I thought given that I only had about $2,000 to spend I better buy a used tandem. I wanted to spend about $1,500 on the bike and use the rest for things we'll probably need soon (rack, other accessories, cool matching jerseys, you know - stuff). We went to a shop in Houston and rode a small sized Santana. It was a little squirrely since it didn't fit me up front (I'm 6 foot, Ellen is 5 foot 2"). We sat on but did not ride a medium size frame with 26" wheels, and it fit us better. I started e-mailing folks that had advertized their bikes on-line (such as the excellent classifieds at Tandem Magazine , E-bay, and The Tandem Club of America . I also subscribed to the Tandem@Hobbes e-mail list, inquiring there when I had a question. The Tandem Link is a wonderful portal to lots (and I mean lots) of good information as well.
While I was digging around, I made contact with Jim at Meridian Tandems . He had some "close-out" models, one of which was a medium sized (which we wanted) aluminum (which made sense) with 26" wheels (which helps give us the standover my stoker desires). Well, the price on the closeout was $2,000. I tacked on a little more to convert the front end to drop bar with STI ($125). I made the deal and started dreaming of riding our new bike.
The bike was packed very well in the box. The only problem I found was one of the little metal ferrules where the gear cable for the rear derrailler is attached to the head tube was bent. It looks like the handlebars (which were secured to the front fork for shipping) somehow the STI lever was tripped, causing it to pull cable (as if shifting up a gear or two) and it tightened the cable too much, bending the ferrule. (Picture to come!) I may have to replace the front piece of cable housing and the thimble-shaped piece. In the garage the shifting seems to work OK, we'll see about it on the road. Luckily, these pieces cost a few pennies (I may take one reader's suggestion that I use nylon instead of steel, we'll see what I can find) but it will still take a little while to re-thread and adjust the cable again.
Assembling the bike was an adventure. I had three boys helping me (two three
year olds and a six year old). "Why are you doing that?" "Where does this go"
"What happens if I do this?" Basically, I had to:
All of this took a while because the night before I had thrown my back (either a pinched nerve or a pulled muscle or something but it hurt a lot) and the same day the bike arrived I came down with a mild flu or something that gave me a fever.
When the bike is finally together, wouldn't you know it - a freak rainstorm. It had not rained in at least three weeks, so we needed it (it's near 100 degrees here every day) but I didn't want to try out the shiny new bike in a thunderstorm.
El decided she didn't like the toe clips we put on in the back, so I'm going to get her some alternate pedals. I'm in the process of getting some real alternates but for now we have some ultra-cheap flat pedals the LBS gave to me.
So, bike arrives Tuesday, I get first rather short ride in on Thursday. Wonder what Friday will bring?
Something that comes to mind is I have no manuals whatsoever for my new toy. Also, since it was mail-order direct from the factory, I didn't have someone to put it together and look it over. If something happens to the STI or brakes, I don't know how to fix them. The last new bike I purchased was in the mid-to-late eighties and when the indexing on the downtube shifter acted up I simply turned it off (Suntour made some lovely stuff, didn't they?). I'm still new to bike mechanics so I'll be dependent on local shops which are not used to working on tandems, more like Trek MTB's and Huffy's and a few road bikes - it's a college town. Thanks to the internet I can look up a lot of things and I know enough basic things like to grease the seatpost and pedal threads before installing the parts. But I've never dealt with an Aheadset, Avid brakes, STI, or Velocity rims before. For that matter I've never owned a tandem, either.
Stem height. Below somewhere I talk about how just looking at the bike I can see I want to raise the captain's handlebars. I know this because the seat is way higher than the handlebars and that is not my style of bike fit. I have no desire or need to be in a severe aero tuck when we're cruising around trying to smell the roses. Again, had I seen this at the showroom it would be a non-issue, since I would have swapped stems. Since we don't have a tandem shop in town, I'll likely hold off until I make it to Houston or Dallas (with the bike) and change out the stem for one with a better angle. As it happens, the reach from the saddle to the bar is almost exactly the same as it is on my single, a happy coincidence. I might get one of the risers that I've seen on the web as an intermediate solution.
Frame pump, spare tubes, junk like that. Ditto the above. They weren't promised nor expected to be part of the new bike, but it sure is easier buying them when you can try things on for fit and color right at the store. My single pump won't fit on this frame since it is the wrong size, and since the rims are the 'deep V' variety I don't think any spare tubes I have will work -- their stems aren't long enough. No long rides until we get this fixed, obviously!
I will keep this page updated as we learn about our new bike and tandeming in general. I am an avid cyclist (well, as avid as a 270 pound middle aged man can be) but my wife is not. I have a three year old that will probably ride on the back when my wife doesn't want to -- I'm hoping to get a stokid adapter soon. We have a trailer for when we all wish to ride.
Looking at the bike in the garage, I have two first impression thoughts about the fit: I need a taller stem, and the stoker compartment (er, top tube) is way longer than I imagined, so I may need some kind of longer stoker bar extension. Until we ride it a few times I can't be sure.
The handlebars are lower than the saddle right now in the captain's position, which is not how I ride on my regular bike. Silly me, I didn't think about the Aheadset and just pictured being able to raise the front stem like I would on a single. The steering/headset on this bike is much, much beefier than I've ever seen on a single. A friend sent me a tip about a threadless extension, which looks like it extends the steerer up so you can just adjust your existing stem to the height you wish. I'm going to look into this.
Ellen has fairly short arms and is not that comfortable in a low position on the bike - she prefers the upright style of a mountain bike (which is part of why we bought a MTB style tandem in the first place). We have a telescoping stoker bar setup but I'm not sure if it will go as far as she likes.
Overall, I am very pleased so far. I hope to have much more to add as we start riding.