quemazon

Why does Santana use cable stop barrel adjusters (in stead of in-line barrel adjusters)? With a coupled tandem, unscrewing the barrel adjusters is required...which means you'll have to re-adjust everything when you're done. Not to mention unscrewing them is a pain. Why not just use in-line barrel adjusters and regular cable stops? Also, the rear already has an adjuster at the derailleur.

I ask because I just purchased a coupled santana arriva. I want to remove the barrel adjusters, but I'm not sure what to replace them with. Jagwire sells lined end caps that could work. I'm going to give it a try.


Skip to 3:32 to see what I'm talking about:

bakerjw

That is strange. You could always use inline adjusters and remove the springs from the frame mounted adjusters. That way you'd not have to worry about too radical of adjustments every time that you reassemble.

Now with our mountain tandem that has S&S couplers, things get a little more hairy as I run housing all the way from the front to the back. Meaning a restring every time it it reassembled. Nothing as neat as what you have there though.

OneIsAllYouNeed

That sort of downtube barrel adjusters don't belong on a travel bike. All the travel bikes in my collection have inline adjusters and split cable stops. Removing the cables and housings doesn't affect the adjustment of the derailleur (or brake).
If you have to have downtube adjusters, IRD make some slick quick release ones:


IRD quick release cable stops on Cycles Chinook titanium travel tandem


https://store.interlocracing.com/irdquredocas.html

quemazon

Yeah, this looks more like what should be used. The cable stop on the santana is split--so that's good. But it's also threaded, which means the IRD adjuster wouldn't fit. I should be able to use a split barrel adjuster like used on MTB brake levers. I'll just thread it all the way in, and use it as a regular cable stop. To remove cables I'll just have rotate it so the splits line up. But I shouldn't have to un-thread it or adjust it after reassembly.

Any other solutions out there? Thanks.

CaliTexan

Our travel tandem is a Bilenky, not Santana, but in any case, I've got cable splitters under the boom tube (as shown in the video), AND also along the down tube. There are few more splitters further back. The splitters are quick and easy, even when wet/dirty/gritty from road spray.

Ahead of those splitters under the down tube, I leave the cables on/connected and then I position the handlebars / fork / front triangle in the case in a way that also keeps the front brake connected. (Over time, I've discovered I can also leave other things (like the rear disk) mounted and disconnect fewer things.)

So, I think the type and location of cable splitters is more a function of where the frame cuts are for the S&S couplings and how your bike packs away in the S&S cases (or Santana case), as much as anything else. Consider whether cutting the cables in different places and adding some more of the easy cable splitters would make life easier.

quemazon

Just a quick update--my plan to use the slotted barrel adjusters from brake levers was a no-go. Those are much larger diameter than the regular in-line adjusters. So, as suggested above, I removed the spring from the stock inline adjusters, and just screw them all the way in. It's not the ideal solution, but they are easier to remove and don't require a re-setup.

bakerjw

As another thought, you might be able to drill out the threads to fit and end ferrule and not have to worry about screwing them in and out.

As mentioned, I'm in a whole other realm with our tandem having housings from every shifter and brake lever to derailleur and caliper.

quemazon

Yeah I thought about that one too, but drilling them out can be a pain, and they don't really work as a stop (unless you're really careful). So I'll just use them as is (without the springs). Unthreading them will be a pain, but I won't have to do it often. At least I don't have to re-adjust.

Philly Tandem

I kept the OEM Santana cable adjusters on my S&S Santanas that you described and also added inline cable adjusters to the housing before the frame adjusters. I agree, it's a bad design. Plus, the frame-mounted adjusters are not slotted, so you can't easily remove the cable for packing.

Basically, I use the added inline adjusters for all the actual adjusting, and just keep the frame-mounted ones all the way screwed in. That way when I pack I just unscrew them and then screw them back in when reassembling and adjustment is not messed up. If you find out something to replace them with, I'd love to hear about it. I didn't invest much mental energy into it.

merlinextraligh

Because Santana has to everything by the Santana, i.e. the “proper method?