I used to manage R&D for an smallish aerospace company so I love early adopters. What we need is a 10,000 mile/year team riding these things.

Grey, silica rubber compound me thinks. They have a low max pressure of only 7 bars (102psi) but are very firm at that pressure.

Do you have the standard 19mm wide rims (road wheels)?

We are a 7000 mile-per-year team and so far we have 300 miles on our Spinergy wheels. At this point the captain said they feel lighter and more nimble, and are rock-solid on steep curvy canyon descents. I, the stoker, don't think they have changed the ride in terms of vibration or comfort, probably because I'm on a Ti frame. I perceive that I can feel subtle weight shifts (getting a water bottle, stretching) a little more with the Spinergy wheels. They seem a bit noisier than the conventional wheels we had, but that's no big deal (if it exists at all). We will be removing these wheels to do a self-supported 550-mile tour beginning next week and in May we'll put the Spinergy back on. I think putting them on the second time will make it more obvious for me to tell the difference in ride quality (after I have switched back to the conventional wheels for the tour). With saddles and other things I need one switch back to the original equipment to really put my finger on the differences between the two. Will report back later in May after we put a few hundred more miles on the Spinergys.

And reporting back after 3 to 6 months.

But they are not users....

Interesting post that points out the difficulty for any rider to tease out the results of a change in components. It would be interesting to blind fold a stoker so that they are unaware of which wheels are used and do a ride with each set of wheels with identical tires and air pressure over the some course at the same speed to see what effect if any the wheels have.

I don't think however that I could ever get my stoker to do such a test.

**************************************************


Where did that come from**********

We actually went to great lengths to make the first rides on the Spinergy be comparable to the last ride on the conventional wheels. We took the tires (1000 miles on them) and tubes off of the conventional wheels and put them on the Spinergy. We took the same exact route that we had done the previous day on the conventional wheels. We tried not to ride "harder". That first ride was only about 35 miles, but since then we have done more riding to get up to the 300 miles on the Spinergys. I'll be interested to see what I think in about a month when the Spinergys go back on after our trip. Since I had no complaints about ride quality before, it will be interesting to see what I think when we switch back again. I am also thinking about giving up the Thudbuster, but am committed to making no changes until we have more time to see what we think about the new wheels. Actually riding each set of wheels without the Thudbuster at some point might be an interesting test as well. No blindfold for me though! :lol:

Wrong. They haven't had miles lately because of a dog/bike incident, but they ride, and they ride Spinergy TX2. Bottom photo on their website should be sufficient proof.

We have been riding the Spinergy Tx2's for a thousand mile on our Ti tandem.
Our team weights in at 370 lbs and the wheels held up so far and do not feel spongy on corners.
Both captain and stoker felt they rode better than our Velocity Dyads with Phil Wood hubs 48 rear/40 front.
After reading this thread I installed my

Dyads with the same tires (Bontrager 700 x 28 Race Light Hardcase) same pressure and did not tell my wife/stoker.
About five mile into a regular route I told her I put different tires on the Tx2's and it should make for smoother ride.
After a few more miles she though ride was somewhat better.
(note what a good sales talk can do)
Next I ask an experenced tandem rider to do a six mile test ride on a rough road.
First with the 48/40 Dyads then returned to the car and installed the Tx2s with the same tires and pressure.
We tried to ride the same speed and hit same rough spots.
The other rider said both rode well but he would be hard pressed to say which were best.
We don't reget buying theTx2s and plan to use them for all our riding except loaded touring.
If the Tx2s hold up we should have 5000 -6000 miles on them by end of year
My wife likes the looks of theTx2s (black) and they make us feel faster.

Great.

Now we have six datapoints, though still none for extended time or miles as far as I can see.

Ja Vol. I agree. Six data points is no data at all, IMHO. But....No big negatives early on is a good thing too.

Below is what I get from this discussion:

No bad results reported here so far. That is a good thing but inconclusive at this point.

Some honest buyers said:
and

It doesn't look like they are magical wheels that are obviously better to the casual observer. Their main advantage appears to be low weight and carbon fiber bling. To early to tell about long term durability.

At this stage they look like a good buy for early adopters willing to try new designs.

Hmm, no carbon fiber bling on these wheels. PBO (spokes) = polyphenylene bensobisoxazole.

Also, so far only regular roadies (bar a few gravel/rough roads) have checked in here. It would be equally interesting to hear from the 29er crowd too. All things being equal on these Spinergy wheels except for the increased rim width, the 29er offroading should be the ultimate abuse test. Then if there are other 29er wheels for comparison (Dyad, Rolf, etc? probably not these).

It is surprising that a wheel this light (1-2lbs+ lighter than convention wheels) and seemingly durable (no reported failures) can be this reasonably priced. I commented to my wife that I thought for this level of equipment, typically you'd expect to pay $500 more (ie: the original Topolino pricing for example). Who knows if this "introductory" pricing on the Spinergys will last, or if it's the new, low target others will have to match.

I stand corrected on the "carbon bling" comment and amend it to "high tech bling".

I don't ride a mountain bike but wonder if mountain bikes are harder on wheels than a tandem. It seems to me that once standard tandem 140mm rear drop outs were replaced by 145mm due to wheel durability issues but 135mm appears adequate for mountain bike use.

Here's our story....
We bought our Spinergy Tx2's this past weekend at the Tandem Expo.
We waited our turn in line while the mechanics installed wheels on new customers bikes or on those
who brought there own (us, we have Co-Motion Supremo)
The Representative from Spinergy suggested riding our wheels first and then try the Spinergy's on the same route.
The ride was, in a word Amazing! And judging by how many folks we saw buying them we were not the only ones that felt that way.
I'm the stoker. My husband and I try to ride 2 to 3 times a week and tip the scales at 400lbs. He was more than satisfied with the information provided by the Spinergy man, plus to us, if Mel says it's good. It is good.

I hope I measure up.

Good data point which lines up with the consensus that these wheels are very comfortable.

Hoping you (and the others) report back in 1000 to 5000 miles so we can create a similar consensus on durability.

Those reports would be very valuable. I also would love it if we had people reporting on 5,000 to 10,000+ miles. We ride about 5,000 miles a year and plan on riding any wheels we buy for many years.

and on anther note:

you sound honest to me :)

Seems to be you may be thinking all 29ers are not tandems? That is not the case. I was indeed referring to 29er tandems currently abusing these wheels as the ultimate torture test.

BTW, here's a pic of the trick "bombproof" 29er rear hub:

You are right. I thought you meant 29er mountain bikes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/29er_%28bicycle%29

Now I see you meant mountain tandems.

Its all 700C to me.

We have put about 1500 miles on ours. Not a problem and still love the ride. We added the wheelset and selle anatomica saddles at the same time. It seemed we went from ridding cobblestones to smooth concrete. Still feel we do not need the carbon fork since we added the wheels.

We have just over 2000 on them
 

We have just over 2000 miles on these wheels. First we rode them for about 200 miles in March, then we took them off for a loaded tour in April. After touring for 700 miles we put the Spinergys back on when we got home. Neither time when we installed the spinergys did I, the stoker, detect a difference in ride quality. I thought this was due to the fact that we already have a Ti frame and a carbon fork. The captain said they felt more nimble. They did feel a bit lighter to both of us, especially when starting after a stoplight. There was one day when we had a rear tire blowout--the tire blew off the rim. We were going not more than 10 mph as we had just been stopped at a light. We stopped instantly within 15 feet or so and of course with the blowout had instant deflation. This event caused the rear rim to go out of true. We rode with the rear rim this way for another week before we knew it was out of true, as we only found out when someone following us brought it to our attention several rides later. We used the supplied spoke wrench to tighten some spokes until the wheel visually looked in true again. HOT offered to replace the wheel if the rim was bent, or send it back to Spinergy for retensioning. We chose not to do this because we wanted to use the lighter wheels for several summer events and the wheel is performing fine and still looks okay. We may have it trued or retensioned by Spinergy later this winter, but probably now now. The only thing I can add is that not all bomb-proof "meaty" tires such as the Panaracer RIBmo 700x28 work well on this rim. That tire is a bear to get seated anyway, and it was a bit more difficult with this rim, although we could do it if we took lots of time.

We have 3500+ miles on the TX2's. No problems to date and they stayed as true as the day we installed them.
We are a 370lb team.

No problems, nice ride. IMO, they are a good general purpose wheel for typical road riding. Combined with a Calfee frame we have no need for a stoker suspension post, which results in reduced weight (close to 1lb) and complexity. They do sag a touch on tight corners and will yield a "whoop" sound when stomping hard or in a compression corner, but these are non-consequential for our general purpose usage. The cost/weight ratio is very good considering these are tandem rated wheels.

If we were racing, I'd likely pick a laterally stiffer more aero wheelset (likely at a substantially higher price), but that is outside our tandem usage so for us does not factor.

How deep is the rim on these wheels? I ordered a set on Tuesday from Mel at Tandems East and forgot to ask.

I do not have the specs, so all I can report is "not all that deep". As a convenience factor, tube stems as short as 4cm are long enough.

24mm

The new wheels came yesterday, they were on the front porch when we got home from our morning ride. They look really good, the front hub looks massive, it looks like it could be used on a small motorcycle. The wheels weigh 93 grams more than the Topolino's but with some careful juggling of skewer parts I was able to reduce the net weight increase to 82 grams, I used the rear Spinergy skewer and the front Topolino with the Spinergy nut. When my stoker looked at them her comment was they look like wheels and very similar to the ones that you took off. They will be OK if they are fast!

We took a short 13 mile ride this evening and wen give them an A+, they are smooth, comfortable and feel fast. (subjective I know but that is what matters to us).

So our initial impression is very positive.

Anyone want to buy a set of Bontrager wheels that only have around 2,000 miles on them, we do not need 3 sets of wheels.

Wayne

Awesome "DubT"........ ours got put in the mail today and hope to have them for the weekend. What color of spokes did you get and what tires are you running on them??

Cheers!!
Joe