I suspect that there are only a handful of us in this thread who have ridden more then one tandem for more then one year. I suspect that there's less of us who have assembled, serviced or sold more then one tandem. I'd be interested to see some here's opinions a couple of years and tandems from now.


I have never seen a double threaded tandem hub (and this is not to be confused with or referenced as a flip flop hub) that didn't have the same threading spec on both sides. In the world of manufacturing it makes little sense to reinvent the threading when there's a perfectly fine one already present. This view is from 40 years of general wrenching where other double threaded hubs exist on singles (like a 1970s mass market bike and many Asian city bikes), 7 years spent is a tandem shop and my nearly 30 years of captaining tandems. Often there is a small axle spacing difference between the two sides, as John mentioned.


The last thing a tandem team wants to do is to stop and have to remove and reinstall the rear wheel. Any one who thinks this is a reasonable process when on the road hasn't been there. A tandem is a far bigger thing to deal with then any single, including recumbents (which otherwise do share some of the challenges that tandems do). Andy.