With New Bike Day just around the corner on our new tandem, I thought I’d share some of the specs. Best, I’m going to start with the ultra-geeky stuff.
First, the bike is a dual-purpose gravel and road tandem. We bought a set of Rolf Prima Tandem wheels to go along with the gravel wheels that came with the bike. We want to be able to swap seamlessly between road and gravel wheels (at my wife’s request, which is about as awesome as it gets). Anyway, we had to buy some big rotors for the road wheels. I opted for Shimano’s top of the line for weight and stopping power (and because they’re cool, even if they’re three times the price I would have paid for a standard rotor). Interestingly, the gravel wheel rotors are six bolt while the Rolf’s went to an internal spline centerlock hub (a little more high-end and easier to change if necessary). This necessitated a quick foray into a brake rotor education, which my wife helped with by providing the appropriate links. Seriously!
Next is the cassette. For the gravel and for road trips where we won’t be worried about pacing with a 23-mph average group, we’ve got the 11-42 tooth cassette in the photo above. This won’t do for our Tuesday night rides, though. I’m sure there will be cadence holes where we don’t like them so, for the road wheels, I opted for an Ultegra 11-32 11-speed cassette. I probably could have stuck with the standard road 11-28 but I also wanted to take into account my wife’s desire for climbing gears, so I went with the 32 to give her four extra teeth on the last gear. The extra won’t affect our cruising gears on Tuesday night.
The remainder of the bike is standard fare for the Co-Motion Kalapuya, with the exception of our added road wheels. For paint, we chose silver for our 25th wedding anniversary and had the upgraded headbadge added and we had a Thudbuster seat post installed on the Rear Admiral’s position for comfort on gravel roads. Thank goodness, it’s got a Gates carbon fiber timing belt (tired of the timing chain – and that setup is HEAVY), Spyre brake calipers (top of the line mechanical), and an Ultegra R8000 mechanical drivetrain with a 50/34 double crankset and the aforementioned 11-42 Sunrace cassette. It comes with a flared drop bar, and I don’t know how much I like that, but I’m willing to give it a go. Finally, it’s shod with White Industries CLD/ Sapim/ Astral Outback Boost thru-axle wheels on WTB Riddler 700x45mm tires for the gravel rides. For road use, we’re going with Rolf Prima (alloy) Tandem wheels (Boost thru-axle hubs) on Specialized Turbo Pro 700x30mm tires.
As for the weight, I don’t quite know yet, but by the feel of it, it’s around 26 pounds. I won’t know for sure until I get it on a scale.
Oh, and for those who have made it this far, there’s one more delectable point… the company that just let me go after 25-years of service bought that bike for us as a bonus. Heh.
Fit Recovery 
That last bit is just the icing 👌🤣 Much health to both of you to enjoy 😊
Isn’t it? We’re going to ride the wheels off that thing. Oh, wait, they’re thru-axle… We’re going to ride it till the hubs fall apart? Chuckle.
A ‘bonus’ bike into the bargain 😉