Originally Posted by
bikerkim
i've light. i just worry about the durability of a carbon tandem. that's a whole lotta money down the drain in a crash. my current race bike is a ti lightspeed...
racing on a carbon long bike could be a pretty risky thing.
Googling titanium + tandem reveals several makers of titanium tandems. For example,
Seven,
Santana and
Habanero (the first I've heard of this brand).
A Large/Medium Ti Seven weighs
7.77 lbs, a Medium Habanero weighs
7.7 lbs
My Large/Medium Calfee Dragonfly weighed 6.45 lbs unpainted and 7.07 lbs painted. So, somewhere around a pound lighter than Ti. The Ti's listed have lateral tubes, unlike the Calfee, which likely accounts for much of the difference.
That Habanero is inexpensive, only $2395, compared with $7000 for a Dragonfly, and with Ti you can leave off the weight and expense of paint. A Tetra would be a less expensive carbon that likely would be heavier than these Ti's.
So, if you look on the basis of weight, carbon's most alluring feature, the Ti frames aren't that far off, and can be much less expensive. I haven't received my Calfee, yet, so I can't rhapsodize about the ride quality.
Originally Posted by
TandemGeek
In fact, it would be interesting to hear what serial number is on Ritterview's new Calfee or uspspro's Calfee just to get a feel for the production tempo at Calfee.
I'll look when I get mine. Homeyba has a new Dragonfly, what's yours?