# We've become Tandem People



## android (Nov 20, 2007)

We grabbed an old Santana Arriva off Craig's list today. I looks to be from the mid 90's.
It was in decent shape and cleaned up pretty nice. I spent the evening putting on our saddles, pedals, Aztec brake shoes and pads and some fresh cables. Still have to true the wheels and put on some narrower bars and a shorter stem.

I grabbed a Salsa brake booster off eBay, but I only found one so far. I'm thinking I should add it to the rear since the forks are a lot beefier than the seat stays. Does that sound reasonable?

Also, how do we stop without falling over?

http://picasaweb.google.com/kelleyawilks/Tandem?authkey=XIXNstF3RI4&feat=directlink#


----------



## wooglin (Feb 22, 2002)

Looks real nice. Are the tires decent? They look dry. Also, that looks like a 1 1/8" threaded stem. Those are hard to find, at least around here. I could be wrong though. 

Stoker keeps her feet on the pedals. You hold it all upright.


----------



## MB1 (Jan 27, 2004)

Put the booster on the front brake, on a tandem you don't have to worry about lifting the rear wheel off the ground.

Talk to the stoker and let him/her know what you are doing but know that the Captain is responsable for keeping the bike upright. The stoker really never needs to unclip except to get off the bike.


----------



## android (Nov 20, 2007)

I put on some Michelins Axial Pros that claim to be 700x25, but are at least 700x28. I'm sure they won't last long, but it's better than what was on there I think.

The headset looks threadless to me, although I haven't disassembled it. It says aheadset on it and has a compression cap and spacers.

My hub is a Hadley and there is currently an 8 speed cassette on it. I'm thinking I should be able to put on any 8/9/10 cassette on this hub, Does that sound right? 

I hope I can upgrade to current Ultegra 10 without too much hassle.

Also looks like I could still get a drum brake for it too. Austin is too hilly to be short ended on brakes.


----------



## MB1 (Jan 27, 2004)

android said:


> I put on some Michelins Axial Pros that claim to be 700x25, but are at least 700x28. I'm sure they won't last long, but it's better than what was on there I think.
> 
> The headset looks threadless to me, although I haven't disassembled it. It says aheadset on it and has a compression cap and spacers.
> 
> ...


The problem with 10 speed is getting that wide range rear cassette (check and see if Santana will sell you one). Folks have reported all sorts of problems with the IRC wide range 10 spd cassette-you are likely to do better with 9 speeds than use one of those.

I'd say that you should be more concerned about getting the gear RANGE you are going to need for your fitness and riding conditions than the NUMBER of gears.

I like those Hadley hubs, very easy to work on (yes 8, 9 or 10 should be o.k.).

Drumb brakes work great as heat sinks for mountains, not so well as stoppers. Likely your rims just aren't going to build up enough heat to justify one but Tandems East ought to have the Arai Drum in stock.

If it says "Aheadset" it is threadless.


----------



## android (Nov 20, 2007)

I called Santana today and ordered the drum brake and the Mega-10 11-34 cassette. Those are the only specialty parts other than cranks which I'm not going to fool with. 

I test fit a Dura Ace 11-23 cassette on the hub and it fits perfectly, so upgradation will be an easy option whenever I get the derailleurs and shifters. The 105 shifters are pretty close to shot. The FD won't hold the high position, so it's gonna need it soon.


----------



## wooglin (Feb 22, 2002)

MB1 said:


> If it says "Aheadset" it is threadless.


Yup, my bad. Looking again I can see spacers.


----------



## rodar y rodar (Jul 20, 2007)

Hot stuff, Android! It looks like a lot nicer components than ours has, hope you have a blast riding it! Yeah, I always get on first and hold the bike while my wife gets herself set up and strapped in, then I clip in one foot when she`s ready, and we push off. Stopping is the reverse. We`ve definitely had some problems to overcome, but for some reason we haven`t tried falling over yet.



MB1 said:


> Put the booster on the front brake, on a tandem you don't have to worry about lifting the rear wheel off the ground.


 MB1 (or other experienced tandemer), could you please explain tandem braking theory for me? What you say about the back not lifting makes sense, but it also seems that the back doesn`t tend to skid, even hitting the brakes hard. I read a comment once from a poster who said he wore out rear brake pads much faster on his tandem than front pads because he uses his rear brake as the primary stopper. For the most part, I use the front more since it`s what I`m used to doing. It DOES seem to work for us, so I`m not too worried about it, but reading your post just now makes me wonder if there`s a "recomended" method and if there are some related considerations I haven`t thought about. Thanks.


----------



## android (Nov 20, 2007)

rodar y rodar said:


> Hot stuff, Android! It looks like a lot nicer components than ours has, hope you have a blast riding it! Yeah, I always get on first and hold the bike while my wife gets herself set up and strapped in, then I clip in one foot when she`s ready, and we push off. Stopping is the reverse. We`ve definitely had some problems to overcome, but for some reason we haven`t tried falling over yet.


OMG!! We did a quick shakedown ride yesterday, but today was our maiden voyage. Did a small group ride and went 30 miles over a mostly rolling route with a few long hills. Wife absolutely loved it and we had a bit of tailwind and were just flying on the homeward stretch and hit 38mph. 

I got the stopping thing figured out. I think I was missing the resting the top tube against the inner thigh part. Once I got that down, we had it made. She a really good stoker and I think her sense of balance from dressage really helped her to figure out where to be on the bike quickly.


----------



## MB1 (Jan 27, 2004)

android said:


> ....Wife absolutely loved it......


Way to go! :thumbsup:


----------

