Tandem wheel recommendations

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

Dear All,

I need to replace the 26" front wheel on our touring tandem now it's
buckled severely.

I don't think it's worth rebuilding as it is a fairly cheap hub.

I was planning on using a tough mountain bike wheel for this purpose.
Something like a Mavic 721 DH rim on a Deore disc hub, ideally 36 hole,
with plain guage spokes.

Why the disc hub? Are you planning to use discs? If not, stay with a normal
hub - no dish. Deore will be fine, or you could use the money saved by not
going disc to get LX or XT.

If you are planning to use discs, what sort of fork will you be using? Have
you seen that huge thread about Carlton Reid and quick releases? The
ejection forces they're talking about are a lot higher for tandems - I'd not
consider using a QR hub and discs on a tandem. If you want a bouncy fork, a
20mm axle offers lots of benefits for the big bike and carefully sidesteps
the ejection issue.

Quoted message said:

Do you think it will be up to it? Or do I need to go tandem specific?

36H on 26" wheels is fine for tandem use - all ours have this, MTB and
touring. I'd still get a fairly chunky rim - 721 will probably be ok. (we've
got sun rhynos on the touring tandem, 321 discs on the new MTB and a D521 on
the back of the old MTB).

Quoted message said:

Any other recommendations for wheels?

Not really. Maybe consider one of the heavy sun rims (Mammoth is probably
overkill though :-) ). Definitely get it built properly - how did you buckle
yours?

Quoted message said:

Would I get away with a similar set up for the rear wheel?

Rim, yes. Hub though - you'll need to get one to fit your frame. You need to
measure the space between your dropouts - could be 135, 140, 145 or even
160mm. Also consider what sort of braking you want - for a touring bike, a
drum brake is often a better choice of auxilliary brake than a disc. If you
go for a drum brake, you'll need a suitably threaded hub. Shimano XT tandem
hub is traditionally a good value choice for a road tandem - but that's 48H
(and 125 quid from SJSC, gasp!). Phil Wood are supposed to be jolly good,
and you can get them in whatever size you want, but they cost.

cheers,
clive

Hi

We've two tandems.

The Thorn explorer has Deore hubs with 26" Sunn Rhino rims. 4 years and around 16000 miles on the clock, neither front or back wheel has had any bearing maintenance at all. The front wheel is still as new, the back wheel is a bit rumbly, so could do with new bearings and grease-up (at the very least).

The Mercian has new XT 40H rear hub, A719 rims front and back. We've used a Ultegra dynohub 36H at the front. Not ridden yet, but our previous experience tells us that it should be sufficient for a front wheel.

And we weigh 370lbs between us.

Hope this helps

Keith

Thanks for that!

Ours is a Thorn Voyager. I built it up with parts from our original
Phillips Duo.

The wheel got rather damaged when our front pannier got dislodged and
caught in it having gone over a raised manhole at speed down a hill
last summer.

We were lucky really, lots of pinging spokes and a pringled wheel. We
didn't come off fortunately and I managed to fix the wheel enough to
carry on to Dorset (from Bedfordshire). Got the heart pounding though!

The fork doesn't have disk tabs on it but I thought we might want to
swap forks at a later date. We are just running Vs. I hadn't thought of
the reduced dish!

I also wanted a wheel I could put on my mountain bike should I need to!

I have D521s on my MTB and find them difficult to bend.

Hopefully the rear wheel will last a bit longer yet!

On 15 Feb 2006 06:16:00 -0800, [email hidden] said in
<[email hidden]>:

Quoted message said:

I was planning on using a tough mountain bike wheel for this purpose.
Something like a Mavic 721 DH rim on a Deore disc hub, ideally 36 hole,
with plain guage spokes.
Do you think it will be up to it? Or do I need to go tandem specific?

I had Sun Rhyno rims on my triplet, which was incredibly tough and
took many nasty potholes in its stride while weighed down with three
of us. I'd recommend them without hesitation.

Guy
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