Tandems of the forum

Beautiful!

Damn, that looks perfect!

Beauty!

Does anyone have a 140mm rear hub they'd be willing to sell?

They seem quite scarce. I was thinking about it and considering getting a 142 through axle hub, with a qr adaptor. Would that be unwise?

Don't see why that wouldn't be a good idea.

I've used a bog standard Tiagra hub and added a 5 mm spacer on the NDS. Improved the bracing angle slightly too.

Tiagra hub and added a 5 mm spacer on the NDS

Surely that gives 135mm?

Doesn't the spacer just cover the exposed part of the axle that would sit in the dropout?

I'm considering a 36H XT T780 as our frame measures 138mm but currently has an old 140mm hope hub.

Doh. Alivio, not Tiagra.

Respaced the axle, which leaves 3 mm of exposed axle each side.
What's wrong with the Hope?

Nothing yet, but finding good quality 40H rims is a chore. A lot of reports on these vintage Hope hubs is that the freehub cracks and there are no spares available anymore.

We're looking for a backup wheel and the A719 rim from Mavic is probably the best quality double eyeleted trekking rim going in 36H.

Ah, yeah. Have been on the same search for a decent rim for my Shimano 40h hub. Went for a Sputnik and an Alivio hub.

I don't think the Sputnik comes in 40H anymore, at least not in 700c.

Frustratingly the A719 rim still has a marking for a 40H option on the rim sticker, but Mavic have confirmed they've ceased production.

I gave up searching for anything 40H after searching up and down the internet, and went with a 36H Ryde Andra to make hub selection easier.

According to some tandem websites/forums I scoured at the time, modern rims/spokes/nipples are far far better than years ago and 40H rims are almost unnecessary, even for bigger riders or luggage.

JD Tandems have 40H rims (Alex G6000) but I would agree - 36H trekking/MTB hubs/rims will probably be fine. Find something with bearings in the freehub body as well as the hub shell, that'll make the biggest difference.

I'm about to build up a pair of 36h Mavic A319 rims onto Deore hubs for a cheap and cheerful tandem wheelset. The rims feel very strong, if a little heavy at 590g! The upgrade option would be Mavic A719 rims in 36h - 30g lighter per rim and apparently a little stronger still.

I'd be very happy with 36H trekking rims such as the A719, however the availability of suitable hubs in 140mm spacing is difficult. The only option I've found is the Orbit tandem hub that is 40H or 48H.

The only solution I found to recycle the 40h hubs
was the
Velocity Diad.

We were burning a set of A319s per tour – I think we got through three pairs in the end? The eyelets were going and rims were cracking. We got considerably more mileage out of the A719s that replaced them, but the rear of that set is on its way out now too. I would replace with the same if I could find one as I was happy with the lifespan (cumulative 3 months of hard touring, some more gentle pootling) but last I looked there were none around so I got our dynamo wheel built onto a beefy sputnik.

@6pt Ok interesting. Do you mind if I ask the total weight of riders plus luggage on these tours?

@motoko Yes that must be a challenge. Is there a 40h hub in 135mm spacing that could be fitted with a 5mm spacer, a la @JesperXT ? That's what I would do. You could also use a longer QR axle if you were concerned about the shortened length of exposed axle for the dropouts, but for example my 135mm Deore hub (albeit 36h) has 5.5mm of exposed axle on each end, so spacing this hub would also produce the same result as @JesperXT's - i.e. 3mm each side.

I was 80kg, genuinely no idea what the wife was but she's not massive. Carrying four of the big ortlieb panniers (stuffed full) and a couple of kilos of tent on the rack too, maybe 20-30kg of luggage? The front wheel was fine, only the rear that suffered. Kerb hopping in Germany and the concrete slab cycle paths in Belgium likely didn't help (kerthunk, kerthunk, kerthunk, kerthunk), but we were definitely careful on our first tour because we didn't know what we were doing and they still only lasted two weeks/1k miles.

No, I tried finding a 40h Sputnik too, but no luck. Ended up with a 36h Alivio hub and Sputnik combo.
Kinlin ADHN looks like it's available in 40h, but doesn't look the sturdiest

Rad build!

I went with DH wheels on my 26” tandem and they’ve been fine so far.