We all have some stories to tell with braking . . . but seems we've al survived to ride TWOgether some more!
During one tour from Grand Canyon to Mexico, got caught up in a hell of a downpour coming down the Mogollon Rim near miniscule town of Strawberry. Had one other tandem besides us on the tour and although we only had Mafac cantis, and they were running cantis + Arai drum, we had no problem keeping things under control. The other couple, being a bit 'stouter' than us and a bit less experienced, had a tougher time on that wet descent than we did. On a real twisty part of the descent, ADOT (AZ Dept of Transportation) had tought it wise to install metal ADOT-bots (round metal pieces) so car tires would give off a loud noise to slow them down . . . not fun at all traversing them in a downpour, so we slalomed into opposite traffic lane to avoid them . . . Yipes! The best part of the descent was stopping at Strawberry's only restaurant. Owner had the fireplace going (this was late September and at about 7,000 feet altitude) and we hung our stuff out to dry a bit and warmed up with coffee and great pie!
Feel comfortable descending steep/twisty roads with the brakes on your twicer? Keep it that way.
If not, a third brake whether drum/disc or even a third canti can do wonders for your team.
Have used centerpulls, sidepulls, U-brake (remember those?), cantis, drum and discs on various tandems
and all work to varying degrees of satisfaction. Yup, besides 'go-power' tandems need 'stop-power!'
Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem