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Tandem Magazine Fall '98
Exotic Supple, resilient ride Stable handlingDOWNS
Check with your banker on a loan Eggbeater shifting Near-constant chain rubAUTOMOBILE EQUAL
IDEAL TEAM
RANGE
S antana builds an incredible variety of tandems, from entry-level to the exotic. Throughout this impressive lineup, the legendary Santana ride is near constant and is particularly apparent on
the road models. This is the result of the design philosophy of
owner Bill McCready manifesting itself in each tandem.
The biggest changes result from the different materials used to
make the frame. And Santana uses quite a few: chromoly, Nivacrom,
aluminum and titanium. In general, each material produces a particular
type of ride (regardless of who builds it), and every builder
works within these parameters.
Santana has taken a proven titanium road tandem and added S&S
Machine's Bicycle Torque Couplers to make a wonder travel tandem.
CONSTRUCTION
Titanium is a material with a great modulus of elasticity. In
other words, the stuff can bend a long way and then spring back.
And it can bend a little forever, with no danger of breaking.
This is a two-edged sword, and builders have to contain titanium's
tendency to make flex their friend, not a foe.
Santana does this on the Team Ti-700 Stowaway by using a special
tubing spec from Ancotech. This 3.25 titanium is seamless and
double-butted and gives the ability to use greater diameter tubing
with thinner walls for stiffness and solidity.
According to McCready, Santana has used this tubing for almost
three years and has made a significant number of tandems out of
it. "It (the tubing) is fantastic, and our Team Ti bikes
are the only company building with double-butted titanium and
the increased performance is very noticeable."
The frame design is a direct internal, with separated top and
internal tubes welded to the seat tubes. S&S couplers break
the frame down into the front section, rear triangle and separates
the middle tubes. This is a bit more complicated on the team Ti,
because the bottom tube is actually a pair of tubes. These two
side-by-side tubes help stabilize the tandem laterally, but make
accessing the couplers a hassle. But self-extracting crank bolts
help out.
The welds are highly polished, as is the finish, and the construction
is sound, if not pretty. There are substantial grind marks, especially
around the bottom brackets and some globby finishing, most noticeable
where the chain stays meet the dropouts.
COMPONENTS
This is a nicely-outfitted tandem, as it should be for $10,500.
But it still has the Shimano/Santana Megadrive crankset which
is wildly out of place on a bike of this price. But, it works.
The braking on this tandem is unique in that a V-brake is used
up front, but a disc is the only rear brake. This Formula disc
setup uses a cable-actuated master cylinder to power the otherwise
hydraulic system.
The drive train consists of the new Ultegra STI levers hooked
to an XTR rear derailleur and the Ultegra triple front derailleur.
The 53/42/30 chain rings and the 8-speed 11-28 cassette gets a
boost from the Ritchey 9-speed setup that adds a 33T cog to the
usual 8-speed setup.
Mavic 40-hole T-217 rims and Hadley Racing hubs make for a solid,
dependable wheelset. Specialized 700 x 26 Turbo Sport tires are
surprisingly nice riding. They are more like a 28 mm and grip
quite well.
The 9-speed Ultegra shifters were equipped with Shimano's new
integrated Flightdeck cyclocomputer. Very nice.
The Chris King Aheadset is very nice, and Santana's new cold-forged
and welded aluminum stems are a huge step up from the Taiwanese
schlock we dinged them for last time. The Serfas Dual-Density
saddles with titanium rails are light and shaped to work for a
lot of different riders.
RIDE
This tandem is smooth. The large diameter titanium tubing is like
magic when it comes to taking the edge off every little bump and
rut in the road.
This was also one of the most popular tandems that we have had.
From beginner to the more experienced teams, the rave reviews
poured in. Comfort and speed were the two main attributes that
continued to show up.
Speed is something this tandem handles well. Fast downhills were
rock steady and felt fine at more than 50 mph. The stable steering
geometry shined when descending long hills.
Long hills were also the domain of the rear disc brake. After
it warmed up a bit it would really grab the wheel and it did not
seem to suffer from extended use in the hills. It was, however,
unbearably screechy until warmed up or you were going fast enough
to not notice.
Climbing and hard standing sprints really began to show the titanium
frame. This is not a stiff frame. But the flex is not so much
laterally, as lengthwise. That is certainly a subjective comment,
because it is hard to explain, but this frame coils like a spring
when under load. When putting the hammer down with a strong stoker
it felt as if the bike was inch-worming forward. It was strange,
but not bad. Lighter teams didn't notice this effect.
While not stiff neither is the frame whippy--as some ti-frames
can be--and that can probably be attributed in some measure to
the twin bottom tubes. These tubes brace the bottom brackets with
wide spacing and control side-to-side movement. But the flex still
seems to work up-down. That is great for smoothing the ride, but
feels strange when climbing and sprinting. Strange only goes so
far, because once you're over the feel, you can start concentrating
on using that spring to propel you uphill.
This is a nice climbing tandem once you get settled. The better
the team, the easier it is to handle. And, like a beam tandem,
this tandem will help you learn to work together smoothly.
Another down side, in spite of the plush vertical compliance,
is the amount of sideways flex that is always present. This is
well-controlled by the twin tubes so that there is nothing unpleasant
going on, but the small lateral flex makes trimming the front
derailleur impossible. There are only a couple of cogs for each
of the three chain rings where the chain doesn't rub on the derailleur.
And ever those few perfect-line gears will cause rub if you climb
or sprint.
This is very annoying and shows a worst-case failure of STI technology.
Ditch the STI hookup on the left shifter and go with a bar-end.
It works like a charm.
The shifting in general on this tandem is sub-par. The combination
of the flex of the frame, a triple chainring, STI shifters and
the alignment of the plants seem to work against this tandem.
Clunky, noisy and slow. And if you aren't extremely careful you
might find yourself on the side of the road breaking the chain
and trying to coax it out from under the inner ring. It happened
once too often to be a fluke.
The handling and ride is Santana-esque at its most refined. Any
Santana owner will hop on and feel right at home. Only home suddenly
just got a lot better. Riders who expect snappy handling will
be disappointed, but this tandem is made to be in-control at all
times. You don't have to worry what your stoker is going to do
back there, and you don't have to do the white-knuckle grip, either.
It is calm, predictable and confidence-inspiring.
General Specifications
TUBE DIAMETERS
FRAME GEOMETRY
CONCLUSION
Just going by the testers' comments, this is one very fine tandem
that many teams would love to own. The fact that it breaks down
into a suitcase if just the icing on the cake. The biggest problem,
aside from shifting woes, is the price of that cake. I think that
it's fair to say that this tandem is prohibitively expensive.
But you have to pay to play, and if you can afford this game and
are ready to move up in the Santana world, this is the top o'
the line.
BOTTOM LINE
Ten grand and change is a lot of cash for any tandem.
Phone: (541) 485-5262 Your travel bike...Your only bike!
The dual bottom tubes extend right to the edge of the bottom bracket
shell.
The cable-actuated master cylinder for the Formula disc.
The XTR drive train with that big Ritchey 33T cog turning an 8-speed
into a 9-speed.
Santana switched to a forged and welded adjustable stoker stem.
Looks great. Works well, too.
Tandem Magazine Published by
Petzhold Publishing LLC
26859 Petzhold Road
Eugene, Oregon 97402
Fax: (541) 341-0788
E-Mail: editor@tandemmag.com
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