The only personal experience I can offer is comparing a Santana Sovereign (4.5cm trail) to a Co-Motion Speedster (5.7cm) (both tandems). The bikes handled very differently, with the Santana requiring large inputs to steer while the Co-Mo required much smaller inputs, yet remained stable. I felt like I was driving an oil tanker on the Santana, while the Co-Mo behaved like a (long) single.
Are you confusing "rake" (offset) with trail? Trail is normally 5 cm (2"😉 or greater. If a bike had only 4.5 cm of trail it would be anything but sluggish in the steering department.
Quoted message said:
Remember, these are tandems, so the envelope of trail which is desired is different than singles.
Why do you say that?
And I still can't believe that a tandem with LESS trail handles more sluggishly than a tandem with more trail as you claim.
If you're talking about less fork offset, that's another matter.
Are you confusing "rake" (offset) with trail? Trail is normally 5 cm (2"😉 or greater. If a bike had only 4.5 cm of trail it would be anything but sluggish in the steering department.
Quoted message said:
Remember, these are tandems, so the envelope of trail which is desired is different than singles.
Why do you say that?
And I still can't believe that a tandem with LESS trail handles more sluggishly than a tandem with more trail as you claim.
If you're talking about less fork offset, that's another matter.
Here's links to a couple of discussions concerning tandem steering geometry. The participants in the second are all tandem manufacturers:
Hopefully they can clear the fog in this discussion, but this being Usenet, who knows?
Best regards,
Chris Neary [email hidden]
"Science, freedom, beauty, adventure: what more could you ask of life? Bicycling combined all the elements I loved" - Adapted from a quotation by Charles Lindbergh
