Originally Posted by
Carbonfiberboy
It is interesting . . . that even tandems have had to use all the same equipment as single bikes: brakes, tires, wheels, drivetrain, all that stuff. Now that there are a variety of disc brakes out there, it's possible to actually have good tandem brakes. Our tandem has rim V-brakes which are OK in the dry but were not that impressive last weekend when riding 100'/mile rollers in the city during an all-day rain.
One thing that the OP might want to try is different brake pads. I had much better luck with Kool-Stops than I did with the OEM Shimano pads. They just seemed to grip a lot better. That helped on the steep descents quite a bit.
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