Originally Posted by
Tandem2
I would love to hear more details on your R & E tandem.
We got our Trillium in 2012.
Here is a blog post discussing our thought process at the time. We're heading into our 5th season with about 15,000 miles on it. After about a year we replaced the 36-spoke wheel set with a 48-spoke one and we installed a rear disc brake (set up as a drag brake with stoker control.) Last summer I replaced the Campy FD with one from Microshift that has a little more range. Otherwise no mechanical changes. We've done some epic tours on this bike - Fairbanks to Skagway via Dawson & Whitehorse, a week in the Wallowas & Blue Mtns in eastern Oregon, two weeks in Scotland... but mainly we do medium length day trips from our home in Seattle.
I don't know how much the frame weighed naked (R+E says 26 lbs) but with pedals and saddles and water bottle cages it was 32 lbs on their digital scale. (Our back-up bike is a '95 Ibis Forte and that frame with couplers and nothing but two Phil Woods BBs weighs 13 lbs.) I've got those two bike dialed in so that they ride the way I want and they feel very similar. they are night and day compared to the Burley Duet we rode before.
One observation I'll throw out for you: on the ibis I can ride solo and it feels like a long heavy single. the Trillium solo sashays in the back to the point that I never ride it alone. With a stoker it is super stable and I never feel any flex sprinting for a stoplight or climbing but with no stoker it feels like it is swaying a lot.
here's an image of us on the bike just below Washington Pass on the North Cascades Highway