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Summary:
As we approach the first 1,000
miles on the Calfee I think we have it just about dialed-in.
The last 30 days or so have seen quite a few little changes that,
for the most part, are more of a reflection of my inability to
stop tinkering. There have also been a few little nits to address,
some self-made and others still related to sorting out new equipment.
Our self-funded wheel research
continues as well. We've been riding the Topolino wheels almost
exclusively since Update #8
and they continue to amaze with their very solid feel, predictable
tracking, and other conventional wheel-like 'feel' despite their
very low weight. As for how 'fast' they are, we're about to begin
a re-investigation of the low-spoke count / paired spoke racing
wheel performance with the recent acquisition of a new old stock
(NOS) set of '07 Rolf Prima Vigor Tandem wheels. We're also still
awaiting receipt of yet another set of conventional wheels being
built up with a set of White Industries hubs and Velocity Deep-V
rims which will assume the role of "baseline" for our
other wheel comparisons.
Anyway, for those of you with
an interest in all of the gory details, they will follow. However,
for those who just want to get to the bottom line still no regrets:
it's a great ride. Does it have magical properties that will
transform your riding experience? That's a tough question to
answer. As mentioned all the way back in Update #2, when you
get to the very high-end tandems the differences between great
and really great are very small and not everyone will recognize
or appreciate them, never mind agreeing on what "them"
are.
Again, the best analogies I
can come up with are comparisons between high-end and exotic
cars, perhaps fine wines or cigars, or even your life / soul
mates. Which is to say, while we are both really pleased with
our new tandem, I'm not sure some of the people we ride with
would find the differences between their very excellent tandems
and the Calfee to be all that dramatic and some might even be
put off by the Calfee's handling and appearance. Add to that
the cost and it's anyone's guess as to what the real 'value-added'
is once you get to tandems at this price point.
With the likes of Lynskey Performance
getting back into the tandem game with their very high-end titanium
tandems, Seven, the high-end performance tandems from Co-Motion,
Santana's exotics, and some of the other custom or near-custom
exotics it does seem to suggest that there definitely is an attraction
and market for tandems at this price-level so I think it's fair
to say there must be some degree of added value to be had, even
if it's an intangible satisfaction that comes from having a 'special'
tandem.
Bottom Line: Like most luxury
items, folks buy high-end and exotic tandems because they want
to and have the means... that about covers it.
Frame - Care & Feeding:
  One of the questions many folks
have regarding the unfinished carbon frame pertains to protecting
it from UV light damage. Although purely cosmetic, no one really
wants a yellowed natural carbon frame so there is a need for
some periodic frame care. Calfee Design has always recommended
the use of 303 Aerospace Protectant for its unfinished or nude
frames. While 303 is a very good product, in using it on automotive
convertible tops I've come to find it requires frequent re-application
and leaves a nasty greasy residue when it gets wet. Therefore,
I opted to use a combination of two other car care products on
our Calfee.
The first product is Zaino
Bros. Z-CS (Clear Seal), a synthetic polymer protectant with
UV inhibitors that lasts for 6-9 months. I originally planned
to use just the Z-CS but found the carbon took on a dull grey
look that just didn't look quite right. So, the second product
I brought over from my car care cabinet for use on the Calfee
was Wolfstein's RaggTopp vinyl convertible protectant. Unlike
303, RaggTopp lasts for several weeks and doesn't flush away
or leave a grease slick when it is hit with water. Instead, it
usually makes water bead and flow off of protected surfaces.
So far, the results have been
very good and aside from a periodic reapplication of RaggTopp
every few weeks, the frame needs very little attention.
Recent Changes:
Back in Black - Headset,
Brakes, Cables, Seat Posts, And Seat Post Collars: When I built-up my au natural Calfee
Tetra Pro single bike I used a polished headset, seat post collar,
and stainless steel water bottle cages. It gave it a classic
look and tied in nicely with the polished derailleur parts, chain
rings, chains and titanium grey dropouts and chain rings. When
we ordered the Calfee Tetra Tandem I figured I'd just do the
same, particularly since we discovered we'd need to stick with
our polished daVinci cranks and ti grey timing rings given the
need for standard length (170mm / 170mm) cranks with narrow (108mm
/ 111mm) spindles. I'd originally wanted to go with carbon cranks,
such as the ones offered by FSA or Santana's supplier but discovered
the crank lengths we wanted weren't being offered and/or offered
in a bottom bracket design that gave us the narrow cranks with
the side-to-side adjustability of the Phil Wood square taper
BBs. So, the decision was a polished headset, stripped and polished
seat post collars, stainless steel cables, stainless steel water
bottle cages, and polished Campy brake calipers.
As you may recall from Update
#8, the stainless steel water bottle cages were changed out
for some carbon ones and the ti grey timing rings were traded
out for the black rings. I also had installed a pair of Easton
EC70 seat posts on an interim basis while we sorted out Debbie's
riding position and awaited the arrival of a Thomson setback
seat post. Once the all-black Thomson seat posts were back on
the tandem along with the carbon water bottle cages, and black
timing rings the polished headset and seat post clamps just started
to look out of place, as did the polished brake calipers. Thankfully,
I got lucky on eBay and snagged a set of black '07 Record Skeleton
brake calipers for about 50% of MSRP, called in yet another favor
from a friend to get a deal on a black Chris King headset, and
changed out one of the polished seat post collars for a spare
black one and blacked out a second. The final step was replacing
the stainless steel brake and derailleur cables with Delta Aztec's
Teflon-coated black control cables found on sale for about 50%
off retail at Performance Bike.
Update:
Changing out the polished pre-01 Campagnolo Record dual caliper
brakes for the newer black Campagnolo skeleton 'Differential'
brakes was in hindsight not the best decision. While I was initially
satisfied with the performance of the rear single pivot single-pivot
skeleton brake, once we installed the rear disc it became clear
that we were compromising a lot of stopping power by not having
a dual pivot rear caliper. The change over to a modified front
caliper for the rear is addressed in Update #12.
Note:
The grass changing color is not an optical illusion. It's just
Bermuda grass coming out of its winter dormancy
 All
in all, I'm pretty pleased with the stealthier look but now the
polished cranks look a bit out of place amongst all of the black
hardware with just the occasional bright hardware. So, at least
for the time being, I'll leave well enough alone. However, I
hear told that Calfee will be offering a house-branded carbon
crank set in the not too distant future that will be available
with 170mm / 170mm crank arms (as well as several other popular
lengths) and use the ISIS bottom brackets which thankfully come
in a variety of widths from a number of different manufacturers.
So, there may be one last change or not. We'll have to see. At
this point I try not to even look at the gross expenditure line
on my Excel spreadsheet that tracks all of the cost and weight
data on this project, never mind the well stocked spare part
drawer.
In-line adjusters: As previously mentioned in Update #8,
I added an in-line derailleur cable adjuster last month and have
since added another in-line cable adjuster for the rear brake
in anticipation of our rear disc installation. Avid has seen
fit to add a nice in-line adjuster with their BB7 road brake
kit and while changing out the stainless steel cables it seemed
like a good time to put in the Avid adjuster. Anyone who's gone
through the process of breaking in a new disc brake caliper or
new pads will appreciate having the ability to make those incremental
adjustments needed as the pads wear-in over the first few hundred
miles. Having the in-line adjuster allows you to take up the
excess cable slack that can develop on a long descent while you're
'on the fly' and that's really a nice feature. I strongly recommend
the addition of one of these little suckers if you run a rear
disc. Yeah, it clutters up the once very clean look that existed
where the derailleur and brake housings entered the head tube
of our Calfee, but at some point practicality makes aesthetics
take a back seat.
Nits:
Mystery Creak Solved
(Not!): Well,
after working my way through the pedals, bottom brackets, and
all of the other usual sources of a creak that parallels a pedal
stroke I finally had an epiphany: it was the crank arm interface.
I'm not sure why I didn't think of it earlier, but it finally
dawned on me the daVinci crank arms I installed on the front
of the tandem weren't new; they'd come off of our '02 Erickson
travel tandem. What makes this significant is that the '02 Erickson
was built up using a pair of Race Face Taperlock square taper
bottom brackets that used an ISO taper, not the JIS tapers for
which the daVinci crank arm interfaces were originally machined.
In essence, the female tapers on the cranks were slightly deformed
by the ISO male tapers and made for something less than a perfect
bottom bracket axle to crank interface, hence the creaking noise
that would come at the top of each power stroke. Fortunately,
our '98 Erickson also has daVinci cranks and once those were
installed on the Calfee problem solved. An ISO BB will now go
into the Erickson to accommodate the cranks that didn't play
nice with the JIS tapers on the Calfee. Yes, this was clearly
a problem of my own making.
Update:
By Update
#11
we had discoveed that Calfee implemented a design change for
their eccentric that would allow for the use of a Bushnell eccentric.
Calfee was able to retrofit the new standard into our tandem.
Some of the noises that we were chasing seemed to disappear with
that change and with those noises gone a 'clicking' sound that
I had attributed to the daVinci cranks turned out to be coming
from the lower front S&S coupling. A generous application
of teflon grease and re-torquing the front coupler vanquished
that last noise. It's now smooth and quiet sailing on the Calfee.
Speedplay Frog / Pedal Tick
Still Chasing: One
of the new ti-spindle Speedplay Frogs has developed an annoying
tick that comes and goes depending on how much pedal pressure
is being applied and how efficiently the rider is pedaling in
circles. In the past, injecting grease into the pedal's bearings
has easily vanquished similar creaks. Unfortunately, this time
a quick solution has proven to be illusive. We will give them
one more chance and then it's over to Speedplay for resolution.
Update:
I recently shifted my attention to the interface between the
Speedplay Frog's threaded axle and the threads on the daVinci
cranks and realized it was most likely excess play between the
titanium Frog pedal axle threads and crank arm to allow the joint
to move & and create a clicking sound on every revolution
of the left and right cranks. I subsequently reinstalled
the Speedplay Frogs using several wraps of yellow Teflon pipe
tape to firm up the interface and clicking was eliminated on
all but the most strenuous climbs where, even then, it was subtle
(see previous note for root cause).
Eccentric Eccentricities
Still Adapting: I
guess it's just hard to teach an old dog new tricks, as I've
still not warmed up to the very svelte eccentric designed by
the folks at Calfee for their tandems. I thought I had it licked
but while chasing the noise(s) coming from the front cranks /
bottom bracket area I found myself having to spend some more
quality time with the eccentric and it's just not my favorite
design. Given my druthers, I'd opt to deal with the added weight
of a scaled-down Bushnell eccentric just for each of use. As
previously noted, had I not needed to make numerous adjustments
and changes to my front bottom brackets I would have probably
not given the eccentric much thought and just accepted for what
it was: a lightweight and clever way to hold a bottom bracket
in a tandem's front eccentric shell. Hopefully we'll come to
peace in the near future with one final from bottom bracket adjustment
and, in retrospect, I think the less you know about eccentrics
the easier it would be to work with. Again, it's just hard to
teach an old dog new tricks.
Update:
See Update
#11
in August for a description of the eccentric retrofit that permitted
the use of a Bushnell eccentric which was more to my liking.
Wheels:
I'm not sure why I've
decided to play around with the highly integrated boutique performance
wheel sets given my long-standing commitment to component wheels,
but I'm up to my eyeballs in them at the moment.
 Topolino AX 3.0-T: We've been on the Topolino wheels almost exclusively
since we received them a month ago on April 14th. As advertised,
they work just fine as everyday wheels: solid, predictable, and
amazingly light. We've had occasion to jump on our conventional
wheels during some troubleshooting and I may have overstated
the Topolino's handling as being on par with the conventional
wheel set.
However, that said, our conventional
wheel set is incredibly robust which probably says more about
what you can accomplish using carefully selected individual components,
spoke counts, and having a first-rate build. Again, our very
robust component wheels only weigh about 1,950 grams and would
be closer to 1,900 grams if they didn't use a bolt-on rotor compatible
hub. That's just about 50 grams more than the very light Rolf
Prima Vigor wheels and well under the 2,245 gram weight of Bontrager's
RaceLite Tandem wheel set. Just something to keep in mind if
anyone's contemplating new wheels and trying to weigh the pros
and cons of integrated wheel sets vs conventional wheels. While
I've tasted the forbidden fruit, I have not lost any respect
for the old-school wheels. Less I digress: back to the Topolino
wheels.
Did I mention the Topolino
Carbon Core AX 3.0-T wheels are amazingly light? That remains
the "pinch me" thing about these wheels. While they
do exhibit some deflection under hard cornering it's quite minimal
and almost not worthy of mention because it hasn't provide to
be something that makes me feel as though my control over the
tandem is markedly diminished.
 Now, I must note we did have one small issue
with the Topolinos that initially appeared to be serious but
was, in fact, just a minor design issue. More specifically, during
hard out of the saddle steep and aggressive climbs we experienced
an alarming creaking sound coming from the front of the tandem.
Initially it sounded similar to a bearing creak but following
the ride everything appeared to be nice and tidy at the hub.
On a hunch, I wondered if the titanium skewers that came with
the Topolino's might be flexing so I installed a spare set of
Salsa skewers with steel axles for our next ride. The creaking
was not as pronounced, but was still clearly in evidence and
somewhat disconcerting. Once back at home I inspected the hubs
more closely and noticed the axle end caps did not have any knurling
and were, instead, absolutely smooth. I reinstalled the front
wheel in the fork and applied some side loading with my hands
and low-and-behold there was the sound: it was a bad case of
grip-slip between the front axle and the fork dropouts. Before
the next ride I scuffed up the axle end and the fork dropouts
and when coupled with the use of the steel skewer the noise was
gone. We've since passed along this discovery to the folks at
Topolino via our dealer with a recommendation to incorporate
knurling for their tandem wheel axle ends as others will no doubt
experience this under similar conditions as we're certainly not
the strongest, hardest climbing team that will use these wheels.
Update:
The respons from Topolino regarding the non-knurled end caps
has been exceptional. Two new axle sets and very detailed instructions
for removal and re-installation arrived just days after a short
telephone call to discuss the problem. The next end caps were
installed which solved the creaking noise at the fork drop-out.
However, once that was solved some new hub noises developed which
necessitated sending the wheels back to Topolino in Connecticut
for some OEM work. Unfotunately, we're still trying to solve
that little issue.
Anyway, we really enjoy these
wheels and they look great on the Calfee. The only limitation
aside from cost at this point is the lack of rear-disc compatibility.
Not a big deal if you're building a true and lightweight performance
tandem that will only have rim brakes, but for many enthusiasts
who want the bling thing & a rear disc, it's presently a
non-player... pending any new developments.
 2007 Rolf Prima Vigor Tandem Wheels: After a less than inspiring performance
from a set of the new and improved 2008 Rolf Prima Vigor Tandem
wheels (just in case the identity of our first low spoke count
/ paired spoke racing wheels was still in doubt), I decided to
seek out a set of the previous version most folks have been using
for the past few years. It was a long-shot effort to reconcile
my experience with what others who have been riding and enjoying
the prior year models have reported. Thankfully, I was able to
find a set of new old stock (NOS) '07 Rolfs and we took delivery
yesterday, May 10th.
We fitted the Rolfs to the
Calfee for today's ride with the same tires we've been running
on the Topolinos and were pleasantly surprised with how well
the prior year wheels performed. If nothing else, the disconnect
between the riding impressions from others who have been riding
the pre-'08 Rolfs compared to my experience with the '08 model
year wheels we first owned have now been reconciled. Of course,
I'm still left to wonder if the changes made for '08 were not
necessarily for the better or if I was just imagining the handling
issues on both of our road tandems (not likely, but certainly
possible).
Ignoring our prior experience
with the '08 models, the '07 Rolfs with the 32mm deep section
rim didn't exhibit any unusual handling characteristics and were
actually pretty much on par with the Topolino wheels through
the corners and for straight line stability. As already mentioned,
it has been a while since we've spent a lot of time on the conventional
wheels so I'm not able to offer an objective comparison with
those just yet. However, the Rolfs were able to hit all of the
cornering points on our regular route's more challenging turns
and descents, which was very satisfying. Moreover, the Rolfs
didn't feel all that harsh back on the Calfee, remembering the
last tandem the '08 wheels were used on was our steel Erickson.
However, as others with the pre-'08 Rolfs have noted, the brake
track is really problematic in that it's almost too narrow to
properly accommodate a Campy Record caliper brake shoe. Clearly
some additional attention to brake pad wear will be requires
if these wheels remain in our stable for long-term use.
The only thing that will take
some time to figure out is whether or not there is a significant
difference in drag between the Rolfs and the Topolinos. The Rolfs
certainly seem to 'feel' fast, but with our 20 30 mph winds
today, any hope of having a meaningful comparison of average
speed performance along our usual route was completely lost.
Well, that and deciding if the decals stay or go. I tend to like
the stealthy look for the Rolfs, whereas the Topolino wheels
look better with their decals.
More to follow.
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