Tester's Tandem

What tyres are you going for? Also, why you no arrobars?

Tyres are Vittoria Diamante Radiale 700x24
May add tribars later, let's see how we get on
TM - how often do you think I'd be able to race this on the track? Might have a test drive round Palmer Park before I put the brakes on.

Is there's a specific fork you're getting for this?

There's a specific fork I've already got, a great big lump of a steel CX fork. Ideally I'd like something shorter, but the headset is 1" so any fork upgrade is going to mean a visit to a framebuilder.

Things are slowly happening, seat posts, saddles, bars and stems are all attached to the frame instead of just laying around in boxes. Rear cranks are on and the chain misses the stays after adding 2mm spacers to get the rings far enough apart to let the final drive chain pass the synch chain, so final drive chainline won't be too wide. Front BB will dispense with the stock threaded eccentric and cups, with the bearings pressed straight into a new plain bore housing:

Needs home-made aero helmets.

So approx how much faster would you be if you were riding both positions compared to on a regular bike?

Id be scared riding that :)

Don't know, there don't seem to be online estimators for the CdA of a tandem :-)

Yates & Hutch are capable of about 46-47mins solo on the R25 and did 43:39 together, so about 5% faster.

This needs pictures!

Oh i would have guessed quite abit more, interesting.

Awesome, can't wait to see this come together.

Oh i would have guessed quite abit more, interesting.

It might be more for slow riders, but at over 34mph every second lost at turns makes a huge difference. We'll see what happens when Andy gets on the back, as solo riders we're fairly close, assuming I get back to something like race fitness.

Getting edjucated here, thats good.

I dont ride track myself nore do i ride at 34mph + So why does one loose so much speed at turns on a tandem?

This is mine:

Frame was Jason Queally's WC one

would be great to get these two tandems racing at herne hill

Do a Tandem day :)

It might be more for slow riders, but at over 34mph **every second lost at turns **makes a huge difference. We'll see what happens when Andy gets on the back, as solo riders we're fairly close, assuming I get back to something like race fitness.

So you're talking about tandem time trialling yeah?

Difference tween solo and tandem on the track should be more since no turns?

...So why does one loose so much speed at turns on a tandem?
Just guessing here, but I would think the longer wheelbase means a wider turning circle and therefore slower.

Hmm nope not buying that but what do i know :)

Maybe you cant take corners as quickly as you have more (almost double) weight going down to the same sized contact patch?

It might be more for slow riders

Anecdotally I concur. There's a couple of slightly larger chaps at my local club TT who regularly fly past me on their tandem. Either it makes a big difference for them or I'm slower than I thought!

Maybe you both lean in different directions.

My only experience of fast tandems is on the track where they get more wind up laps than solo riders before doing a flying 200 and they take a lot (like a LOT) longer to slow down.

Granted brakes and gears will overcome some of that but would still expect a solo bike to brake turn and accelerate much quicker than a tandem could.

I'd have thought acceleration on a tandem would be quicker if you were running the same gear. The only reason it wouldn't be is because you can get away with a higher gear with two people pushing.

I would image that acceleration from slow speeds would be slower on tandems regardless of gearing. Timing as a team must make it hard to get all the power out.