René, Your bike looks great! It is interesting to see the blue cables stand out less on the complete build than they did in your first set of photos. I'll be curious to see if my Klamper has issues like you describe. Before bending the tabs I wonder if the in and outboard adjusters on the Klamper could be loosened to allow the rotor to spin without contact; the effect would be a drag brake like a drum rather than having the close tolerance and power of a primary stopper. As far as the video is concerned, I'd like to recommend disregarding the last step as it applies to clipless pedals. Having ridden a tandem with my wife for years and then with my sons, the start is much easier without clipless pedals. I'd recommend you tell your son (and your wife) to start pedaling and NOT stop. The video shows the stoker stop pedaling to allow the captain to clip in. Without clipless pedals, this pause is unnecessary and makes for a much smoother start, just as it does on a single bike. One other recommendation I have is to shift gears before you stop; as you coast toward a stop (and literally announce, "coast" to your stoker), shift gears (and literally announce, "shift" and spin one rotation). What this affords is the ability for the stoker to easily pedal the bicycle forward when you start again. On a single bike many people do this subconsciously. On a tandem it must be communicated. This holds true for many other single bike behavior, like pausing while pedaling to drink, reposition, stand, etc.
Cheers, Patrick On Sunday, June 4, 2017 at 1:31:31 PM UTC-4, Julian Westerhout wrote: > > Rene, > > Congratulations on the first ride! > > Bill McReady of Santana tandems is a promoter of what he calls "the proper > method" for starting and stopping. I can't find a link on their website to > his now old original article, but did find a short Youtube video of a > couple demonstrating the method. > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pm4Hf4izxtw > > I find it really works to make things smooth -- that plus communication to > your stoker of bumps, etc. as much as possible. > > You might want to take it out for a few short rides on your own w/o a > stoker just to get the feel for the long bike in turns, stopping, etc. > > As far as your disk mount goes, I'm not sure I follow. On my setup the > brake caliper is attached to an mount/adaptor, which is attached to the > frame bosses. The mount/adaptor has a fair amount of side to side > adjustment possible so a parallel setup of the caliper is fairly easy. Does > your setup not have that adjustability? > > As far as the tire pressure goes, what is the recommended max on the > Switchback Hills? We ride Hetres on our Bilenky -- usually at 50 +/- psi, > even loaded and pulling a trailer I do not go over 60 psi, and we're (at > least me) not a small team. On the HHH I'm running Maxxis Re-Fuse at > about 45 psi so far, although they're a bit wider than > the Switchback Hills. > > Julian Westerhout > Bloomington, IL > > > On Sunday, June 4, 2017 at 11:29:18 AM UTC-5, René wrote: >> >> After being away for two weeks for work and waiting for parts, the >> Hubbuhubbuh is finally finished! >> >> https://flic.kr/p/Vpyjod - keep scrolling. >> >> I still want to add Fenders, and the front one will be Rinkoed, but I >> need more time for that. In the meantime, it's ready to roll and start us >> on the tandem riding learning curve. >> >> First maiden ride was with my son, and it quickly highlighted the fact >> that we do need to learn how to coordinate our action and do the team >> dance. Very short maiden ride in front of the house, and by the end things >> were much improved. I still was petrified to take my hands off the grips, >> no shifts were done, starting and stopping successful but not smooth yet. >> >> It has made me realize that he and I need to practice plenty before I'm >> comfortable enough to try to go for a try with my wife. I don't think it's >> going to take long, but it's going to take some work for sure. Tandem >> riding seems to be an exhilarating experience, it just adds another >> dimension to the experience of riding a bike. >> >> I'm very happy I followed my "gut" and ordered the Hubbuhubbuh when >> announced. If you're thinking about getting one on the next order, do so. >> It's a whole new experience. >> >> A few notes: >> >> - The recommendation to use the Spar Urethane for the cork grips was >> excellent. I really like how they turned out after three coats. Beautiful, >> very smooth and great feeling when holding them. >> >> - On my frame, it seems the disc brake tab is not perfectly parallel to >> the disc rotor. I swapped the Paul disc brake that like most mechanical >> disc brakes only has one piston on the outside which would run the rotor a >> lot, with a TRP Spyke mechanical disc brake which has pistons on both >> sides, and after adjusting it, almost all of the ribbing was removed, with >> the wheel spinning freely. I'm sure the little rubbing that remains will >> disappear once I brake-in the pads and rotor, but I'm going to explore how >> difficult it would be to straighten that tab, or what can be done about it. >> I have a lot of experience with disc brakes on my mountain bikes, but have >> never had to deal with this issue before. >> >> - I tried to use a quick link on the timing chain with the idea that it >> would make it easy to open the chain to try different front/back pedal >> positions, but found that it didn't allow me to get the proper chain >> tension, essentially resulting in a extra link. So I removed it and now >> only need a very minor twist to the eccentric. With the link and the >> eccentric at its maximum chain length adjustment, it still seemed the chain >> had too much slop. I saw a chain length recommendation from Mark/Grant but >> have yet to count the number of links I currently have. I'll still bring >> the Hubbuhubbuh to my LBS mechanic so he can check it and review the disc >> brake tab issue. >> >> - Love the Compass SwitchBack Hill 48mm tires. They roll super smooth and >> fast. They come to about 50mm mounted on the Hubbuhubbuh rims. I did have >> to inflate them beyond their recommended maximum since the tandem plus >> riders is so much higher. I'll experiment with the pressure over time to >> find the best one. How do folks with tandem experience deal with the tire >> pressures? >> >> This is all for now. I'll report as I get more riding experience. >> >> René >> > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. 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