New tandem

[ThomD]

For about 3 years we've been working with Dave Bohm to have a custom tandem built. While we were in San Diego we picked up the bike. I've spent the week tinkering with the setup and finally did a photo shoot on Friday. The wife is sick, so we may not get to ride until next week.

There is nothing standard about this tandem. I hope it rides as good as it looks.

More photos and details are at our web site.

 

[mhiscox]

Congratulations, Thom. I'm in awe. (And I barely know what I'm looking at.) :bowdown:

 

[adventureduo]

That's one hell of a bike. Congrats to both of you. 45lbs isn't that bad for just about two bikes. It's really long too. That bottom bracket is nuts looking... fully adjustable wow. The set screws are like super long. That front rotor is cool looking with the geckos. How does that rear hub gear work? I've never seen anything like that without a derailleur. Very nice bike. My dad tried a million times to get my mom into riding with him, but he could never do it. That's awesome you guys both can share that together. Tandems are a blast.

 

[1speed]

Beautiful alternative to an eccentric BB shell. Actually beautiful all around! :drool:

 

[ThomD]

The Rohloff hub works by um, magic. Some sort of crazy planetary gear thing with a 7 speed range and a hi and low ranges for a total of 14 gears. The way that ours is setup, the low end is like a 24 front / 30 rear and the high end is like a 50/12. The big difference from a derailleur setup is that this can be shifted when stopped. The shift interval is 13.6% across all gears.

Wow, everything is on Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7USVMrg5phY

The shifter is a nob (like a grip shift) with two cables back to the hub. I wish somebody would rig a stepper motor and a push button setup.

Riding the tandem is probably the most dangerous thing we do. 40 mph with a beer cooler on my head. We must be nuts.

 

[Outback]

So what does something like this cost roughly? Its beautiful!

 

[Christophe Noel]

That's crazy. I've been in and out of the bike industry for a quarter century and haven't seen a bike like that. Really impressive, and I've seen some impressive bikes!

Is it just me, or is the stocker cockpit really that much longer than the captian's cockpit. The front looks short.

Congrats. That's a great application for a Rohloff hub.

 

[ThomD]

Flounder,

The stoker's compartment is longer than the captain's. Measured from the back of the Brooks saddle to the center line of the bars, the captain is 29.5" (10 cm stem). I'm 5'8", so that's all the reach I need. The stoker's can be 32" if the bar is all the way forward.

Outback:

This was so much work, which the builder massively under estimated, and the market is so small for custom tandems, it is not likely that Dave will build any more. He'd have to charge about as much as a fully optioned Adventure Trailer and believes that there is no market for that when a carbon fiber bike (weighing half what this one does) would be a few thousand less. If you really, really wanted one and offered about $20-25k you might get him to do it. Like I said though, Dave way under estimated this project, so we didn't pay any where near that much.

 

[Christophe Noel]

That makes sense, Thom. Bikes like these always make me think two things: Either this guy is so dialed into his process he can push the limits to the extreme and make it look easy or this poor fella was burried for months laboring over this project. Either way, it's remarkable.

Any specific reason the boom tubes extend past the joints? Sticks out there like a bow wave breaker. It gives it a really unique aesthetic. I like it.

How long to break it down and how big is the packed size?

 

[ThomD]

That makes sense, Thom. Bikes like these always make me think two things: Either this guy is so dialed into his process he can push the limits to the extreme and make it look easy or this poor fella was burried for months laboring over this project. Either way, it's remarkable.

Any specific reason the boom tubes extend past the joints? Sticks out there like a bow wave breaker. It gives it a really unique aesthetic. I like it.

How long to break it down and how big is the packed size?

Months!? More like years (working part time).

I think the boom tube extensions just sort of worked out that way. The lugs for the bottom bracket area extend beyond the down tube, probably for aesthetic reasons.

We haven't broken it down fully, just pulled the 2 center tubes. That takes about a minute to take apart is less than 5 minutes to reassemble. When we traveled to Hawaii with our other S&S bike, it took about 90 minutes to pack and maybe 60 to unpack. It is a two person job just because the bike is so large two people can be doing something at opposite ends. Tandems usually take two full sized pieces of luggage - one for wheels and a couple of small bits and one for the frame. 700Cs are hard to pack in non-oversized luggage, but these should be easy. I'm looking at Pelican cases for the frame, but we have no immediate plans to fly so that's a work in progress.

 

[24HOURSOFNEVADA]

One more needs to be built and placed in the MoMA. That has got to be one of the coolest bicycles ever built.

 

[Funrover]

She's a beauty!