First 100 miles on the new Speedster
 

Malkin and I took delivery of our new Co-Mo Speedster Co-Pilot on Monday. Today we finished the first 100 miles. We love the bike but are still dialing in a few adjustments and could use some advice/help.

1. We chose to put Avid discs on rear and front. This may have been a bit of an error on my part--I just think the discs look cool! The rear disc is broken-in and working great. The front disc causes a lot of "chatter" in the front fork during even light braking. The headset seems to be properly installed and adjusted. Is the braking vibration something that will go away with additional break-in, something I can address with a simple adjustment myself, or something that needs the attention of my LBS?

2. The rear shifter works great--smooth shifting in both directions. The front shifter (Ultegra STI and derailleur on a FSA Gossamer MegaExo 53/39/30) is painful. We have trouble getting off the middle chainring in either direction. Going to the 30 requires us to nearly stop pedaling. Moving to the 53 requires me to move the shift lever 1.5 times (start with a single click, release, then do the double click) and to also pause our cadence. So do I learn to live with this, perform a simple adjustment myself, or go back to the LBS for more work? I'm also considering taking to the bike to a different LBS for a second opinion...

And now for the good news.
1. Stoker is +2 on the Thudbuster seatpost. Highly recommended, although it does cost a bit of space for adjustment (not a problem for us) and clamping onto a shop stand.
2. We took off the front third of the bike to see if we could fit it into our Toyota Yaris. It's a tight fit, but the entire bike fits into the back with the rear seats folded down. No need at all for a mini-van!
3. Both I and Malkin have had an experience similar to not being able to hear the engine running in a new car. We've become accustomed to the sounds and vibrations of the Burley which are completely absent in the Speedster. It's a bit like riding on air!

Cheers!

Congrats on the first 100!
Dialing in a new bike takes a bit of time and sometimes a bit of fiddling around/wrenching.
Seeing this is a new bike, LBS should be able to de-bug what is bugging you . . .
When we got our last tandem we went 'modern' to D/A STI . . . worked great in rear but was problematic (not quite as bad as your describe) on the front. Fiddled/messed with it for 3,000 miles.
Stoker Kay piped up: "Why can't we go back to barcon shifters?" Problem solved, lo-tech won over hi- tech!
Pays to listen to your stoker!
Enjoy the new Co-Mo TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

I'm not familiar with barcon shifters (avid rider, but lousy mechanic!), but I'll look them up. I always thought Ultegra would be the end of my shifting woes.

Cheers!

Glad you like the new ride... it sounds great. For the two problems just get it back to the LBS that sold it to you...the FD shifter needs adjustment because some thing is way off. One click for trim is fine but you should not be double clicking on top of that. I have no experience with front discs but there is no way the front on your bike should be chattering under any kind of braking action....that is a bit dangerous actually. I don't think for a second that the chatter is just going to go away by itself, it sure dosen't on V's or canti's. The LBS should have you well dialed in pretty quick..have fun.
Bill J.

We have Shimano 105 triple front derailleurs, and there is no trim. The instructions (available from the Shimano web site if you didn't get them with the bike) talk about trim, but then for triples, have a different diagram with no trim. I didn't think there was any on the Ultegra either. Triples just don't seem to have the trim (it would require 5 positions, at least). This was new and frustrating to me after really getting to know the trim on my Dura-Ace single. I even considered going to a double. Am still considering it, but have resolved most of my complaints by going to a tighter cassette (12-23). So when tuning the front derailleur I don't worry too much about the granny position, and have been able to get it to work well, though it requires regular take up of cable stretch.

That's odd. Our 105 front derailleur does have a trim for the middle chainring. Works great most of the time, but is a lot more persnickity than the rear.

Congrats on the first 100 miles. I would think a trip to the LBS is in order for a derailleur adjustment. They can be made to work as designed with proper adjustment and care.

I'm tempted to tell you to give the front disk brake a little more time. We've got a disk on the rear, and it did take a while to get broken in. I'm sorry I don't remember how long, but I seem to remember a squealing for a while before it finally went away.

Oh, this would be great. So to be pedantic, on the middle ring, you can click the left big lever once and it doesn't attempt to get on the big ring? And another click does the shift? I have been so frustrated by this. I wonder if they changed this at some point. Do you know what year approximately this is? Does it say triple anywhere on the lever?

Thanks to all for the tips. Definitely back to the LBS today.

Cheers!

On our new Speedster the shifts between the 39t and 53t chainrings are fine but I do have a similar issue with the downshift to the 30t. We have to lay off the pedals to get it to move. Someone posted about having a similar issue and it was solved by adjusting the physical placement of the front derailleur. Upshifting from the 39t to the 53t: I push the brifter all the way and hold it until the shift is complete, then let go. No need to double click. Naturally we have to ease up a bit when making this shift but nothing out of the ordinary.

I'm still dialing in the shifting on our Speedster. I got discouraged and thought that I would need to make some major changes to the bike to get it to shift well. But now that I've spent some time with it I think it is possible to get a properly shifting setup with the stock components.

-Dave

Update:

1. (Front fork chatter) I tightened the headset a bit and the chatter is reduced, but not gone. I'm going to work a bit more on breaking-in the front disc before I do anything else.

2. Chatted with the LBS about the shifting. We agreed to have me keep fiddling with it for a few more miles (prolly another 100 this week) and then have another look at the derailleur placement, limit adjustments, and cable.

And Malkin (stoker) has encouraged a try at 90 OOP, so I made the change this morning. We'll play a bit this afernoon to see how it goes. Adjusting the eccentric on the Burley was a nearly impossible chore--on the Speedster, it is simple and quite easy.

Cheers!

It is good to hear that you are enjoying your new Co-Motion. We have a Mocha with the same FSA crank only 54,42,30 and Ultegra STI and it shifts fine. I see no difference from our Ultegra crank on a different tandem.
For the chatter on your front disc, you might try cleaning the rotor with dish soap or alcohol. The disc could have oil on it causing the pads to slip.
Good luck!
Sheldon

UPDATES:

We rode the Redster (it's red, and it's a Speedster) for 50 miles of the Ghost Town Century yesterday. I've been fiddling and cleaning for the past week and here's where we are:

1. (Front fork chatter) I think I was too aggressive on the front brake during the break-in period. I clean the rotor with alcohol after every ride and am a little softer on the braking. The chatter during braking is negligible. However, during a 40+ mph decent yesterday, there was quite a bit of front/back chatter in the fork--enough that my stoker commented on the vibration. I fear that the the fork/headset combination might not be quite right for our riding style. Suggestions?

2. (Front shifting) Seems to be resolved. We did the fine adjusting and it got better. The final trick was changing to 90 degrees OOP. Seems to have changed something about the energy transfer to the chainrings. Somebody here probably knows and can explain the physics/mechanics, but the positive effect on shifting is remarkable.

Love the Redster...

Cheers!