Racing Tandem - Recommendations?

RapDaddyo said:

I am planning to build up a racing tandem. It will be built 100% for racing, not touring or anything else. I plan to put a PowerTap SL hub on it, so have to go with standard brakes. Lightweight but strong is key (don't want the bottom end moving around under high power). I weigh 175 lbs and the stoker will not be any heavier. Any suggestions for frame and components?

You might want to check out Co-motion cycles - they make tandem racing bikes and sponsor tandem events in the NW
co-motion.comco-motion.comOpen ↗

Santana turns out a titanium frame, if you're into permanent damage to your credit rating.

A good buy in a reasonably lightweight tandem is the Cannondale, which has an aluminum frame. My wife and I have been tooling around on one for the past couple of years. Reasonably light (around 35 pounds for the whole bike, which is slim for a tandem), reasonably stiff, plenty of room for the stoker. New 'dales can be hard to find at times - they make them in batches, so if a shop doesn't stock one, it may take some time to order.

I don't recommend fitting standard bicycle wheels or brakes to a tandem. Typically, tandem wheels are 40-44 spokes, hubs are substantially beefier, and the brakes and rims are correspondingly heavier. The tandem subjects the wheels and brakes to twice the normal load of a single rider bike, and that's an invitation to catastrophic brake failure if you're using single rider components. Never a good thing, and possibly fatal.

If you want to save some dough pick up a Tsunami tandem frame. I built one with full Record/Dura-Ace for less than $3000 with Bontrager race-lite tandem wheels and disk brakes. I am around 200lbs, and my stoker is about 150. It seems much stiffer than my parents cannondale (which we rode before I bought this one) and I have no complaints...of course I am sure there are nicer, but for like 500 bucks the frame and carbon fork is a spanking deal. They are sold through chucks bikes, and he has like three versions (one with a Ti boom, one with racing geometry, and one with more relaxed geometry), and we have the racing version. Make no mistake, they are cheap made in Asia frames, but like I said it is still a very good deal.