# wheelset for tandem



## slowoldguy (Feb 3, 2009)

I am curious about what sort of wheels can actually be used on a tandem? My wife and I only weigh 275 lbs. total, which I am thinking makes us about the same weight as a heavy single rider. A friend of mine is a 240 lb. racer, and he swears that Campy Eurus wheels are the only ones strong enough for him to ride on. I have a spare set of these around, as I took them off my road bike because they were too stiff. So I am wondering if these would work on my Cannondale tandem? I figure my wife and I are good for about 400 watts total, while my friend probably puts out 1000 watts in a sprint finish, so we should be fine. However, I have noticed that tandems seem to come with some really beefy wheels, so I am guessing that I am missing something.


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## MB1 (Jan 27, 2004)

slowoldguy said:


> ... so I am guessing that I am missing something.


What you are missing is rear drop out spacing.

Half bikes mostly use 130mm spacing between the rear dropouts and MTBs use 135mm spacing. Tandems mostly use something between 140mm and 160mm spacing.

A half bike front wheel will fit in your forks just fine, the rear wheel likely won't.


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## slowoldguy (Feb 3, 2009)

MB1, you are correct. My frame is 145 mm at the rear, so it looks like I am limited to tandem-specific wheelsets. The wheels that came on the bike are about 2500g total, and I am a big fan of light wheels on my "half bike", so I naturally started thinking about how to get some lighter ones. We are still having fun with the bike as is, so lighter wheels are just something I will keep in the back of my mind for now.


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