chuckdevoe
New Member
I have completed my tandem version of the Cruz bike, and it works quite well. I used a tandem I purchased in 1990, with a quill adapter for the road-bike style stem. This particular tandem is very tall, which makes the entire contraption a bit large. This bike takes a lot of effort and focus to control properly, as does any tandem. I recommend a smaller donor tandem if you want to try this yourself.
The Stoker on the tandem has both front and rear derailleur controls for independent shifting.
The front brake does not work well when the fork is flipped backwards, so I will put on a Sturmey-Archer X-RDC Cassette Hub with drum brake. Yes, the wheels are different sizes - 26 in front, 700c in back.
The front-wheel-drive and moving bottom bracket on the tandem is the smoothest of any of the MBB bikes I have tried. I have ridden about a thousand miles on my single MBB, using a small Gary Fisher Joshua frame.
It will be fun to move the conversion kit to another tall diamond frame single bike, just to see what the dynamics are like. It is actually quite easy to move the conversion kit form one bike to another, and I am hoping a drum brake assembly will make it even easier. All of the controls, including all of the shifter and brake cabling, will be able to move with the conversion kit, as a single unit.
I have more photos of the tandem, plus a video, at the following public photo album. That album includes photographs of a lot of different donor bikes, and step-by-step assembly photos. There have been some great donor bikes posted recently, so I will update my collection soon.
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/113154251355851458525/albums/5658921524745505169/5736972399958052386
The Stoker on the tandem has both front and rear derailleur controls for independent shifting.
The front brake does not work well when the fork is flipped backwards, so I will put on a Sturmey-Archer X-RDC Cassette Hub with drum brake. Yes, the wheels are different sizes - 26 in front, 700c in back.
The front-wheel-drive and moving bottom bracket on the tandem is the smoothest of any of the MBB bikes I have tried. I have ridden about a thousand miles on my single MBB, using a small Gary Fisher Joshua frame.
It will be fun to move the conversion kit to another tall diamond frame single bike, just to see what the dynamics are like. It is actually quite easy to move the conversion kit form one bike to another, and I am hoping a drum brake assembly will make it even easier. All of the controls, including all of the shifter and brake cabling, will be able to move with the conversion kit, as a single unit.
I have more photos of the tandem, plus a video, at the following public photo album. That album includes photographs of a lot of different donor bikes, and step-by-step assembly photos. There have been some great donor bikes posted recently, so I will update my collection soon.
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/113154251355851458525/albums/5658921524745505169/5736972399958052386
