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Tandem Gearing

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tyrelever:
Originally posted in 2017 about replacing a Dawes Galaxy Twin, which never happened though hopefully that plan may come to fruition later this. The big questions is what to do about gearing. The Dawes originally came with 48/38/28 chainrings and a seven speed 13-30 freewheel, The freewheel remains the same however the chainrings are now 48/34/24 to give lower gearing. The question is whether to remain with a triple and similar or even lower ratios or go for one of the newer doubles with a much wider range cassette. My concern about a wider range cassette is the jumps between sprockets and also the jump when dropping from the large to smaller of the two chainrings, just wondering what experience people have of this and whether it will be an issue. It respect of a double chainrings have noticed that it is now possible to get a 46/30 tandem combination, thus would probably go for this rather than the more usual 50/34 or 48/34 which would mean not needing such a big  large sprocket, If sticking with triple again probably something like 48/34/24, most cassettes starting at 11 give a top gear of around 100+ ins, not certain anything higher than this is needed. Looks forward to comments

LittleWheelsandBig:
If you run a double on your tandem, you will probably be on 11sp or suchlike. If so, you can have similar jumps to your current 7sp setup with a much wider range cassette e.g. 11-12-13-15-17-19-22-26-30-36-42. Most modern front mechs are rated for 16t double, so the rest of your gear range has to come from your cassette. Triples are virtually dead unfortunately. Bar end shifters or the orphan Tiagra 3x10 and not much else.

Personally I like a road tandem to top out somewhere north of 120” but you can choose whatever you want with suitable chainrings.

The French Tandem:
It's very hard to give any advice on gearing when I don't know exactly who you are, what is your level of fitness, what kind of rides do you enjoy most. On our tandem, we have a single 40t ring, and an 11-40t cassette. We are very happy with that setup, as it eliminated all front mech related problems, but I am not saying that everyone will be happy with the same setup.

A

PhilP:
My tandem (new Oct 20) has 46/30 on the front, and I believe 11-34 11speed on the rear.
Mechs cope perfectly well, using a double on the front is a lot easier than a triple, and I'm surprised how much we can use the 30, on the smaller cogs at the rear, we can spin quite nicely up to 14/15mph.
On my road bike, riding a triple over 20 years, I simply used the 30 for hills, and then on the largest 2 sprockets of the cassette. So effectively there was significant redundancy in the gear combinations.And when in the 50t ring, I never used the two largest sprockets. So 3*11 = 33 gears less 9
unused ratios less another 2 unused ratios = 22 ratios used on my triple. Hence my de-tripling, and moving back to doubles.
Another factor is the advent of the 11tooth sprocket which has made chainwheels over 50t redundant for me, in fact, I'm happy with a 46 - it's a 113 inch gear.
Versus your existing setup, I think you will be very pleased with the performance of a compact double and 11 speed cassette. I cannot comment on durability, but I'm always pleased to wear something out, makes me feel like I've been riding enough!

iandusud:
As above, it depends on your fitness level and what you use your tandem for. We use a 3x10 setup with 26/39/50 and 11-36 and use all the gears, although I'd be happy to not have such a high top gear. We're planning on building up a new tandem this year and will probably go for 24/36/48 with 11-36. IMO you can't have too low a bottom gear, but we do most of our riding in the Yorkshire Dales. What I do like about triple setup is that you get close ratios and good chainline. (I should add that I once got a pre-war tandem with a 54" bottom gear up Ditchling Beacon. I was 35 years younger but I would have loved a proper low gear - it's the closest I've ever got to having a coronary on a bike! Going down the other side into Brighton was just as eventful as the brakes were useless). 

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