LouM

Hello all,
Just thought I would say hello and introduce myself.
I have ridden tandems before. But just recently purchased my first one. That is one of the reasons why I'm on here.
I purchased a Scott 808 tandem on Craig's and can't seem to find any information on them. Aluminum frame, 700C wheels (they look like Spinergy cross wheels 32 spoke with disc hubs), 3 X 8, currently flat bars, grip shift, and a riser stem, V-brakes, serial # 93040001. I have contacted Scott and requested any information that they may have on this tandem or any tandems that they have produced and what years they were produced. I'll post a picture once I figure that part out.
It looks as though it was hanging in a garage most of its' life. Not a scratch on the paint. No dirt in the shifters, and new cables and housings. It's missing the front crankset and chain.
My plan is to change the stem, put drop bars on it, and change the saddles to something more to our liking. We'll most likely ride centruies and club rides with it once it's on the road.
Any information that anyone may have about Scott tandems would be cool. I'll be lurking and searching the web as I put this together and start the ride.
TIA
LouM...

LouM

This is it.
LouM...

mwandaw

BikePedia may be a good place to find some information on your new bike. Unfortunately, it may take some work. Here are the results of my quick searches:

Searched for: Scott
Found: 1000+ results

Searched for: Scott Tandem
Found: 0 results

Searched for: Scott 808
Found: 3 2012 TT/Tri Bikes

You may have better luck if you search by the year of manufacture.

mkane77g

Welcome to the forum

LouM

Ok. We have slowly acquired the parts to make it road worthy and have taken it out for two shakedown rides. The first ride was about 15 miles to see if the mechanic (me) knew what he was doing and to set up the saddles, check the brakes, shifting, etc. The second ride was to see how it felt on a longer ride. I left the flat bars and grip shift on just so we could get it on the road and at least ride it.
First impressions are that this thing is smooth and not twitchy at all. I attribute the smoothness to the 700X30 tires (original IRC Tandem specific with tread). And not twitchy as far as the steering goes. On a couple of other tandems that we have ridden, I could feel my stoker stand and had to counter steer a bit to keep the bike in a straight line. I cannot tell when she stands and can control the bike with one hand when she does. Not that this is something that I want to do. But I was just experimenting to see how controllable the bike was.
So far, no extreme speeds on the descents yet <40 mph. I did try a few panic stops. The front brake chatters a bit when I pull aggressively on it. But they work well enough at this point. Although the hubs are disc, I don't think that there is enough room on the front fork or the rear stays to have one. And welding aluminum is a bit of a challenge and $$ to accomplish and repaint.
Next up are drop bars, Control Tech adjustable stoker stem, Cinelli Frog stem for captain (all of my bikes have them), STI levers, travel agents, Continental Gatorskins 700X28, rack and bag, and maybe that Brooks saddle that I have been wanting to put on and test. Also convinced my stokerthat those blue spokes need to be painted black. They look a bit METRO to me.
My stoker says that she likes the sound that the tires make when we are accellerating. Says it sounds like we are getting ready to take off.
LouM...

I did contact Scott. Sent them a picture and asked about this bike and if they had any records on it. The first thing the rep asked was if I wanted to sell it. Then he said that he wasn't aware of Scott making a tandem. Also that they have changed hands a few times and do not have any records from the 90's.

gsms

Lou! Beware! Riding a tandem is very addicting! Started doing it many years ago and even though I still ride my old Gilmour single quite a bit.... I ride the Cannondale long bike a lot more. The one thing that drives my stoker and I the hardest is always trying to get stronger and faster in the hills and mountains. She always says that everyone looks good going down hill, most go pretty fast on the flats, the big kids look vicious in the hills.

Scott in St George

WheelsNT

Just a thought -- you may want to look the tires over really carefully. We had one of those exact tires come apart on us on a new-to-us tandem a few years ago. I think they were the original tires on the bike (roughly 2000-2001 vintage) and they still had plenty of tread, but the sidewall disintegrated resulting in a blowout. Happily it was at slow speed and there were no complications, but if we had been going faster it would have been a mess. I have no problem with IRC tires, these were just old and I should have looked at them more closely. It was also part of my "tandem education", realizing I needed to pay more attention to maintenance on the tandem than I needed to on a single bike.

LouM

Thanks for the heads up NT. These are definitely old. When I was changing the tubes out for new ones with a longer stem, I noticed that the rubber along the bead was flaking a bit. The sidewalls looked good though. I put 110 psi in them. They held up for those two rides. Not much descending from where I live to the SD bay. Then, it's flat.
I am only lacking the tires. Everything else I have and just need the time to install. No doubt the next ride will be with the completed bike including new tires.
Looks like I may be off by one tooth on that timing chain.

LouM...

pathdoc

Sweet bike. Looks great. Best of luck and enjoy your new bike.

brons2

That's about where I'm at with ours, slowly changing parts out. I've also ridden it by myself a few times just for kicks and to test out new parts, it's quite a workout hauling a 45-50lb Burley up and down some 15%ish grades near my house. I have the handlebars height where I want it now, seatposts switched out, changed to 32mm tires, adjusted brakes and derailers, new cables and housings all around and acquired parts for a wheel build. Switching to 9 speed with freehub/casette and brifters. Going to try some Nitto Noodlebars 48cm, the ones I have now didn't work out how i expected, even though I got the stem height to an acceptable level.

Good luck with your Scott, looks nice!

B. Carfree

Apparently, lots of folks run one or two teeth out of phase on purpose. If you like it as you have it, no need to change.

LouM

Well, it's been awhile. But we're finished with making the tandem "ours" for now. Life gets in the way somehow. I recently retired and can't believe how really busy I am. I thought things were supposed to slow down when you retired.
I ended up putting TRP mini V-brakes on it. The stopping isn't a crisp as I would like. I may change them out. In the future, we'll probably change out the crankset to something a bit more current. Also the groupo will need replacing as well. Currently XT from the '90s. But those will happen as things wear out. Gates timing belt and gears would be nice too. BB C to C is 67/68cm (measured center of BB to center of BB with eccentric at min and max).
I still can't get over how stable this is when my stoker stands to pedal. I wonder if the diagonal tube from stoker seat post to captain BB is part of it? Wheelbase is 177cm.
Anyways. An "as built" picture to close.
LouM...