Originally Posted by
kenhill3
That IS interesting. I have a friend who is a custom frame builder, and has built a number of tandems. I have not seen him build tandems in the last ten years or so, but in the past, in addition to supplying 40 spoke rear wheels, he was always trying to provide extra braking for the rear wheel. I think I recall a setup where he used a drum brake in addition to cantilevers. The stoker had a lever for the drum.
I read a warning on the Surly website of relying on "just" the front for their Big Dummy cargo big. The thing with these bikes is that the big limit to speed is aerodynamics. But on a downhill, extra weight will change the balance of frictional force vs. gravitational force in the favor of gravity, you go faster. Similarly, with tandems, you've got two people cranking with effectively the same aerodynamic profile.
So I can see where using the rear becomes VERY important under these circumstances whereas for a mountain bike going downhill, the rear becomes so unloaded that it's almost useless unless you like fishtailing.