# nice looking Kirk



## kiwisimon (Oct 30, 2002)

wish i had one of these, maybe one day. love the color.


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## MB1 (Jan 27, 2004)

Sweet indeed.

I didn't know he made tandem frames.....


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## kiwisimon (Oct 30, 2002)

and it's not carbon NTTAWWT.


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## David Kirk (Mar 6, 2005)

Hey....... that looks familiar!

That is the first "Kirk" badged tandem I've made but I designed and built plenty of them in a past life. I like doing them very much and it's really fun to work the unusual angles with fillets.

I like fillets.

I'm glad you like the look. It's on it's way to it's owner as I write and should be built up soon.

later,

Dave


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## kiwisimon (Oct 30, 2002)

DK: would a terraplane seat stay help to soften the ride for the stoker or is there too much leverage on the frame due to the longer wheelbase so any flex would be taken up with the extra forces?


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## David Kirk (Mar 6, 2005)

kiwisimon said:


> DK: would a terraplane seat stay help to soften the ride for the stoker or is there too much leverage on the frame due to the longer wheelbase so any flex would be taken up with the extra forces?


They may help and they were briefly considered in for this bike. However I never experiment on customer bikes. When the Terraplane stays were first developed there was lots of prototyping to end up with the right spring rate and I just haven't had the opportunity to do that same R&D with a tandem.

My gut tells me that the benefits would be few. The main benefit of the Terraplane stays isn't the smoother ride but the better and more consistent contact of the rear tire to the ground. On a single the frames are so stiff for the load they carry that rear tire bounce and skip is common. On a tandem - not so much. The combined rider weight pretty much glues the tire to the ground. Traction on a tandem is seldom an issue.

For more ride comfort tire size and/or suspension seat posts are a very good option.

Thanks for asking.

Dave


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