Tandem wheel builders

[321up]

Can anyone recommend a tandem wheel builder please?

[Polar Bear]

I would imagine that any top notch builder such as Harry Rowland could do you excellent tandem wheels.

[jogler]

I suggest that you ask the same question on the Tandem Club Uk forum

http://www.tandem-club.org.uk/files/index.html

[L CC]

Mick Madgett here in Diss has made our front one(s).
The rear one came from Longstaffs.

[Thing2]

We've never had a problem with our tandem touring wheels from Thorn, or the wheel built by JD cycles on the Santana. After several years of faithful service, the wheel we had built by Spa has broken 3 spokes this year (two of which occurred in the first 100 miles of a 1200km ride). Not sure why...
I'd certainly recommend both Thorn and JD cycles. We are not the heaviest team in the world, but our wheels do quite a lot of miles and are not treated gently.

[vorsprung]

is there anything special about tandem wheels?  I would guess they are bigger and wider and stronger but shirely, a wheel is just a wheel

[jogler]

The rear wheel often has 48 spokes.The hubs frequently are h.d..

[marcusjb]

is there anything special about tandem wheels?  I would guess they are bigger and wider and stronger but shirely, a wheel is just a wheel

You are sort of right, but I would rather trust someone with the experience of building wheels to deal with the much higher forces that tandem teams will exert on the wheels.

Our wheels were built by the Tandem Shop in ironbridge - not for us, but for the original owners, who were a slightly heavier team than us.  The wheels have never given us any bother (48 spokes with front and rear discs).

[L CC]

is there anything special about tandem wheels?  I would guess they are bigger and wider and stronger but shirely, a wheel is just a wheel

Ours are 700c, 48h, 145. There can't be many solo riders who weigh the 160kg that we do. They need to be utterly bomb proof.

A wheel is never just a wheel. Shirley you know this from your own bikes?

[Biggsy]

The rear wheel often has 48 spokes.The hubs frequently are h.d..

What is h.d.?

[jogler]

heavy duty

[Polar Bear]

is there anything special about tandem wheels?  I would guess they are bigger and wider and stronger but shirely, a wheel is just a wheel

Rims, hubs and spokes tend to be heavier duty.   Modern tandem hubs have an oln of 145 and sometimes even more I believe.   48 spokes were common though now I see lots of tandems with 40 or even 36 spoke wheels.   Also, tandems often come with a rim brake and a hub brake at the rear.   The latter used to regularly be an Arai or similar drum 'drag' brake but increasingly I've seen the rear end of a tandem with a rim brake and a disk brake.   

[Biggsy]

heavy duty

Ah right.  You don't want a flimsy flange!

[mzjo]

I build my own (very rarely 'cos they last a long time!) and surprisingly enough I don't have broken spokes in spite of the rear being 36h and only 135mm oln on a hub with flanges very close together. 13g or 13/14g stainless spokes help. Max crew weight so far about 210kg (my brother-in-law who was on the back weighed 125kg at the time).
Use 13/14g stainless spokes if you can. My first wheels were with 13g rustless but you can't ream out eyeletted spoke holes on a modern hollow section rim and on a single wall rim the spoke heads are a bit massive and not good for the tube.

[vorsprung]

A wheel is never just a wheel. Shirley you know this from your own bikes?

A wheel is just a wheel.  And stop calling me Shirley

[Veloman]

A wheel is never just a wheel. Shirley you know this from your own bikes?

A wheel is just a wheel.  And stop calling me Shirley

Now now!

You're both right.

A tandem wheel is of course a wheel, but it has to be far more robust in every sense because of the increased weight of the tandem without even considering the weight of riders and luggage.  So one tandem does the work of two bikes and still only has 2 wheels; load distribution considerations is obvious.  They have to be very robust things indeed and as a tandem rider myself the last thing I want to do is be worrying about wheels when on a long journey or when careering down a hill.  And of course the tandem normally has a 145 OLD at the rear which reflects the general heavy duty nature of it all.

And his name is Sue!

[Greenbank]

If it's for LEL 2017 then you could risk Dave Hinde...