Originally Posted by
TiHabanero
A loaded tandem with two people weighing in at 160 pounds is easily 350+ pounds with gear. Then add the bike weight and the total thing is pushing 400 pounds. Our tandem customers that toured always requested the drum brake option. In fact it was so common that we stocked an Arai drum because we sold several each year. Bummer is that when Santana made the disc drag brake available (talking custom frame) the drum went to the wayside and after holding on to it for 35 years it found its way to the recycling.
My wife and I are pushing 400 pounds pretty hard without any gear. Our current bike has discs without a drag brake and we have no issues with braking. Back when I was riding with child stokers, I was still around 300 lbs all in. I took the drum brake off because it really wasn’t doing anything other than adding weight. That bike had cantilevers which up to the task of braking.
I failed to mention in the leg coming down Michigan from the Mighty Mac bridge I will be going along the lake shore and passing through the Traverse City area. There are plenty of steep grades to be used for testing, or so says my friend that lives up there. He will be riding with me. It is likely I will eventually remove it as it adds a pound or more weight to the rig, and it is already over weight without it.
I toured through that area. Again, I never ran across any steep hills. Certainly not like the short, steep hills you find all over the eastern US.