Tandem 4 2

Hello. New to tandem forum. First post. I am looking to buy a "tandem specific" carbon fork for my (older) 2006 Co-Motion Robusta road tandem. Need QR disc brake 1-1/8 steerer tube(straight, not tapered). I've seen the ENVE fork, and it's nice, however it's not a "tandem rated" fork, and I'm not comfortable with the risk....

I've also seen the Wound Up Carbon fork. Are there any other options out there?
Thanks.

bikeinxs

I think the Wound Up fork is the only QR option. Personally I would not use a quick release for a disc brake wheel because it's less repeatable and you end up with noise and rubbing more often.

This Colab fork looks like a very good option although personally I use the ENVE fork. https://www.cyclemonkey.com/forks/colab-cross-fork

Leisesturm

Elsewhere on Bike Forums there is a recent story of a woman, who having experienced a fork failure (carbon) on her road racer is suing multiple entities involved in the manufacture and sale of her bike. What does this have to do with 'this' thread? Well as collateral information in that other thread I learned that carbon fiber as a fork material is not quite a mature science. Especially for tandems. I noticed that the weight for that linked tandem fork was not listed. Probably because it isn't terribly (maybe not at all) below what a comparable aluminum fork would be. People pay a huge price premium for 'carbon' and when strength and durability are not mission critical the weight savings become the draw and you bet they are advertised in large font. A carbon fork came standard on my Trek roadie. At least my bike is new. The woman who is suing the pants off Giant USA, Giant Taiwan and the dealer who sold her the bike, well she is suing over a bike she knew was used! Still, it should make anyone in the market for a new fork question whether or not they really, really have to have it made in carbon fiber. If it isn't going to be crazy light (and it can't be for a tandem application) what is the point? But, no quick release? Surely not.

New2Two

We put the WoundUp Duo2 on our 04 Cdale road tandem and love it. It is 1-1/8, straight tube, disk, and QR. We also looked at the Whisky Fork No. 7 CX Disk Straight. The Whisky isn't tandem rated but it is listed as having no weight limit. It is also $100-$200 cheaper than the WoundUp (depending on options for the WoundUp, the No 7 has fender mounts standard). In correspondence with Whisky, they said tandem use would void any warranty.
I would suggest getting the DT Swiss RWS skewer to use with a QR disk. It has a greater clamping force over a standard cam QR and it is easy to eliminate rotor rub with the RWS when reinstalling the wheel.

joeruge

I was bitten with the carbon fork bug a while back. I looked around for a tandem rated carbon fork for a while, saw that the choices were quite limited, the costs were not insignificant and the weight savings, if any, was pretty small. Then I read this article and drop the idea completely:

The lightest fork for a tandem bicycle - carbon fiber tandem forks

We lost a few pounds by riding more and now are a lighter tandem team than a carbon fork alone would have ever given us.