, in addition to the solid, dynamo-driven tail light, I still use a PlanetBike SuperFlash all the time for two reasons: 1. Redundancy, 2. I think the visibility of a blinking tail light is much better.
By the way, the wires which come with the tail light aren't long enough for a tandem, so I got 12 feet (had a couple to spare) of the
Schmidt Coaxial Wire which Peter White sells by the foot. It looks really nice when installed and I highly recommend it.
As for the GPS, I've got the Garmin Dakota 20 because I wanted AA batteries for my solo camping tours and also because I use it off-bike for geocaching with my kids. It works fine on our new tandem mounted to the captain's handlebars with a Garmin cadence sensor on the stoker's cranks, so I'd imagine that other Garmin products would be OK with that much distance between the GPS and sensor. (If I was buying a new GPS today, I'd probably go with an Oregon 450 for it's larger screen.)
If you'd like to see my lights in action, PM me and maybe we could meet up sometime. Depending on where you are in Everett, it may not be too difficult for me to stop by your place on my way home from work sometime too.
Skyler