veggie

So a little over two years ago, I got my first tandem. I didn't have a car, so I convinced my girlfriend to drive the 20 or so miles out to spring with me and pick up this tandem. An early 90's Burley Duet. It was actually my first Craigslist purchase. Well, long story short, it didn't get much use and eventually got sold. I, not having a DL at the time, had no way of transporting it anywhere and it hung on hooks upside down in the garage unused.



Fast forward to now, I have a DL and a car now. The urge for a tandem hit hard about two months ago. I talked it over with my girlfriend and she seemed willing to have another go, even agreeing to pay for half. Score! That was the easy part. For a while I searched Craigslist all over the nation. I didn't know what I was gonna do if i found something halfway across the country, I guess I just liked looking. Being part of another bike forum, which will go unnamed, I had a few people who were looking in their area and were willing to ship me something if it came about. I have an app on my phone that notifies me of new Craigslist ads with certain keywords. I have one set up for "tandem". It's mostly been trailer bikes and a few department store cruiser tandems. No bueno. One night this KHS Milano popped up. I looked at it and knew I had to have it. One thing I was having a particularly hard time doing was finding something that would fit. Everything seemed to be a 54 in the front, too big for me. This has a 51 st captain and a 48 stoker, perfect! To add to that, it had a killer chris king wheelset. After almost having it sold out from under for me for less than I was going to pay when I went out of town for a few days, I have this beast in my hands. I don't have a tandem rack for my car yet('83 Honda civic if anyone cares), so I had to borrow the girlfriend's jeep again. I picked up my bud, who actually works at the bike shop around from the corner from this guy, and got it home with no troubles. What a relief it was to both have no issues(like the first time) loading it up and have someone capable of helping me.

So, here it is:



Chris king hubs laced to Salsa Delgado rims front and back with bontrager 28c tires
Shimano Sora shifters(with flightdeck computer!)
Shimano Deore RD
Shimano 105 FD
Sugino Tandem cranks(don't recall what model)
Crank brothers candy pedals(I wanna say they are the candy 3s, he handed me the og box with cleats and it had a price tag from bike barn for 149.99)
Avid v-brakes with god awful travel agents.

The chain fell off the drive chainrings on the way home(spare bedroom at my girlfriends) and there is a chain keeper installed so I couldn't easily get the chain back on. My girlfriend had a math test to go take and has work early so i decided to just give up for the night.

First order of business is to replace these v-brakes with cantis. I have a serious distaste for travel agents My first instinct is to just grab some cheapy tektros, any other recommendations for affordable and high power cantilever brakes that may be better suited for a tandem? Would a mini-v be a bad idea on a tandem? I've read people call them death traps, but those are the same people who say v-brakes are the only way to go.

Eventually would like a carbon fork up front with a road disc, but that isn't really in the cards for now, especial since the front wheel isn't a disc capable wheel.

B. Carfree

I'm pretty happy with the Trillium Big Squeeze brakes on my Rodriguez from R+E Cycles. I believe they make them there in Seattle, which is kind of cool.

Now get on to the real first order of business and ride. Oh, and don't yell at the stoker. The stoker is always right, even when he/she is wrong.

veggie

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll have to check those out. I wouldn't really call riding "business"

Edit: I wouldn't exactly call 250 a pair affordable

merlinextraligh

I know you don't like the travel agents, but I think you'll find the bike will brake worse with cantilever brakes than the brakes you've got on there.

Personally, I don't see the reason to spend money to downgrade the braking performance of the bike.

waynesulak

I have a tandem with these wide profile Tektro 720 cantis and they work well with road levers. Be sure and set the straddle cable that comes with them as high as possible to get the correct leverage.

https://www.universalcycles.com/shopp...s.php?id=19516

I have used V-Brakes on two tandems Avid and Shimano. I would judge no real difference in performance if all set up well.

WheelsNT

We have a tandem with travel agents and one with cantilevers. They both work well. As a minor point, I think the v-brake pads sit a little farther from the rims than the cantilevers, which makes adjustment easier (more tolerant). But both systems work fine.

What are your concerns with v-brakes? Not trying to open a can of worms, but I have never heard that there was any issue, so I'm interested to know what the concerns are.

Carbonfiberboy 

Our V-brakes work well and the Travel Agents are convenient for opening the brakes for wheel removal.

drmayer

I have tektro mini-v's on our tandem with road levers. they work great. Make sure you get noodles with barrel adjusters so that you can loosen the tension for wheel removal and for general adjustment.

waynesulak

If the travel agent is not set up properly the cable will bind in the mechanism when brakes are applied and eventually this can lead to cable failure. This is not a problem if the instructions are followed when installed.

hartphoto 

We have a '98 Santana (bought off of CL just a couple weeks ago) with Shimano V Brakes and Travel Agents. While I agree that they are not the prettiest thing.....they do work well.

Didn't really know the age of the brake pads that came on our 'new to us' bike, so I changed the pads to salmon Kool Stops on the front, and black Kool Stops on the back....plenty of braking power for us (about 370 lbs including captain/stoker/bike).

Might want to practice some emergency stops if you're unsure of the brakes. Here's a how to - https://www.gtgtandems.com/tech/emerstop.html

And here's another tip page (we do a close variation of this every start, but start left foot up) - https://www.gtgtandems.com/tech/propmethod.html

With the saying....'The stoker is always right', it's kind of the same as the marriage advice from Ralphie May (one of my favorite comedians), 'You can be right....or you can be happy'.

HTH.

veggie

I will probably stick with the V-brake/travel agent setup for the time being, just because I don't want to change up parts right away, I want to enjoy it for what it it.

I'm not arguing that they don't work, I just don't like them. They add friction to the already long run of cable, and add premature wear on the cables, which may cause them to pop. It just isn't an ideal system for my peace of mind.

Plus I have a general dislike for v-brakes on anything non-mountain bike. My mind is made on this so most likely nothing will convince me otherwise

rdtompki

Nice score!

zonatandem

Why not buy some pretty/gorgeous looking brakes that will not stop the tandem properly?
Function/safety is worth more than pretty any time!
In our 37 years of tandeming have run almost every kind of brake possible.
Mafac canitlevers, V-brakes, mini-V-brakes, side pulls, center pulls, U-brake (in the rear), hydraulic, and a even rode with discs front and rear (overkill for us) and tried a couple drum brakes (we really don'ty need one).
Currently running DurAce sidepull front and Tektro Mini/Maxi V-brake rear, utilizing Shim. DuraAce Di-2 levers.
Looks aren't evertything . . . stopping power on a steep/long mountain descent is!
Just our experience/input.
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

PS: Yelling at stoker is counter productive.

veggie

I'm not replacing them because I don't like the look of them, I'm replacing them because I don't like the way they work. You say you are using a mini v out back? How is that working for you?

zonatandem

The mini-maxi V-brake has 34,000+ miles on it now on our Zona tandem and function great.
Replaced the brake pads twice.
Have also used/installed Travel Agents on several tandems; pain in the butt to set up properly but they function OK.
Have only broken ONE brake cable (front) in our decades of riding TWOgether.
Pedal on!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

veggie

Thanks for that. I have a spare tektro mini v from an abandoned project, I may use it in the rear.

wheelspeed

Maybe a little tough-love, but I don't understand the braking issue and the desire to "upgrade" based on your past tandem experience.

You don't need decent brakes in Houston. If you can drag your feet, then I think you have enough braking power. So just leave the bike as it is and see if you actually use it this time. Hopefully you will, because it looks like a nice bike. But remember that you can spend hundreds on pedals, shoes, shorts, shirts, rain-gear, etc. for both you and her. (Hate to think of it, but I guess beloved stoker and I spent in the damm 4-digits during the past couple years on hot-weather gear, cool-weather gear, night gear, and rain-gear.) :-(
So, save some money for that in case you do ride this one a lot and pre-register for events. (I swear pre-registering is a scam thought up by REI and other bicycle clothing retailers to get people to invest in gear for any weather!)

End of rant. Enjoy the new toy! :-)

CaptainHaddock

I'm afraid I can't comment on the brakes as we use disk front & back, but the tandem looks great!

veggie

I don't see how your logic plays into my wanting to change out the v-brakes. The wanting to change isn't due to desiring more power, nor is it based on my little tandem experience, it is based on my dislike of travel agents and v-brakes in general.

I have bibs, jerseys, pedals, shoes, all that jazz on my half. I work at a bike shop so once I get my stoker into clipless, I'll grab her a pair of shoes.

Ride them bandit! Just kidding

Thanks. I know it will stick around this time, I have a lot more cycling buddies now who have all encouraged me to get this tandem.

wheelspeed

I'm glad you took my message okay. I re-read it, and it didn't come off very well. I wrote it as if we were talking it over a beer, with some ribbing. But now it seems a bit harsh in text. Apologies. It is a great looking bike, and I hope you enjoy it. The generally flat area in Houston will be awesome for tandem riding. You'll be able to keep a high average speed.

veggie

Its all good, I started to take offense to it, but "tough love" smoothed it out for me. I know your intentions were good.

Oh yeah, so two firsts tonight. First actual ride with the tandem and first time riding critical mass. Fun times for all. Though I took my to-be stoker on a ride and he got the hang of it real fast.

veggie

Well, cm didn't happen. Stoker forgot he made plans to watch the opening ceremonies.

Anyways, here are some pictures I took the other day:











I have searched and searched for this crankset, I can't find any mention of an xd 5000 crankset anywhere. None of the sugino xd models go up to 4 digits.

hartphoto 

Looks like a Sugino RD 5000T crankset.

https://www.bikepedia.com/QuickBike/B...e#.UBO_vWt5mK0

veggie

Doesn't RD stand for "road double"?

Edit: You're right, and my tandem is an '04, not an '05.

veggie

We took our first ride tonight. We probably only did 4 or 5 miles, but we got a lot accomplished. Before we got on she wasn't quite sure she was going to like it. The first time we took off she was shaking and breathing pretty heavily. She had a hard time taking off the first time, but once I had ridden around her neighborhood a bit, I decided to let her try her hands at stopping. It was a little shaky, but all in all, she did well for her second time stopping on a tandem. The next few starts and stops were worlds better and by the time it was getting too dark too ride, she was smiling!

She even said she loves it.