Miitch's Time-Trial-Tandem

So it happened, I bought another tandem, and this one has horizontal drop outs and a gear hanger. So naturally it is being made into a fixed gear time trial machine.

It's got Dura Ace left hand cranks and chainrings, and a TA drive side chainring. The gearing is 57x15. It has 3ttt stem and bars, concor rear saddle and iscaselle front saddle. Shimano 105 levers with 105 front brake and weinmann centre pull rear brake. Campag pista pedals with christophe clips and gran premio straps. Stoker bars are a pair of cut down cinelli drops.

I was thinking about turning this into a HHST but due to this whole "university" thing I haven't got the time. So this will probably become a time trial tandem. My first thoughts are to swap the seatposts out for a matching pair that are easier to swap saddles on and off (as it's likely I will have a selection of stokers). Then because my arms aren't 10ft long I'm probably going to swap the bars out for a pair of mavic deep drop bullhorns and a pair of aero bars - not sure if I should keep the 105 brake levers or use some aero levers instead

Really looking forward to seeing this. What set-up is your other tandem? And are these the famous 70mph wheels?

Also intrigued about these bits:

Wow man, that's something you don't see on the roads quite often. Great find and looking forward to see the finished thing. :)

They're bits for all the gear cabling to run through, I could (if I wanted) run this with a front and rear mech, when I bought it, it came with a 1x5 set up with rear mech and cabling running to a band on lever between the stokers legs. I'm not sure how I feel about all those bits - not very aero...
And no, I skipped out on those wheels

Finally got the chance to ride this around regents park today and found the aero position surprisingly manageable. I'm probably going to swap the bars (and maybe stem) out for a pair of Mavic deep drop bullhorns - I just need to decide whether to run super modern super aero brake levers, which I already have two pairs of or if I should keep the 105 ones. Also I need to decide on a pair of matching seatposts. The current front one is zeus and the rear is unbranded I think, but both are a nightmare to change saddles on

That's a really good looking tandem. Sometimes they can look a bit awkward with weird proportions and odd-looking tube setups. That one is spot on.

Matching Mavic aero bars to match my bullhorns have been ordered and will be here soon - photo's will go up once they're here

Mavic aero bars have arrived - going to buy some oven cleaner and scrub them up - decision still needs to be made over whether to stick with the brake levers I have already on the tandem or if I should use modern aero bar end ones. Secondly - what colour bar tape? I'm thinking fluorescent yellow?

These are my two choices of "modern levers"

Before you choose levers consider the braking power you'll need on a TT with a 100 gear inches, needs two callipers on one wheel which requires a mod to cabling or lever. Tektro looks easier to modify

Unless ... tandem skidz? video if so please?

needs two callipers on one wheel which requires a mod to cabling or lever

Why? Mine is fine with conventional brakes, we have a third brake if @umop3pisdn tries to do mad skidz :-)

If @haveo will ride it with me I'm sure skidzzzz could be achieved...

I'm now looking for an 100mm stem with 26mm clamp. Can anyone suggest one that would match the bars/aero bars? Or if not just a cool stem?

For the pilot or stoker? I've always liked these:

well depends on the course. Wouldn't want to be motoring along on anything but a flat A road in the dry with a single pivot side pull calliper on the front

Why would you ride anything other than a flat A road in the dry?

175kg with two caliper brakes.

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I was caught mid-pout, please excuse this.
Anywho this is the current progress

I ended up using one of these

^^ would

So, how about a fixed tandem two-up? Potentially the most niche cycle race ever?

http://www.timetriallingforum.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=109966&hl=

I will have a think because that sounds mega

the most niche cycle race ever?

It's only a race if there is more than one team

Did someone say fluoro?
So this is the current progress, @haveo rode it with me yesterday and beside a few wobbles on starting off all was fine.
There are however just a few problems...
The bars have been cut/drilled to accommodate different brakes so it means the brake levers are positioned slightly far forward, especially on the left, therefore the hood hangs over the ends of the bar a bit plus the cable has a funny bend in it which means mucho de drag when applying the brake. I don't really fancy cutting any more holes in these distinctly cheese like bars.
So solution number 1 - put the holy bars on the back and find some new mavic deep drop horns for the front - this does involve finding a 27.2 to 26.0 stoker stem. It does also mean matchy matchy bars
solution 2 - get over it

Secondly the front (and half the rear?) cranks are on wrong way around due to the cross over drive so the pedals screw the wrong way - I'll want to use SPDs and probably sell the clips and straps.
Could I tap the threads to be the right way?
Also how on earth do my pedals work?...
This one has my brain hurting - has someone swapped the axles in the pedals?

Finally I want some new brake callipers - something beautiful and aero would be ideal (campag deltas?...) however I'm gonna want to stop this machine, and even modern aero brakes are notoriously pants, so I'm thinking black 105 callipers? any thoughts?

Stoker stem problem is easy to solve, just use a normal 28.6 stem and a shim.

Yes, the pedal axles have probably been switched to make non-tandem cranks into a crossover drive. If you're only using one chainring for final drive, you might as well change to straight through for the timing chain, because it's better in every way. You can't reverse tap the cranks, you'll be cutting away more than half the remaining metal

I've got 105 (BR-5700) brakes on mine, they're decent enough. If I ever switch to aero brakes, I'll probably go with Magura hydraulics.

So you're suggesting I run a double chainset instead of the TA chainset? Sorry for the naivety but why is straight through better?