Rudy:

I am trying to get a sense of scale on the pictures you posted. How long is the boom tube on your tandem?

Boom tube on our Zona is 25 inches (63.5cm) measured from center of front BB to center of rear BB.
Wheelbase is a short 63.5 inches. Stoker Kay has shrunk in the past decade from 4'10.5" to current 4'8". Tandem still fits her still perfect by lowering seat post a bit and small adjustable stoker stem movement.
Pedal on!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

Hey guys! I kinda forgot about this forum as I got into the real riding season but after a year on the bike I thought I'd post an update. I haven't kept track of miles but my girlfriend and I have ridden our Beyond in California, Maui, Colorado, the Mississippi Delta (nice riding with you akexpress), Greece, and Turkey. We love it and it's been perfectly durable. What it didn't do was set any weight records. The frame only came in 90g below a stock large and our use of Santana cranks and durable tires (we switch between 25mm 4season and 28mm Gatorskin) kept us from going sub 22lb. Saying that, at 23.2lb it's one quick tandem and climbs faster than my girlfriend does on her single bike. It started out with Dura-ace mechanical, then was a test bed for a Dura-ace/XTR Di2 3x11 drivetrain. Next it served to test an ultra wide range Ultegra Di2 2x11 setup so when I went back to Dura-ace I stuck with Di2. Despite the 30g I kept the stem mounted XTR gear indicator cuz it's so convenient and it's getting the wires run internally next week which will add a few grams cuz I have to give up my magnesium eccentric for a two piece unit that has room for the wire to run through. Here's a photo of it with my girlfriend's "short ride" seat. For longer rides she puts a Terry Butterfly saddle on.

Thanks for the update. It is nice to see what Santana can do in the carbon department.

LelandJT, great looking tandem.
Curious to know what front brake you have, it is hard to see from the attached photo.
Is it a Dura Ace 9000 and is that what you have for the rear brake?
Also, does your weight include pedals?
Seems like you have already gotten a lot of great use out of that bike.

While Dura-ace brakes and XTR pedals work great and are kinda light I was looking to shed grams in those places. I chose Planet X brakes and Xpedo M-Force 8Ti pedals. In both cases you can kinda tell they're not Shimano if you really pay attention but the performance is so close it's basically a wash. The brakeset drops 1/4lb and the pedals drop over 1/2lb. The weight includes pedals and was taken with the 25mm 4season tires. In the photo it has 28mm Gatorskin rear and 4000s front which has become my preferred setup. The Gatorskin fits in the rear brake but a 28mm 4000s is a lot bigger and rubs the brake. When the 28mm 4season is available I'll test fit that in the rear.

I want to tell you that Leland and his girlfriend Joy could ride a huffy tandem and pretty much blow by everyone. We were riding in the fast group on the Mississippi trip and they came by the group like we were going backwards none of us could even hang on in the draft. His bike is light but it has some very big motors. Their seats are the most uncomfortable looking ones I have ever seen but they are light. He was fun to get into some great tandem discussions and is very open minded about it all. thanks for the update

+1. My 14 year old niece had awesome fun stoking for Leland in the Santana 2015 NZ tour on a short hilly ride. That's an amazing bike Leland, well done on the details.

How about a thread update? We're on the Mekong River for Santana's first Vietnam tour. We anticipated some dirt roads and broken pavement so the ultralight stoker seat and the post it's glue to were replaced with the stock parts, a Terry Butterfly and MRP carbon. The 25mm 4 Season tires were swapped out for 28mm Gatorskins because they're the biggest that fit through my rear Planet-X brake. The paths and "roads" have been super fun but the tires are barely adequet so next year I'll mount up my rear disc brake and 32mm Gatorskins (they fit through the front road caliper). In the meantime I'll try to find a seat she likes that is lighter than the Terry and a sub 200g post to go with it. We stopped at this house to join their party and the girls wanted a photo with the bike.



If anyone has a lightweight tandem build they're working on post it up. My current project is a FSXC mountain bike around 20lb (Scott Spark RC).

Fascinating thread. Comments about the motor are absolutely correct. Would be nice to have a lighter tandem to make it easier to put on the roof rack.

Wow, that was a blast from the past.

Zonatandem was in his eighties. He hasn't logged in since 2018. But one of his last posts said he (85) and his wife (83) were still riding 6 days a week.

I met Leland once at a NAHBS here in Sacramento where Santana was showing a fat tandem that looked like silly fun.

It looks like Rudy and his wife have passed. I was curious a year or so ago and did some online searching in Tucson and saw an obituary. I'm drawing a blank on their last name now or would share that.

https://tucson.com/opinion/letters/l...35412e7da.html

https://eltourdetucson.org/elkan-rec...t-of-the-year/