I got most of the tandem built up, but I had problems with the disc brake and the gears. After struggling a lot, I took the bike to Corridori for some expert attention.
They sorted both the gear indexing and the drag brake (no longer, er, dragging when unwanted, and with a brake lever for my stoker, since no bar end levers would fit). They also fitted the rear rack, timing chain, bar tape and saddles.
So last night, on a whim, we took it for a shakedown ride. It was a bit daft really, as we hadn't got the time to sort it properly before setting off. A sheared seat binder bolt caused the biggest problem, and meant we arrived at the meeting place just in time to see TGL turning off down a side road, having seen the club heading that direction. We did struggle to keep up, but it was good to just slip back into tandemming so easily. Gears worked smoothly in the main, though the front shifting needs a bit of tweaking and will require some feedback from the stoker to trim until I get a better feel for it. Brakes were a bit slack, though I tried not to trouble the stoker with this information. In fact, when we had a downhill where we could catch up with the solos before the next, very steep, climb, I released the levers to find we were still retarded
Though I appreciated her initiative in using the brake when we were approaching a T junction with a busy road on a steep downhill, and my vocabulary didn't extend to 'Brake!'
The front is easy to adjust, and I need to turn the barrel a bit. The gear levers restrict the amount of brake lever movement, so modulation is difficult, but not impossible. The rear brake cable has no inline adjustment at all, which will be an issue
So, remaining jobs:
Swap Butterfly's saddle for a new one
Release the front mech limit screw slightly
Fit front racks (unusual sized spacers here we come!)
Source new seat binder bolt
Fit RaceBlades (trivial)
Ride
Ride some more
Enjoy
