Tandem gearing

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Me
I am thinking about getting a tandem for me and my wife. She
is not a biker and therefore I may be doing most of the
work. I was wondering if it is possible to use a 52/42/30 in
front and a 12 / 32 in the back AND some sort of hub gearing
to give me a real wide range. I am open to suggestions but I
need to be able to hill the hills in Middle Tennessee Thanks

My stoker/wife is also not a cyclist, except when she rides with me.
I would suggest a 11-34 cassette and you can put a 24 or 26 on a 74 mm BCD crank. This will give you quite a range for those Tennessee hills without the expense of an internally geared hub.
I think you should try that combination before going further.
There is a tandem mailing newsgroup called Tandem@hobbes. They have an extensive searchable Data Base. Tandem rear hubs tend to cost more due to the design, wider OLD, and limited distribution.

You might take a look at all the discussions on the tandem
list (see [email hidden]).

I run a 54/42/26 on our tandem with a 12/32 and it has
enough low gearing for touring in New England.

Ted

"ME" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I am thinking about getting a tandem for me and my wife.
She is not a

biker

Quoted message said:

and therefore I may be doing most of the work. I was
wondering if it is possible to use a 52/42/30 in front and
a 12 / 32 in the back AND some

sort

Quoted message said:

of hub gearing to give me a real wide range. I am open to
suggestions but

I

Quoted message said:

need to be able to hill the hills in Middle
Tennessee Thanks

"ME" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I am thinking about getting a tandem for me and my wife.
She is not a

biker

Quoted message said:

and therefore I may be doing most of the work. I was
wondering if it is possible to use a 52/42/30 in front and
a 12 / 32 in the back AND some

sort

Quoted message said:

of hub gearing to give me a real wide range. I am open to
suggestions but

I

Quoted message said:

need to be able to hill the hills in Middle
Tennessee Thanks

See the Peter White Cycles page on TA tandem cranks:
peterwhitecycles.competerwhitecycles.comOpen ↗ By using something other
than the traditional 130bcd crankset (like the Shimano) you
can select the chainrings you need to suit your purposes. In
the back of many tandems are MTB cassettes (up to 11/34) and
derailleurs, and up front you could go with, say, 48/36/26
(or even 48/36/24) chainrings which should allow your team
to climb walls.

ME said:

I am thinking about getting a tandem for me and my wife.
She is not a biker and therefore I may be doing most of
the work. I was wondering if it is possible to use a
52/42/30 in front and a 12 / 32 in the back AND some sort
of hub gearing to give me a real wide range. I am open to
suggestions but I need to be able to hill the hills in
Middle Tennessee

You'll be speaking of the SRAM Dual Drive hub, that's the
only available one that will accept a multiple cassette
without a lot of do-it-yourself hacking. Shimano is also
scheduled to introduce something similar, but their
production is currently so backed up I wouldn't suggest
waiting for it.

Neither of these is suitable for tandem use with full-sized
wheels, only 36 spokes and not designed to withstand the
amount of torque you're speaking of.

For someone who's concerned about low gearing, I think it's
pretty silly to limit yourself with a 30 as the smallest
front ring. It would make much more sense to go with a 26 or
24, might even let you get by with a less extreme cassette.

See: sheldonbrown.com74Open ↗ for details on this.

Sheldon "Been Working On Shorter URLs" Brown +-----------------------------------------------
+
| I'll be appearing as Preposteros in | Gilbert &
| Sullivan's Thespis at M.I.T. | April 9-10,15-17
| web.mit.eduwwwOpen ↗ |
| sheldonbrown.commusic.htmlOpen ↗ |
+-----------------------------------------------+ Harris
Cyclery, West Newton, Massachusetts Phone 617-244-9772 FAX
617-244-1041 harriscyclery.comharriscyclery.comOpen ↗ Hard-to-find parts
shipped Worldwide captainbike.comcaptainbike.comOpen ↗
sheldonbrown.comsheldonbrown.comOpen ↗

ME said:

I am thinking about getting a tandem for me and my wife.
She is not a biker and therefore I may be doing most of
the work. I was wondering if it is possible to use a
52/42/30 in front and a 12 / 32 in the back AND some sort
of hub gearing to give me a real wide range. I am open to
suggestions but I need to be able to hill the hills in
Middle Tennessee

Others have pointed out slightly smaller (24,26) chainrings
you could use. (Well, i say "slightly" but the perceived
difference would be big).

If you were to find some sort of hub gearing that could make
a *substantially* bigger difference, IMHO you would soon
find it difficult to control the bike at such low speeds
going uphill. This based on my experience of many tandem
miles, and I enjoy trying track stands on the tandem (but
they make my wife nervous).

Mark "thinking about lowering my 32/32 tandem gearing"
Janeba

Sheldon Brown said:

ME said:

I am thinking about getting a tandem for me and my wife.
She is not a biker and therefore I may be doing most of
the work. I was wondering if it is possible to use a
52/42/30 in front and a 12 / 32 in the back AND some sort
of hub gearing to give me a real wide range. I am open to
suggestions but I need to be able to hill the hills in
Middle Tennessee

You'll be speaking of the SRAM Dual Drive hub, that's the
only available one that will accept a multiple cassette
without a lot of do-it-yourself hacking. Shimano is also
scheduled to introduce something similar, but their
production is currently so backed up I wouldn't suggest
waiting for it.

Neither of these is suitable for tandem use with full-
sized wheels, only 36 spokes and not designed to withstand
the amount of torque you're speaking of....

The SRAM DualDrive is used by Greenspeed (stop drooling!) on
their GTT tandem trike. However, it has an ISO 406-mm
drivewheel and the cranks can be mounted out of phase to
further reduce peak torque. Of course low speed balance is
not an issue, so very low gears may be used.

--
Tom Sherman - Quad Cities (Illinois Side)

Someone said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I am thinking about getting a tandem for me and my wife.
She is not a biker and therefore I may be doing most of
the work. I was wondering if it is possible to use a
52/42/30 in front and a 12 / 32 in the back AND some
sort of hub gearing to give me a real wide range. I am
open to suggestions but I need to be able to hill the
hills in Middle Tennessee

I replied in part:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

You'll be speaking of the SRAM Dual Drive hub, that's the
only available one that will accept a multiple cassette
without a lot of do-it-yourself hacking. Shimano is also
scheduled to introduce something similar, but their
production is currently so backed up I wouldn't suggest
waiting for it.

Neither of these is suitable for tandem use with full-
sized wheels, only 36 spokes and not designed to
withstand the amount of torque you're speaking of....

For some strange reason, someone else chimed in with:

Quoted message said:

The SRAM DualDrive is used by Greenspeed (stop drooling!)
on their GTT tandem trike. However, it has an ISO 406-mm
drivewheel and the cranks can be mounted out of phase to
further reduce peak torque. Of course low speed balance is
not an issue, so very low gears may be used.

I know that, but chose not to bring it up (except by my
reference to "full-sized wheels"😉 because adding extraneous,
irrelevant information like that in an otherwise informative
post just wastes people's time and leads to confusion.

Sheldon "Bandwidth" Brown +-----------------------------------------------
+
| I'll be appearing as Preposteros in | Gilbert &
| Sullivan's Thespis at M.I.T. | April 9-10,15-17
| web.mit.eduwwwOpen ↗ |
| sheldonbrown.commusic.htmlOpen ↗ |
+-----------------------------------------------+ Harris
Cyclery, West Newton, Massachusetts Phone 617-244-9772 FAX
617-244-1041 harriscyclery.comharriscyclery.comOpen ↗ Hard-to-find parts
shipped Worldwide captainbike.comcaptainbike.comOpen ↗
sheldonbrown.comsheldonbrown.comOpen ↗