Thinking about a touring tandem - too few choices ?
08-28-18, 05:33 AM
#26
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I'm hearing a familiar theme about the third brake. :-) Makes me slightly curious. There have been times on really steep tours when we had to stop (on singles) and pour water on our disc brakes and they were sizling...If a drum or a third brake is necessary I wonder why I don't see it on co-motion bicycles (or maybe I missed it) ?
We've toured on our Co-Motion Speedster, a 2003 steel frame with lateral tube, carbon fork, and V-brakes. We only use rear panniers, a rack-top bag, a frame bag, and a bar bag. Our team weight is 285 and touring load added to bare-bones bike is ~44 lbs. total for comfortable all-weather camping and cooking, though minimal on the civvies. We got the bike in '07. when drums were still available on ebay. I built a new touring rear with a drum. I would not tour in unknown terrain with only the V-brakes. We used the drum a lot in steep terrain. You can't use a disc as a drag brake like we do our drum, but it would be an effective stopper added to rim brakes. However you probably couldn't find a frame with mounts for both rim and disc.
We paid a lot of attention to going light on our gear. Most of it is our backpacking gear, already light. We make a lot of use of compression sacks for everything made of cloth. Volume is as big an enemy as weight.
I have friends who went cross-country on a disc-braked Speedster with almost no bike load and everything in a Bob trailer. Worked great for them.
We paid a lot of attention to going light on our gear. Most of it is our backpacking gear, already light. We make a lot of use of compression sacks for everything made of cloth. Volume is as big an enemy as weight.
I have friends who went cross-country on a disc-braked Speedster with almost no bike load and everything in a Bob trailer. Worked great for them.
08-28-18, 06:33 AM
#27
Jedi Master
SJS sells this Karasawa drum brake. I don't have one, but reviews seem positive enough. Must be better than nothing. I've also seen old tandems for sale on CL with a drum brake and have thought about buying the bike just to take off the brake and resell the bike. We don't ride our tandem enough to justify spending thousands of dollars on a nice new one.
08-28-18, 07:11 AM
#28
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Besides, they don't make 48 spoke carbon wheels.
You can get rim brakes with carbon wheels...run them on tri bikes all the time. But on a tandem it would be like almost no brakes.
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08-28-18, 11:43 AM
#29
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I'm hearing a familiar theme about the third brake. :-) Makes me slightly curious. There have been times on really steep tours when we had to stop (on singles) and pour water on our disc brakes and they were sizling...If a drum or a third brake is necessary I wonder why I don't see it on co-motion bicycles (or maybe I missed it) ?
Another Co-Motion tandem team with whom we ride frequently has discs to which they added a rear rim brake, stoker actuated. A different wrinkle from the usual.
A third brake is most often used when touring in steep terrain. My guess is that's a very small proportion of the buying public. Adding a drum used to be a common option with specialty tandem builders and requires a frame addition to hold the reaction arm as well as cable braze-ons.
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08-29-18, 07:18 AM
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I'm hearing a familiar theme about the third brake. :-) Makes me slightly curious. There have been times on really steep tours when we had to stop (on singles) and pour water on our disc brakes and they were sizling...If a drum or a third brake is necessary I wonder why I don't see it on co-motion bicycles (or maybe I missed it) ?
Depends on total weight. We are tall and with camping gear our total is ~450 lbs. So now we are trying to stop a bike with more that twice the load of a normal bike with only 2 brakes. Most people don't tandem tour or with camping gear, they want to go fast, so vendors cater to where they make their money. Disks are sexy these days so they use disks, but does not mean its good for a touring tandem. We have been down many mountain passes with our older drum braked Santana, could have fried an egg on the drum, but it just kept working. Our new tandem has Rohloff and a drum is not possible, so 3rd rear disk is a means to add more braking in addition to cantilever brakes. It is all about dissipating energy. This year down mtn passes that disk got very hot and so we had to stop intermittently to cool brakes. Not a big deal, but you have to think about it when going down (and you do think about it when staring down a mtn pass), whereas this was never a concern with a drum brake.
Regarding trailers, personal choice, we think our bike is already too long maneuvering around corners and we like panniers.
08-29-18, 07:29 AM
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Is there any front dynamo product that can have a setting to a LOT more friction and therefore functioning as a force reducing your capability to accelerate downhill ?
Depends on total weight. We are tall and with camping gear our total is ~450 lbs. So now we are trying to stop a bike with more that twice the load of a normal bike with only 2 brakes. Most people don't tandem tour or with camping gear, they want to go fast, so vendors cater to where they make their money. Disks are sexy these days so they use disks, but does not mean its good for a touring tandem. We have been down many mountain passes with our older drum braked Santana, could have fried an egg on the drum, but it just kept working. Our new tandem has Rohloff and a drum is not possible, so 3rd rear disk is a means to add more braking in addition to cantilever brakes. It is all about dissipating energy. This year down mtn passes that disk got very hot and so we had to stop intermittently to cool brakes. Not a big deal, but you have to think about it when going down (and you do think about it when staring down a mtn pass), whereas this was never a concern with a drum brake.
Regarding trailers, personal choice, we think our bike is already too long maneuvering around corners and we like panniers.
Regarding trailers, personal choice, we think our bike is already too long maneuvering around corners and we like panniers.
08-29-18, 08:15 AM
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Like something on a hybrid car brake, regenerative braking, that could recharge the battery? Nope, heavy, not currently practical even on a e-bike. Although we have not used it much yet, we have a SON front. On a tandem, we are often at speeds where it seems to be good for charging the odd thing.
08-29-18, 08:35 AM
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Regenerative braking is not really workable on a tandem wheel as yet. The hub required would be way too heavy.
Check out the “Maddox Drum Brake” available from Tandems East.
You can also buy the MDD brake directly from Maddock Machine by sending an Email to Tom Maddock using the following address: info@maddogdrag.com.
see Mad Dog Drag Brake
Drum brakes are very useful, offering an effective way to manage descending speed, because they don't heat up as easily as disk systems.
Check out the “Maddox Drum Brake” available from Tandems East.
You can also buy the MDD brake directly from Maddock Machine by sending an Email to Tom Maddock using the following address: info@maddogdrag.com.
see Mad Dog Drag Brake
Drum brakes are very useful, offering an effective way to manage descending speed, because they don't heat up as easily as disk systems.
08-30-18, 12:10 AM
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Corey Thompson of Thompson Custom Bicycles can make exactly what you want. He has made many touring tandems.
https://thompsoncustombicycles.com/2...18-deliveries/
https://thompsoncustombicycles.com/2...18-deliveries/
08-30-18, 09:46 AM
#35
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That's a lovely looking bike. Nicely outfitted too!
I checked out the web site and noticed that the pricing for S&S seems to be much better than the competition. Maybe it's just a price for 1 and it needs to be multiplied by the number of couplers the bike will have?
I checked out the web site and noticed that the pricing for S&S seems to be much better than the competition. Maybe it's just a price for 1 and it needs to be multiplied by the number of couplers the bike will have?
Corey Thompson of Thompson Custom Bicycles can make exactly what you want. He has made many touring tandems.
https://thompsoncustombicycles.com/2...18-deliveries/
https://thompsoncustombicycles.com/2...18-deliveries/
Last edited by PedalingWalrus; 08-30-18 at 09:49 AM.
