Goldrush

We are looking for a tandem for unloaded touring in hilly areas and a small amount of gravel grinding. Right now we are leaning towards having the dealer build a bike on a Co-Motion Carrera frame. He likes the Spinergy wheels, but I have knowledge of them. Wondering how they hold up.

DKMcK 

I've had them for several years with no issues. The spokes are not common so I got the spoke tool and extra spokes to have when touring. I love the ride on them.

Paul J

The 29r model might be perfect for you. https://www.spinergy.com/products/29...em-xyclone-exo

base2 

When it comes to tandems, you can't just take any ol' mountain bike parts and slap 'em on.

Tandems don't just have "only double" the load or stress requirements of a standard bike. Often times stresses go up by squares, cubes, and log functions.

Wheels, forks, and brakes would be areas I would be especially savvy to get tandem specific components.

You could get a set of 40 spoke Velocity Chucker rims for $90 each. Then get each built for less than $100. From there it's just a question of what kind of hub you want. In any case, it would be hundreds cheaper and way stronger and in my opinion, way safer than the Spinergys designed for a single rider.

Tandems aren't really the place to be a weight weenie. Even a 44 pound tandem equates to a 22 pound bike per person.

oldacura

We have Spinergys on our new Calfee. Don't know what the spokes are made of. They feel pretty flexible but we like them and have had no problems.

reburns

I put Z lite tandem wheels on our Speedster a year ago as part of an effort to make the most comfortable bike for light touring. About 2,000 miles on them with no problems. Mostly paved roads with some very brief gravel sections. They may be slightly more comfortable than the steel spoked Dyads that they replaced, but they are also a full 1.5 lbs lighter. Our tires measure out at 32 mm front, 34 mm rear.

Paul J

I'm not sure if you were responding to my post above, but the wheelset I mentioned is a tandem specific 29r wheelset. Not just any ol mountain bike wheelset. The question was specifically about Spinergy with possible gravel use. The wheel I mentioned would be the choice I would make with those criteria from Spinergy.

base2 

No worries. I got the impression they were just ordinary gravel wheels.

OneIsAllYouNeed

Depending on your team's weight, the Carrera/Spinergy combination might limit your ability to run tires wide enough for having fun on gravel. I believe the Carrera will fit up to 32mm 700c tires or ~45mm 650b tires. The Spinergy wheels are only available in 700c, though. As a 330lb team (riders/bike/gear), we like 45mm tires for smooth gravel and 55mm tires for rougher gravel rides.

Goldrush

Thanks for the real world info on tire widths. It is great know. We are a 290 pound team without the bike, so around the same as you.

I just got off the phone with my dealer and he suggests a second set wheels. Spinergy is now making 650B wheels and he says they are perfect for my application.

Alan_F

I can't speak to your exact situation with 650B and gravel use, but I have been using Spinergy wheels on our aluminum DaVinci Joint Venture road tandem for several years. We started with the TX-2 and now have a set of Stealth wheels also. The ride quality difference on the road is definitely noticeable, and they've been trouble free. It is easy to carry spare spokes since they are flexible and can fit in an under-the-saddle bag, although I have yet to need the spares. I'm not sure if you'll feel as big a difference in ride quality with wider tires and on unpaved surfaces, but I'm a big fan for tandem use.

Also the Hadley hub they use is really easy to maintain, and the support for the tandem wheels by Ric at House of Tandems is excellent.

I had a set of single-bike Spinergys on my road bike and didn't like them there, and I know of a local tandem team that developed some cracks in the rim of their TX-2s after about 8,000 miles (disk brake wheels, so not due to brake wear) so YMMV.

Alcanbrad

We have a CoMo Carerra and put Spinnergy TX2's on. After a few hundred miles we broke the rear hub (spoked pulled through flange holes). Dealer replaced with a new wheel promptly. After about 500 miles the free hub locked up and the pawls gauled the hub. Again, the dealer and Spinnergy replaced the wheel promptly.

We are a 400lb team and ride very steep hills with heavy braking. I believe the combination of our weight, momentum and hard braking (disc) had contributed to breaking the hub. I cannot explain the free hub failure, though we have sheared teeth off of chainrings and cassettes when starting and shifting under load. We are apparently hard on drive trains :-)

We had Mel at Tandems East build us 48 spoke rear wheel with white industry hub and have had good luck with it, though we have broken about 4 spokes over 5000 miles. I replaced the broken spokes and trued the wheel myself. We run that wheel on the back and the Spinergy TX2 on the front.

We really liked the ride of the Spinnergy's and I can highly recommend them. I am saving the rear Spinergy for the flat lands where the stresses of braking and shifting under load are not as great. We have over 5000 miles on the front wheel and it is as true as the day we got it. We run Conti Gatorskins 28mm.

We seem to be the only ones that have had any issue and the dealer and Spinnergy have been very accommodating.

I offer this as just a data point. I would think that at your team weight and intended use that they would be a great wheel set and you will be very happy.

Goldrush

[QUOTE=, we like 45mm tires for smooth gravel and 55mm tires for rougher gravel rides.[/QUOTE]

What tires are you using?

OneIsAllYouNeed

Favorites are these:
Panaracer Pari Moto and Gravel King 42mm
Schwalbe Thunder Burt 2.1”

Also have a Schwalbe Big One 2.35” for riding dirt roads with the wee one on a kiddie seat.

geoffs

Just for fun I just just entered the details for the wheels I'm about to build up for our co-motion Mocha.
Lightbicycle RG722 650B rims with the heavy duty layup option, Chris King tandem Disc hubs and cx-ray spokes.
According to Spoke-calc they should weigh in at 1730gr for the pair. We'll be running Compass Babyshoe Pass TC tyres tubeless.
I know CK hubs are expensive but they do last a long time. You could most probably build something similar with a cheaper hubset which would still be as light as the Spinergy but with easy to replace spokes if one breaks

akexpress 

I built a set of wheels like this except I used a set of Nextie rims ( i have had great luck with numerous other of sets of their rims). They have been very good and have been using WTB Horizon tires on them. We previously had Spinergy and had numerous issues however they did have great customer service but in the end decided to change wheel sets. We have thousand of miles on Chris King hubs on various road and off road tandems without a single issue. Your built specs are a good choice.

geoffs

Thanks for your vote of confidence. I've been a bit nervous about using cxrays but from reading what you and others are using I'm keen to try them. I was looking at the Nextie rims but they all seemed to be hookless and from the specs the hookless rims don't take anything over 60 psi. Which model rims are you using.
Apologies for hijacking this thread

loopless

had the TX2 Stealth for a few months now and initial thoughts on this are as follows:

- They feel soft and flex easily. Good for vibra dampening but i'd prefer it to be stiffer. Spinergy reckons one can tension the spokes 2-3 notches to achieve desired stiffness but i've yet to try it
- We like to chase roadies and love speed and honestly, comparing these to my earlier wheelset (DT 535) it felt kind of sluggish especially during initial acceleration
- Rolling resistance is exceptional.
- Internal diameter is pretty narrow compared to other common wheels out there which then reflects on the tire size when fitted on. For example, a 25c would appear as a 23c when mounted and 28c a 25c. Its odd but i guess that's down to their design. This has not caused any issues at this time yet.

I'm right now building a new pair of wheels - 60mm CF with 28 or 32 hole drill coupled with Sapim CX sprint spokes and WI XMR-T hubs. Will post a comparison once miles have been made on those wheels.

rlp

We're a big team >400lbs and ride a Santana Beyond with the stock Spinergy wheel set and love them. When the bike was fairly new we were having some brake issues and stop at a shop in Washington while we were at the NWTR. The guy was tying to be nice and did a quick adjustment on the front wheel from the outside. That wheel was never the same and we wound up having the wheel completely rebuilt by someone who knew Spinergy wheels (House of Tandems in Texas). Since then we have put over 10K miles on the bike and the wheels have never needed to be touched. We have even done a few gravel roads with the bike. The bad news is you should always carry the spoke wrench and spare spokes (front and back are different lengths). If you have someone work on the bike make sure they know that they have to adjust the spokes from the inside of the wheel with the tire off. The good news is that the spokes are Kevlar so they can be rolled and are easy to store in a seat pack.