Tandem and Trailer

Our loyal travel companion since 2001!

Tandem

We had the possibility to buy a "no brand" tandem frame for a bargain price. Therefore, we had the opportunity to mount the parts we really wanted and trusted. Of course we could profit from our experiences we had with our first tandem and just as naturally we changed a couple of things after the first tour... Until now, our bicycle is doing a fantastic job and runs smooth apart from a few tiny flaws. A great thing from A to Z!

frame	Mountainbike frame aluminium, 26", incl. some special tandem parts
fork	CrMo, ahead-set With affixtures to mount the Lowriders.
front wheel	Mavic D521ceramic, 26" 36-holes, DT swiss H�gi TD hub L=100mm, DT swiss Alpine III spokes
rear wheel	Alexrims Supra-V pro, 26" 36-holes, DT swiss H�gi TD hub L=135mm, DT swiss Alpine III spokes, Bob Yak axis It is advisable to have a spare of the free wheel as in our case this part breaks regularly.
ahead set	FSA Orbit Better use a heavy and strong one than a sophisticated hightech part.
handle-bar	MoDoLo Supports three different positions. At the back an additional handel bar has been added (spares Patrizia from backache).
handle-bar grip	HandEeze Comfortable and solid handhold
bells
rear mirror	An absolutely indispensably piece. Really advisable.
front light	We try not to cycle at night anyway, and if we have to we use the headlamps.
back light	LED light with big refectors.
brakes	Magura HS33 incl. BrakeBooster Rim brakes, absolutely maintenance-free. Maybe we would now change to disk brakes, but only because reliable heavy duty rims for conventional brakes are not manufactured anymore.
gear shift	Sram Rocket
front gear shifter	Shimano XT Well-tested and reliable technique. Many swear by speed-hubs but until now we did not meet any speed-hub cyclist who did not have to replace his expensive Rohloff speed-hub because it broke.
rear gear shifter	Shimano XT dito
cables	Teflon Special length for the rear
stand	Although it's a solid rear weel stand it's not very stable. Tandem falls over from time to time. Also, the stand tends to bend under the heavy weight of the tandem. Better solution not found yet. Stabilising the front handle-bar is very helpful.
mudguards	We would not want to cycle without them
front carrier	Tubus / tubus.com The sturdy carriers from Tubus are made of steal tubes and almost indestructible. The company does not without reason grant a 30 years warranty!
rear carrier	Tubus / tubus.com For shorter trips one could also use a cheaper aluminium version. But bear in mind that this carriers are usually much less stiff. If you choose aluminium make sure it is riveted and not welded.
lowrider	Tubus / tubus.com Especially with lowriders you see many aluminium components. Especially broken ones. For bigger tours we would not suggest to use aluminium even if it is very well welded.
cranks	Shimano LX, Octalink, front 175mm, rear 170mm It has not always to be XT only because it's a few grams lighter
pedals	Wellgo 902 Used with "shoe-baskets" in order not to slip out in the mud.
inner bearing	Shimano XT, Octalink Choose the better quality here
left chain	Shimano IG93, Supernarrow For the left chain we need approx. 1.5 normal chains.
right chain	Shimano IG93, Supernarrow
cassette	Shimano XT, 11-34 The bigger, the merrier - especially uphill.
front saddle	Brooks B17 / brooksengland.com Nothing beats a well broken-in Brooks saddle. Very solid and absolutely comfortable!
rear saddle	Brooks B17 S / brooksengland.com dito
tires	Schwalbe Marathon Plus Tour / schwalbe.com Only one puncture every 5'000km - this speaks for itself.
inner tubes	Michelin Air+ Together with the Schwalbe an absolute dream team. Use car valves to get air from every gas station.
rim tapes	Better use fibre than syntetic.

Trailer

Cruising around with the Bob Yak is just perfect because you hardly notice it's following you (apart from the weight of course ;-). But there are a few modifications which are necessary to get the trailer ready for longer tours. 1. The lattice has to be covered with a mat to prevent the rubbing of the bag against it, otherwhise the material gets worn out very fast. 2. The low quality wheel should be replaced with a stronger one. 3. Use straps instead of the rubber bands. 4. The RackPack XL from Ortlieb is much more robust than the supplied bag. 5. If there is a need to carry extra water, it's a good idea to attach solid bottle holders (see picture).

trailer	Bob Yak / bobgear.com We had to weld the first one so many times that it had to be replaced.
wheel	Weinmann, 32-holes, Shimano XT 100mm, DT Swiss We replaced the original wheel because it seemed not very durable to us.
tires	Schwalbe Marathon XR See above.
inner tubes	Schwalbe
straps	To fix the big bag.
mounting for bottles	Do-it-yourself mounting to fix the 5l-canisters.

Accessories

locks	Specialized Wedlock / specialized.com Very practical and robust but also heavy.
steel rope	Abus / abus.ch To lock the bike to a tree or wherever suitable.
front computer	Ciclosport CM 2.2 / intercycle.com / ciclosport.de We had some problems with our VDO computers and Intercycle equiped us with new computers from Ciclosport.
rear computer	Cyclosport CM 8.3A / intercycle.com / ciclosport.de With altimeter, wireless
bottle holders	For 1.5l PET bottles. We started our trip with ordinary bottle holders (1l). The Pet-bottle holder of 1.5l stood so far the test - really recommendable.
basket with straps	Basil Very handy to carry fruits, vegetables, shirts, book, whatever �
trouser clips

Spare Parts and Tools

batteries for computers
patches for tubes
glue
tubes	26" and 16"
tires	26" and 16"
spokes	10 for the tandem and 5 for the trailer Up to now we did not have to replace a single spoke. Hurray to Veloflick!
nipples
cables
chains	Sometimes more, depending on when we expect to find supplies.
chain rivets
free wheel	The free wheel is our working part number one. We had to replace it three times so far.
spring for free wheel
special grease for free wheel
pinion	11 We thought we would use the smalles pinion more often�
axis for trailer	We need a special axis for the trailer, and we would not find such a thing if it would break (and it cannot be fixed).
pin for trailer
bearing for trailer
Magura repair kit
hydraulic tube
break pads
oil
Teflon grease
saddle grease
hydraulic oil
cloth
wire
various screws etc.
cable straps
Loc-Dite
shrink hose
multi-tool
tire remover
pedal wrench 14/15mm
allen spanner
cassette cracker	A small tool to remove the cassette.
screw wrench
wrench for saddles
wrench for excenter	To tighten the front chain there is an excenter for which we use a special tool.
chain gauge	To see when the chains have to be replaced. If you wait too long it will damage the cassette. In our case, the chains have to be replaced approx. every 2'000km.
pump	It has to reach enough pressure (5bar).
valve adapter	Handy if you have to use inner tubes with other valve types.
See also corresponding paragraph under equipment