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Tandem drag brake

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dat:
I bought a tandem (Dawes horizon) for me and my wife a month ago and we’re loving it. It doesn’t quite fit her though and the brakes are poor for the hills in Cornwall. We still did 50 miles yesterday though which is double anything she has ever done before.

We have just purchased a Thorn Raven S&S Rohloff bike and it’s fitted with XTR brakes and CSS rims. The Rohloff hub can also take a disc as can the frame. What would people normally do, use a thumb shifter like on my previous ICE trikes?

Small side question. We don’t drive and want to use the S&S frame to take it on trains I presume we can just book it in as two bikes?

Tim Hall:
I've used a thumb shifter for drag brakes in the past, yes. 

Round these parts (Sussex) there's no booking required (or available)  to get a tandem onboard a train.

On services where booking has been required I had to book two spaces even though the tandem was in one piece. Services such as Great Western (or whatever they're called) to Cornwall have/had a guards' van which could easily accommodate a fully assembled tandem.

Rod Marton:
Not got a drag brake on mine but I've seen a thumbshifter used. The other option is to fit a brake lever to the stoker's bars but that is fraught with communication issues.

Generally rail companies forbid tandems, but as they all have different rules you will have to check. If you are allowed on, in Cornwall you will have GWRs ICE abominations to deal with anyway. These have tiny bike compartments in which you are supposed to hang two bikes. It isn't impossible to do this, just inordinately difficult. Unless you are extremely lucky with the fold geometry it's not going to work with a folded tandem. If the folded machine is sherter and narrower than two solos you might be able to fit it in the space horizontally, but don't count on it.

Joe.B:
I have a Thorn Raven tandem with a similar specification to yours. 

Most train operators will expect you book it on as two bikes, I've seldom had to actually split it for train journeys as the most of the trains that run through Newcastle have decent bike stowage, (*new trains just introduced on the East Coast Line might change that).

I've been considering a second thumb operated rear disc brake myself but haven't bothered fitting one yet as I've never felt the bike lacking in stopping power. I guess if I were tackling long alpine decents it would be useful but round here, (Northumberland) it doesn't seem essential.

Wobbly John:
I remember, years ago, we had a work ride to watch the rowing bumps near Cambridge. Two colleagues, (6 ft plus, ex-rowering and ex-rugby players) rode a tandem, and seemed to be making hard work of it. Eventually the tandem suffered a rear wheel puncture, and as I had tools, I fixed it.

It was when I burned my hand on the hub, they realised they had had the drag brake on all the time.  :facepalm:

That was a friction gear lever type.  ::-)

Hope this helps.  :demon:

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