Neat. What chainrings do you use for the timing? And on the pedal threads, you use Loctite rather than Helicoil? Do the pedals stay tight, or do you have to repeatedly tighten them?

Some photographs would be greatly appreciated.

We have about 3000 miles on the tandem gossamer. My single uses a gossamer also with something like 20000 miles. I replaced the bearings with larger bearings (not ceramic) around 12000.

The build list for my Calfee Tetra Tandem with Alpha Q fork includes the Calfee crank, Token titanium ceramic bottom bracket, Gates belt drive, Campy front derailleur, Shimano XTR rear derailleur, Shimano XT 11-34 cassette, Shimano Dura Ace chain, brake calipers Shimano DA, shifter/brake levers Campy Chorus, Rolf Vigor wheels, Chris King headset, captain handlebars Ritchey WCS Evolution carbon, stem Ritchey WCS carbon, stoker stem control tech, stoker handlebars Salsa Short and Shallow carbon, Thompson Elite seatposts.

These components were chosen with the help of Diane and Brian at Hubbub. Hubbub was voted one of the 6 best bike shops in the US by the League of American Bicyclists.

39t for the timing and 55-42-28 for the drive [only have gone out one time this year so I cannot form an opinion if that works well]. I used 53-42-30 last year and it worked out well. I live on a very steep hill so I decided that I would go to a 28 so see if that helps. Of course the 28 is not Campy but Stonglight. I have to use a Jtek since my wheels use a Shimano splined freehub [Campy is not available]. Cranks were not retreaded since I was concerned about enlarging the hole to install thread inserts. A little locktite was used [blue] and I have never had issues of them coming off. I have taken them off a few times and most recently during a spring cleaning.

So if you do this, you need extra pedal spindles, right? Since you have only a single "left" arm and three "right" arms.

Your local bike shop can order single pedals, buy 1 left & 3 rights. We rode like this for years when we put together an Ultegra spected bike before Shimano offered ultegra cranks. Never a problem, and we greased the spindles.

Sorry for the screw up with posting the pics [just proves how much I know about computers].
Ritterview thought that you may want to look and what you could do with a Campy set up so he took the pictures that I had sent him and posted them on Tiny pics. http://i44.tinypic.com/5n96hz.jpg,http://i42.tinypic.com/zipr8z.jpg,http://i39.tinypic.com/2cxw5sp.jpg,http://i44.tinypic.com/1zztmdc.jpg,http://i40.tinypic.com/34oabvc.jpg. I do agree with TG in that you should check the limits with the components and make your choice. The limits are put there for a reason [legal or engineering]. Either way it is up to you. Attached is the reply I sent to Ritterview on an email as we discussed my drivetrain.
Attached are the photos of the drivetrain. I am certain you will notice the rear wheel is missing. I had to replace the rear rim and it is in the shop to get it tensioned and trued. Should be done in a couple of hours.
The timing gears are 39t Campy Records. The 'hidden' mounting bolt had to be modified [shorten the length and shoulder] so it would sit flush. The other mounting bolts were also modified since they did not have to hold two chain rings.
I am a Mercedes/McLaren technician and have been for over 20 years. I have been known as the butcher since I can make anything work. Since I am a mechanic I was able to modify the bolts using the tools at work [Drill press, sharp chisel, and a steady hand]. I am certain a good machinist can do a better job. I could have used aftermarket chain ring bolts to hold the rings on but they did not say Campagnolo or were not made from aluminum.
I did have to buy a die to cut the threads and since it at work I cannot tell you the dimensions. I know it is an odd size but I did get one from the local nut and bolt shop [not home depot or any other average hardware store] and it was only about 5-6 dollars. The hidden bolt chain ring hole has a recess so the bolt sits flush. Since the chain ring is on the outside I had to recess the chainring so it will look right [I am picky about looks even though no one sees that bolt and no one would notice that it would have been sticking out more than it should]. There was enough material to recess it and not go thru since the other side of the chain ring is already recessed. I was concerned about the material that was left but it has not been a problem. The lips on the arms to hold the inner chain ring were machined away since I used the outer position to hold the chain ring. You would not have to do this but it looks cleaner and more like a timing crankset should look like. The pedal spindles had to be swapped for the front. You will need a press to remove the bearings. The biggest issues with the pedals was the choice of helicoils or spindles. I scored on eBay and won a right only Record pedal. I also won a pedal set with wasted bearings [which I found replacements at a bearing store]. The rear has two right spindles and of course the correct left and right pedals. The fronts only had to have the spindles swapped. I think it was cheaper than installing helicoils [so I convinced myself] and although I believe in helicoils I was having some issues with installing them in the cranks because of the amount of material left in the arms.
I used the Record triple BB [111mm] on the front and rear and did shim the BB out to the right 3mm since I did not like the chain angle of the cassette and the triple crankset. I still do not like it but I am limited due to the limitations of the front derailleur [can't move out much further than it is]. Although I still do not like the chain angle it has not given me issues. I have Record brifters but have yet to install them. I am using downtube shifter now [modified Record TT 10 speed bar end shifters]. They work perfect for me since I am still an old fart that grew up with downtube shifters.
I am a Campy fan and have been since I was 16 years old. I mowed a lot of lawns so I could have my own Campy Super Record equipped bike in 1976 [which I still have]. Most people would not want to go thru what I did but it was not that tough just a lot of eBay shopping and a little butchery. If there is any other pictures you would like let me know. If you search Kuwahara tandem on BF you should see a picture of the tandem [blue and yellow]. I have changed the rear seat and some small pieces but it looks pretty much the same now.
Mark Seigal

Pulled the trigger on FSA Gossamar Tandem Crankset
 

So, after much deliberation and contemplation, I ended up getting the FSA Gossamer crankset. My shop got me the 2009 model which varies from the 2008 model shown on the website.

First difference is that it is now offered as 30/39/52 rather than with a 53 as the big ring. So we loose 3 inches off the top end. I'd rather not, but I guess no big deal.

Secondly, the captains crank arm no longer uses pinch bolts, but rather the center fixing bolt that pulls into the middle of the axle like the SLK model.

This crank set is nicely finished and all the fasteners and parts appear to be pretty good quality.

I was able to order 172.5mm captain and 170mm stoker.

The FSA website say the chain line for the tandem cranks is 46mm. I think this is just plane wrong info there.

This set is multi BB width and multi chainline. There are spacers to go between the cups and the BB if your bike has 68mm BB or you omit those as on my Santana with 73mm BB. Once the cups are in, there are 2 x 2.5mm spacers to go between the arms and the cups. You can put one on each or both on one side. That will get you a chain line of 48mm, 50.5mm or 53mm. I just put one on each side for now. Even if I push the chain line out to the drive side 2.5mm more, there is still plenty of clearance between the chain stays and the left rear crank arm.

The cranks was still a few mm outboard of my chain catcher set up this way, so I had to slide it out a bit.
The kit came with a braze on FD adapter. Unfortunately for me, it is 1-1/4", not 1-1/8", so I ended up using the adapter on the bike still. Bummer since I like the black anodized FSA adapter.

Install and assembly was very smooth. I use the Pedros outboard BB socket to torque the cups in and then torqued the arm fixing bolts. One of the dust caps wasn't going in all the way, so I pulled that arm, wiggled stuff around a bit and it was fine next time around.

I went to put the timing chain back on and it didn't fit. Huh? Stupid old crank had 40t rings and this one is 42t. So I grabbed a few SRAM 9spd chains from the secret stash and made a new timing chain.

The rings and alignment to the spider seem very round. There weren't really any tight spots running the timing chain by itself.

After that, basic FD install and adjust. I can now use the 6603 FD I've had for this project since it clears the 39t middle ring. Shifting seems much better on the rack than the 8spd/9spd crank/FD Frankenstein arrangement I had on there. I'll be seeing how it works on the road tonight.

The crank set was $398 from my bike shop and I had to use two new chains at $23 each. So the whole deal was about $450.

Of course, lots of tandems come with DaVinci cranks as an option. They're not cheap, but they are nice.

Thanks for the info andr0id.
I am looking at the FSA cranks for our Santana also.
I plan on waiting until the first signs of trouble with the current Bottom Bracket then out with old and in with the new. Bike came with 10 speed Ultegra which I've changed everything out to D/A 7800 except the shifters which are on my bench now waitng for a bar change at the same time.
Any pictures you would like to share of your setup?

Butcher that is awesome!

I want to do the same thing, but decided to just get the Davinci crankset instead.

I love the Record cranks. Great setup!

I am a big fan of "making things work" when it is done properly.

I just sold my entire (highly) modified powertrain from my MR2 Spyder (custom DIY supercharged setup). Now I am stuffing in a 3.5L Toyota/Lexus V6 with 4-cam VVTi into it... it totally looks like it won't fit, but it will. ;)

The Santana sealed BB's will last forever, so if you're waiting for them to fail, you'll wait a long time.

Here's some pictures I took this weekend after the crank upgrade.

http://www.pbase.com/android/image/1...2/original.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/android/image/1...4/original.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/android/image/1...5/original.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/android/image/1...6/original.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/android/image/1...9/original.jpg

I thought it a little odd that the spiders didn't match on the timing cranks. The captain's had bar Al tabs and the stoker;s crank had black finished tabs. I took off the ring and masked and painted it with a few coats of glass black paint so they match.

http://www.pbase.com/android/image/1...2/original.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/android/image/1...1/original.jpg

Not to take this too far off topic, but I have a question. Does the stoker or captain use the Garmin? If its the captain, is the GSC-10 signal strong enough to provide accurate cadence readings for the captain's Garmin?

With the timing ring on the inside spider, the magnet doesn't seem to grab at the timing chain, so I moved the sensor back to the chain stay.

Cadence is mostly for benefit of stoker, but it seems to be working for both the front and rear Garmins. We have them both tuned to the same sensor. I got one wacky reading under a power line on the front, but that could have happened anyway. Front is a 705 and rear is a 305.

This would be our setup also. Guess I need to try it to see.

We just got a Garmin 705 and of course it's for the captain. Works great with GSC-10 mounted in the back. Even with the VDO C3DS both work without any interference with each other.

FSA Braze-on adapter
 

andr0id, Thanks for the details.
I purchased the crank as well, but it hasn't arrived. I wonder why you can't use regular clamp on derailleur with this setup? I have a Calfee that requires a 34.9mm FD mount adapter. Will I need to purchase an extra braze-on adapter since you mentioned that the FSA adapter is 1-1/4"? I am thinking of getting this one in 34.9mm since I have Shimano derailleur. Will the brazon adapter below work like the FSA one? Thanks..
http://www.competitivecyclist.com/ro...1193.24.1.html

You might be able to. The problem is that a tandem chain line can be about 1cm more outboard than a regular triple. So, the the FD may not have enough swing to cover the range when mounted with a standard clamp. You just have to try it and see.

We are running a 705 for the captain and 305 for the stoker. The cadence reads fine front and back.

Since the FSA braze-on adapter mount that came with the kit didn't fit, any braze-on adapter mount will work as long at it is the right seat tube size?

I have the gossamer on the both single and tandem. The tandem has been no problem since we only do 1100 miles/year or so, but I'm only getting 12,000 miles or so on the standard bearings. I've replaced with larger bearings, but I suspect they aren't going to go much farther.

Take a look at what Stealth has to offer some good cranks and other parts both tandem and non tandem related. http://www.stealthcycling.com

F.Y.I. I have a gossamer crank on my single bike but use Shimano Utegra BB with it and never have had BB issues.