Tandems

[saab2000]

OK Kids,

My thread about average speeds has drifted towards tandems. That is a very interesting subject which has not yet been discussed here.

Tandems are cool. I rode a junky Schwinn tandem once with underinflated tires and upright bars and we could easily maintain a faster speed than I could have on my single.

Does anyone here have extensive experience on a fast tandem? It seems to be that going uphill is a gamble, but on the flats they are fast.

I would love to hear tandem stories of speed and daring!! :D

[Smiley]

will tell you a thing or two about fast tandems and the Tall guy can go up hill as fast as any team I have ever seen. Our fastest decent to date was going down to Ohiopile at a max speed of 62 mph. Our previous max speed was in the High 50's mph decending the Blue Ridge Parkway in Ashville NC. That was our old steel Tandem and we were being hit with cross winds and had to use the drum brake to control our speed and not blow a tire . Our new rig is the Aluminum Cappucino by Co-Motion and that rig seems to be on rails when going fast down hills. Nothing like a really stiff tandem with a steady Steel Fork .

[zap]

With tandems you need to work hard on the weakness and take it easier on the strengths.

Most fun. Beating unsuspecting singles on a climb.

Best quote from a local racer when we were pulling into 25+ mph head wind. "Gees, they're pulling us along at 28mph".

Best visual. Chasing and gaining on a young Turkey Vulture down hill. I was just about able to grab it's rear when it suddenly turned left and up. Another great cycling moment.

But what's really great is spending more quality time with my wife.

[TimB]

My most fun tandem ride:

On the Seagull Century (held annually in Salisbury, MD on terrain about as flat as it gets) several years ago my wife and I joined Too Tall and The Queen along with six other tandems in a screaming Tandem Pace Line. We had singles hurrying to the side of the road because they thought a truck was coming up behind them. One misguided soul jumped in FRONT of TT and The Queen after hanging out in the draft because he "wanted to do his share."

We finished the 102 miles in about 4:14. It would have been less, but the first 30 miles or so were not nearly as quick as they could have been due to the crowded conditions on the road. We were constantly accelerating, then needing to slow dramatically to work our way through the crowds.

The last two miles were insane, one of the teams decided holding 28mph at that point wasn't fast enough, and jumped. My my, We waved goodbye.

[dbrk]

As a kid my brother and I raced a Gitane tandem with the TA cranks and Simplex derailleurs, the whole bit. Then my brother actually built a tandem in the back of the bike shop. I'm not kidding. I think they sawed off two frames, welded some other tubes into the mix and viola, it rode, and it rode really nicely. I remember he sold it for a bundle. This musta' been 1974 or so. We rode the beejeezus outta' that thing. Some day I have to ask my brother how they actually made that bike.

Now I have the tandem jones all over again. I want a modern one and a classic. I'm hoping to get the cash together for perhaps a Kirk modern and then ask Sacha White to build a 650B wheeled classic. I've not had great luck attempting to persuade my pal Mike Barry to make us a Mariposa 650B tandem, but I'd put myself on that list in a heartbeat. My wife Aimee would love to stoke a Kirk, she being the owner of Dave's Hello Kitty special. It'll be pretty darn fun to look at too since I ride about a 60 and Aimee rides about a 46cm on a really tall day. I joke about getting a tag-a-long. But I think that riding tandem with my wife would be really really wonderful and she's all over the idea.

Tandems have one serious drawback and that's that they have never been inexpensive, especially when you like the crazy stuff that I like.

dbrk

[Kevan]

or is it more an aircraft carrier?

Nothing's more fun than throwing a double amidst some singles on a spirited ride. The singles can help pull the rig up the hill, everyone can dance on the flats 'n' rollers, but when the downhills come, get the hell outta the way. Love'm to ride with, but never had the pleasure beyond riding a 50 lb. Columbia (me thinks) in high school. That doesn't count.

You guys should check out Calfee's double Tetra and or D'fly. Super light, laughably expensive decked out, and needs to be registered as a dangerous weapon.

[zap]

Calfee tandems I've seen are noodles. However, I've seen a pretty strong team (strongest in USCF Nats. last year?) on one and it did hold up. We raced against that tandem 5-6 years ago with a different team on board so it's durable as well.

If we needed to get another Tandem frame, I'd spec the exact same Comotion that we currently have.

[Too Tall]

Where do I start????? You want stories. Hmmm. I'll start with recent and send more if this thread is popular.

My favorite is one during PBP where Queen and I rode through 3 controls with an x-pro escorting his AMAZING ancient dad through the ride....but that will have to wait.

How about last saturday. One of my old tandem racing pals on another team (the enemy) called and said he wanted to put the hurtin' on his race teams 65 mile training ride. What fun. drool drool. Right out of the lot he broke the seatpost pin...but he was well trained in the randoneer arts my yours truly and had a spare in his pocket. We chased at 28-34mph, caught and promptly had to stop and fix his saddle height...too high. Chased, thought my heart would explode...caught and some goon failed to point out a pot hole....pop! Guess what? Right. We chased, caught and NOW we had our blood up. This ride has two designated sprints. To be "fair" we pulled left, said nice and loud "OK, the tandem is going to sprint now" and nailed it. When the smoke cleared we were 100 ft. ahead of the fastest guys. No contest, we had the jump and top speed. After a chill out, attacks began in earnest. The tough guys figured the way to beat us up was to let the aggressive guys take fliers and let us chase them down and launch repeated attacks. Ooops, they misjudged. Our top chase speed was over 32 over rollers and we attacked THEM from the front!!! Caught the break and sat up. Everybody said UNKLE. After the rest for water, we had a nice warm up and a 1 mile climb out of North Beach...ZAP knows that one. I figured they'd work us over pretty good and we'd have to chase back on....DUMMIES! They relaxed so we rode tempo which was hard enough to reduce the attacks to one guy....which gave us the incentive to jump and attack him. Bingo! To my total amazment we cracked the entire group. Luckily their best regurgitators , uh I mean, climbers were not present. After THAT revelation the group kinda went numb and we rode away. At some point we stopped for a pee break...they were not in sight and my stoker...evil BASTARD...insisted we wait for the group so we could contest the second sprint. Yep, we won that too.

Result was alot of fun but the team was NOT happy as a whole...much grumbling. Their best guys were wetting their pants they were so damn happy to have all that speed to contest but the slower 3's, 4/5s and Masters guys were P'd.

Mind you, my stoker took bronze at Master's Nats this last yr. and his was the team that supported his training in the past. Go figure. Maryland is for crabs?

Anyway, I'm sort of stoked to take Queen (Too Tall's Master) to Master's Nats in Utah this yr. We will race the TT (hehe) and road race in the 90+ category. Like alot of crazy things we do, Queen puts total faith in me. (sigh) She is so innocent and sweet. Some people think the stoker just has to pedal. Eh! Wrong! They just have to be HAPPY. Seriously, think about it. As captain you need to spend as much energy pedaling as you do making damn sure the stoker is lovin' life or all hell breaks loose. Been there, called the cab. Life is good now that I've been properly trained. *the ringing in my right ear is still sort of a bother...but she hits alot less these days.

PS - My team (not the enemy) LOVES it when we show up. Queen and I make it a point to lead out the sprint and stay right so they can swarm left. It is a pretty sight....at 47mph.

Is it fun? Damn right. Is it fast? Depends. It should be fun first, perhaps fast will be fun but you should not worry about it unless the mojo is right.

DBRK - You and Dwan (CoMotion) would get along like classmates. Don't overlook his undeclared retro-grumpiness....drawwww it out of him Co-Motion is the ride of choice for most serious tandem racers. Despite what that conjures there is no need for a shock post for Mrs. Too Tall and that with 700X23 or 700 X 25's. In my opinion, the wild card in the awesome value tandem game is Long Bikes. He is building out of his garage and the tube set is VERY cool. Everything in my heart said that it was the race bike to build but I can't plunk down cash unless I know the builder has a long game. Worth a look and listen.

Saab - apologies for wreckin your groovy thread. let me make it up to you next time you are in DC.

Sheesh, I need a beer.

[EdK]

My wife and I have an out of production Litespeed Tandem (found it on ebay a year or so ago). There is nothing better than gradually accelerating at the front of a group until reaching motor pace speeds and looking back and having one or two of thirty folks left on your wheel. One drawback to a ti tandem is the stiffness (or lack of) we can rub the chain on front DR pretty hard when both of us are out of the saddle but this also helps the ride. Not certain I agree with the Calfee noodle analogy but this is one cool tandem. One cool Tandem (http://www.discounthealthfoods.net/details_on_the_tandem.htm)

[Smiley]

Tall Guy whom was your stoker du Jour when you inflicted said pain on your team mates? Was it Steve G. Thanks for letting me admire the ride sans the pain of getting dropped.

[vaxn8r]

My wife and I have been riding a 1986 Davidson steel, fillet brazed tandem since we got married. In all these years I haven't been persuaded to trade it in and it's still a looker. I did have it repainted about 7 years ago and I've upgraded components about 4 times. I'll have to post some pics...

DBRK, I can't believe you and your wife don't tandem. It's great for a marriage. And a very nice tandem seems no more expensive than a nice road bike, unless you do something really exotic. Check out Co-Motion prices. You'd be hard pressed to find a better riding tandem than what they build. The most amazing deal I've seen out there is a Cannondale with Ultegra for about $2,400. That's unbelieveable. Unlike their road bike, the handling is more neutral than I like but it's not bad. My Davidson and the Co-Motion ride just like a single....if that's what you like.

I've tried CF and ti tandems. To me they are both a bit too noodley, the Santana ti moreso than the Calfee. Tandems really should be steel or aluminum unless you you are a non-aggressive team I suppose. Even my wife and I love to sprint out of the saddle. That's an experience on ti!

Climbing is a bear. I never have quite figured out why. But there's nothing like speed, speed, speed....it's addictive.

[Spinner]

i have a co-motion co-pilot (steel with s&s couplers) that is a rocket. it never fails to impress new stokers, be they experienced bicyclists or not, young or old. speed is speed.

a good tandem should be part of every serious riders stable. it's a different style of riding that will improve your efforts on a single.

co-motion is a first-class builder and they are a real pleasure to deal with. my co-pilot is steady, stiff and comfortable. with the s&s couplers, the entire bike sans wheels can be packed in one airline-checkable case. evening when not traveling by air, i've packed the bike for ease of transport by car. it always blows my mind to see the co-pilot in the case. and it is always fun to rebuild it.

[TimB]

I'm not one to usually do this, but I love Tandems, and if someone wants a Hell of a Deal, this might be it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3667536586&category=2904