How Do These Airborne Specs Look?

On Mon, 25 Jul 2005 20:54:10 -0700, Mark Hickey rote:
David Damerell wrote:

[The back brake's a Suntour self-energiser, so I've no idea how well a
conventional canti works on a tandem.]

That's probably the one place that self-energizing brake makes sense
(since the back end of a tandem never gets TOO light under braking -
I've yet to see anyone do a nose wheelie on one). ;-)

You still don't want to *lock* the wheel, though. Especially as recovering
from a slide might be harder with two people acting on instinct. And you
definitely don't want to lock the front wheel of a tandem.

Jasper

Jasper Janssen wrote:

On Mon, 25 Jul 2005 20:54:10 -0700, Mark Hickey rote:
David Damerell wrote:

[The back brake's a Suntour self-energiser, so I've no idea how well a
conventional canti works on a tandem.]

That's probably the one place that self-energizing brake makes sense
(since the back end of a tandem never gets TOO light under braking -
I've yet to see anyone do a nose wheelie on one). ;-)

You still don't want to *lock* the wheel, though. Especially as recovering
from a slide might be harder with two people acting on instinct. And you
definitely don't want to lock the front wheel of a tandem.

It took a lot of tinkering with my Santana's rear brake before I had
to worry about locking it up (or it doing much to actually stop the
bike for that matter...). FWIW, I've found the tandem to be very
controllable under a rear wheel skid, probably because of the
humongous wheelbase. That said, I didn't lock up the rear wheel very
often because it (obviously) is REALLY hard on rear tires. ;-)

Mark Hickey
Habanero Cycles
http://www.habcycles.com
Home of the $795 ti frame

Quoting Jasper Janssen :
[Tandem rear brakes and self-energisers]
You still don't want to *lock* the wheel, though. Especially as recovering
from a slide might be harder with two people acting on instinct.

Actually, it's not a big deal, provided your stoker is level-headed enough
not to scream and wave their arms around. I'm not saying it's a problem if
they do; I don't know, because mine doesn't. The bike's pretty stable in a
rear wheel skid - of course if you were cornering sharply you'd be a bit
boned, but that's just as true on a single.

Also it is quite difficult to get wheel-locking performance out of any
tandem rear brake - just as well, given the effect on tyres when you do.
--
David Damerell flcl?
Today is Second Oneiros, July.