invisiblehand

My wife and I have commited to getting a tandem. Both of us already ride regularly and this is a great way for us to ride together -- our speed disparity is too large otherwise. We have some great friends who let us use their tandems, so we have a decent estimate of whether we enjoy riding together. We did approximately 150 miles on the tandems ... most of it on the Santana discussed below.

FWIW, we road a late 90s titanium Santana Road tandem -- I thought it was pretty aggressive with 25 mm wide tires and a Bike Friday Tandem Twosday. I ride more and have a few bikes in the stable. All drop bar bikes with what the local roadies generally considered relatively wide tires ... my fast road bike has 28 mm, my commuter has 32 mm wide tires, my Bike Friday NWT has 40 mm wide tires. Sweetie appears to have a preference for wide tires too and enjoys 40 mm wide tires on the Pocket Crusoe and 37 mm wide (33 mm when measured with a caliper) tires on her commuter. She has drop bars but seems to use the hoods 95% of the time. I ride about 6K miles ... she about 1.5-2K miles annually.

Traveling with the bike is a big perk. And we are conscious of things like fuel mileage and storage space so fitting a tandem into a regular car is also a perk although we do have a minivan. We enjoy our Bike Friday single bikes but I do think that there is something lost with the tiny wheels. Primarily with gearing limitations -- i.e., getting the upper end and keeping some granulatity in the gear range -- but also a bit with no-hands stability and comfort with high PSI tires. Although we generally ride with quality wide tires with low rolling resistance (although relatively heavy).

In my limited experience with the Twosday, we found the small tires led to a more nimble steering at low speed ... which we thought was a positive feature. Although taking a hand off the handlebar at 23 mph to signal a turn was a little "exciting". Although I think that as the ride went along, I got better at adjusting to the feel of the Twosday tandem. The Santana definitely had a more stable ride at speed.

Questions:

(1) What is the forum's general impression of the Bike Friday tandem -- either the separable or the folding model -- relative to big-wheel tandems?

(2) I could quick fold the Twosday in about five minutes. My understanding from two Bike Friday YAK members is that a "quick disassemble" XL breaks down in a little less than 10 minutes and that either bike fits in the trunk of our sedan. Is this the experience of the forum?

(3) Have people tried to do this with an S&S coupled tandem? Could you describe your experience? I mention a quick or partial disassembly of a S&S coupled tandem since I saw a couple do this with their Calfee at a group ride last fall and put the bike in a Honda Fit in ~5-10 minutes. So while that was a hatchback, it crossed my mind that this could be done with a variety of vehicles.

(4) Given we like wider tires, assuming we go with a 26"+ wheel, is the general recommendation to go with 26" wheels even though 95% of our riding is onroad? Note that we do some semi-loaded touring.

(5) We do have a baby boy and would like to ride with him in the future. What do people think about tandems that convert to triples? The Bike Friday tandems seem to fit a wide range of stokers; but just from reading there seem to be some simple modifications that let small people stoke on a regular tandems ... yes?

This is probably enough for the moment. We do have a decent budget. Typically I would try to find something used but given some of our interests, I gather that the used market offers might be pretty slim. If you have thoughts that you would like to share for a pair of nubies, I would like to read them. Thanks.