[Closed] Discs for tandems

Why the rear and not the front?

There's a bloke named Tandemjeremy who posts but I can't remember if it's on here or Cycle Chat.

Actually you'll get an answer if you join CC as they are much more grown up there.

Ours runs Avid BB7 cable discs with plain 203 rotors at both ends. We haven't had any problems with it warping discs, even with a trailer on the back for longer touring and some pretty interesting descents. I often single finger brake with the front only too, so these discs have survived being worked pretty hard.

If your new purchase only has a rear disc as some do, consider getting it one for the front as well; JD Tandems stock a cheap and cheerful tandem disc fork. Good disc brakes deal with the greatest concern that many folk have over tandem use, that of being able to stop it safely.

[quote=globalti dijo]Why the rear and not the front?
There's a bloke named Tandemjeremy who posts but I can't remember if it's on here or Cycle Chat.
Actually you'll get an answer if you join CC as they are much more grown up there.

TJ is banned form this forum.

We run Avid Codes with 203mm rotors front and rear, they don't have a spider so presume they're plain steel?

thanks highlandman - this one has Avid BB7 f & r but only 160mm discs, so was going to upgrade to 203mm discs but didn't want to find I had trouble with warping if I went for the cheaper discs - just found some Avid G2's for £5.99 each at on one 🙂

globalti - its a tandem thing, problems with fade on long descents & the done thing appears to be rim brakes front & rear with additional disc brake at rear controlled by the stoker, oddly enough the one we have bought has 2 x rim brakes & 2 x disc brakes!

Good disc brakes deal with the greatest concern that many folk have over tandem use, that of being able to stop it safely

Have had a couple of tandems in the past with just cantilever brakes, scared the **** out of me.

Hope Ti6's with 203's front & rear here. Only time they felt near the limit was the bottom of the Glencoe red run.

I've heard JD Cycles tried Hope V2's on a mountain tandem and they we're pretty effective. The old magura Gustav was their brake of choice IIRC.

Worth noting that on our Cannondale a 203 rotor wouldn't fit on the rear, it fouled the inside of the chainstay, so 180 was the biggest we could use. The Ventana is fine for 203mm.

Happy tandeming.

Rob & Sandy

I've toured before on a tandem with canti's and a rear drum brake. Worked ok-ish, but the heat in the drum brake was incredible. I think it must have contributed to the many snapped spokes that occurred on the rear brake-side hub.

If I had one now, I'd want big disks front and rear.

Have had a couple of tandems in the past with just cantilever brakes, scared the **** out of me

amen to that! We had V brakes on the Cannondale MT1000 that we bought in about '98. First time out in the Peaks, the grassy trail down to Black Harry Gate - we were keeping up with a motorcross bike, and I had the brakes on full! Probably wasn't the brightest idea to then go down Eyam Quarry! Thankfully the barrier was up, otherwise we'd have gone into it at 30mph with the brakes on full 🙂

Probably not planning on anything other than light road touring (hopefully to the alps one day :-)) & none too exciting offroad (tow paths etc), anything more extreme & I think I'd find myself riding solo again

I've toured before on a tandem with canti's and a rear drum brake. Worked ok-ish, but the heat in the drum brake was incredible.

Arai used to make a special tandem drum brake with massive cooling fins - it was designed as a drag brake to be operated with a thumbshifter.

The one we had was worked off the same lever as the rear canti so couldn't be used in isolation. I can't remember the make, but it had small fins only.

If I knew the heat and extra spoke stress due to this, I would have had the wheels re-built before the tour.

Something like this:
[img] [/img]

Hotter than the sun!

Probably not planning on anything other than light road touring (hopefully to the alps one day :-)) & none too exciting offroad (tow paths etc), anything more extreme & I think I'd find myself riding solo again

This is my experience of 9 years of riding a tandem with a non-mtb-stoker.

If you want to disc up the front, make sure your fork is up to it.

We've both road and mountain tandems 🙂

When I ride the road one now, it's a bit scary compared to the stopping power on the mountain tandem - which has slx front and back with 203 (?) rotors. We stop well (too well - stoker told me I was going downhill too slowly last week).
The road tandem has four brakes. Canti's controlled from the front drops, a rear hub, and a rear calliper controlled by the soaker (when told to brake!). Key thing here i s that the cantos are matched to the drop levers, which are designed for cantis, as opposed to a calliper brake. And use high quality pads, checked often!

Just be aware that with a disc, the actual braking force, is transmitted to the tyre through the spokes. Rather than at the rim like canti's

Motorcycles have ben trying to get away from this for years

Edit ... what Yak said

Arai used to make a special tandem drum brake with massive cooling fins

Indeed - it was designed for mopeds and there is one on our Super Galaxy that is activated with a gripshift. It works.

Hope V2's with 203 vented rotors here.
Only thing we've found that works consistantly.
Had some Maguras that were OK but on long descents the pads used to get that hot that they wouldn't grip the disc properly. They'd slow us down but not be able to actualy stop where we wanted to. 😆

I'd also recomend getting braided hoses (specialy on the rear) as they can suffer from heat damage.

singlespeedstu - Member

I'd also recomend getting braided hoses (specialy on the rear) as they can suffer from heat damage.

The long run to the rear caliper of over 2 metres also makes the lever feel spongey if you don't use braided hose.

We've been perfectly happy with 185mm (old Hope DH4) and normal hose even for the rear. I don't deny that a higher spec might be even better, but this has been plenty to lock the rear at will and it's the front that generates most of the heat most of the time anyway.