Zaphod Beeblebrox 

New Tandemistas here. We picked up ours about a month ago, a 92'-93' Cannondale road tandem. We've both always wanted a Can'o'Ale, and one came up for the right price on eBay so we snapped it up. The drivetrain and wheels are still original, brakes are replacements... Avid V-Brakes with travel agents, Wheels are original with no Arai drum brake installed unfortunately.

We just did our first sub-24-hour overnight this weekend. 40-ish miles down to camp and a slightly longer 45-ish mile return route. We towed the camping gear in a burley kid trailer, which didn't help us much on the harder uphill sections we encountered but also didn't hurt our top speed down some of these northern Vermont hills. Breaking 40mph doesn't take much more effort than simply not touching the brake levers ;-)

I'm a C&V guy and a passable mechanic and I'm noticing now after a month of riding it that its seen a lot of miles and is ready for some new parts. I just installed a Thudbuster seat post for my stoker (Anniversary gift...gotta keep the stoker happy!) and now I'm looking for a shorter captain stem as the rig is just a little bigger than I'm comfortable with. Its odd because the same cockpit size on my solo road bikes feels perfect but on the tandem it feels a shade bigger than I'm comfortable with. Standover is not unworkable though so I think we're OK. We cleaned the heck out of it yesterday after getting home (and taking a well-earned nap) including the chains and cranks, and I overhauled the headset as it had developed a squeak. Seems OK now.

The timing chainrings are pretty saw-toothed up and likely ready for replacement….not to mention they are only 32T and most things I'm reading are saying that for road tandeming we should be running more like 42T or more. Any thoughts/comments on that?
Honestly we'd both love to switch to shorter cranks (currently 175, would like to switch to 165) so we're considering simply replacing the cranks

Should we be looking for an Arai Drum Brake? The rear hub is threaded for it, but I realize they are out of production….is there a comparable and compatible product that's still available? I have a few rear hubs with drum brakes build-in (Sturmey Archer, Atom, Shimano roller brake) should I consider re-building the rear wheel with one of those instead of looking for an Arai?
Do we even need a drum brake? The V-Brakes seem to be doing a pretty good job and we haven't exactly been avoiding big descents.

we've already had our share of newbie mistakes it seems. A couple of weeks ago we neglected to check the tire pressure before heading out and scored a double pinch flat about 3 miles in. Patched that and flatted again a mile later, and turns out we'd just used our last two patches in the kit! So walked it a mile back into town, found a LBS to get a new tube, inflated it and watched the tube bulge out of a sizable hole in the tire casing! We had fried the Conti Grand Prixs completely. That new tube got us home and then quietly flatted in the driveway. Now we're rolling on 700x32 Vittoria Randonneurs and no more troubles. I'm a tire guy, I love high end tires, especially fatties, so this whole stiff thick strong tires inflated to above their max press is totally foreign and kinda scary to me. I'm usually on 38's at 50psi!

So far so good though. We're having fun, we're still on speaking terms, and we wanna do more! There's a Tandem Ride going through the Lake Champlain islands next weekend we're thinking we might join up. Anyone here attending?

Here's the rig before we broke camp yesterday AM

chris ss

Well congrat's and glad you're enjoying it. I used to live up near there- St Albans- but that was many years (decades) back. Pretty country, maybe we'll come do that Lk Champlain ride another year. We're going out to Sacramento Traditional Jazz Camp next weekend.

On drum brake or not- I wouldn't think you'd need it except for really unusual circumstances- heavy team, LONG steep descents, heavily loaded, etc. We had one on our old Santana and I took it off, but we're maybe 300 lb team and don't ride loaded a lot. When my brake pads wore out I put softer "salmon" pads on- "Kool Stop" - they create a lot more braking force than the old ones. But then the old ones were like 15-20 yrs old.

I'd think you're right on the timing chainrings- more teeth = longer life, less stretch in the timing chain, less wear on the teeth.

On tandem maintenance in general vs a single- a couple things that are probably obvious anyway-
- chains wear/stretch faster
- tires wear faster, and as it seems you already know, good tires make maybe a little more difference on a 2fer.
- headset carries more weight, takes more of a beating = will dimple faster
- wheels carry more weight- more spokes + stronger rims are good. Keeping them true, round, + evenly tensioned probably makes more difference on a tandem, than maybe on a single.

Other than that, I wouldn't say there's a lot more to flag up. Sounds like your bike's in pretty good shape. Hope you get out to the Champlain ride. Maybe post some pics from that if you're inclined.

Have fun with it.

Zaphod Beeblebrox 

Thanks for the drum brake info Chris, you obviously know what cycling in Northern VT entails so I won't worry too much that we don't have one.

If we do that ride next weekend I'll be sure to post some pics.