turbozinke

I would like to get my dad set up with electric shifting with a triple on his Litespeed road tandem. They are a heavy/old team and must have a triple. So let's keep this on the topic of TRIPLE not convincing me that they only need a double. I looked back and didn't find any current information. The most recent was March 2017 as far as I could tell. They are currently running Campagnolo record 10 speed with triple.

On the tandem websites they say they have the setup for electric shifting with a triple but they don't list any of the components. Does any one have a list? Is it shimano/xtr or have they come out with newer stuff? Is anyone set up with triple electric shifting?

Thanks!

bikeinxs

You can do this with Shimano Di2. You have to use XTR derailleurs but you can use road or MTB shifters.

Rear derailleur: XTR Di2 9050 SGS
Front derailleur: XTR Di2 9050
Chainrings: 30/42/52 or 22/36/44
Cassette: 11spd 11-40t or 11-28, 11-32, 11-36

twocicle

With Di2, you will of course need to figure out a means to route all the connecting wires. Our tandem has routing holes built into it. With S&S couplers providing additional options, I put the Di2 battery inside the bottom tube rather than cramming it into one of the seat tubes.

Another big issue when going this route can be with the mtb FD mounting. These mtb derailleurs are designed for use with mtb cranksets that sit outboard a lot farther and have a 50mm chainline. Our needs require a set of narrower Q-factor cranks for my stoker, which required me filing down a direct mount bracket to move the FD inboard as far as possible. With this hack, the FD works great on our setup. If you have a typically wider set of tandem cranks, then this hack should not be necessary.

We have the 11 speed Di2 setup with XTR derailleurs and the first gen "non-model" hydraulic brake road shifters. It works great. I opt'd to use a set of "trekking" 48/36/26 chainrings from a XT T8000 10spd crankset that Shimano only sells in Europe and uses a standard mtb triple 104/64mm BCD spider. It's basically a mid-size crossover between a standard mtb triple and typical road triple sizes. It would have been easy to cobble together a custom set of chainrings from one of the many online stores as well. With this gearing range, we typically use nice close ratio 11-25 or 11-28 cassettes and for extreme climbing have a 11-32 or 11-36 to toss on though rarely have found the need.

One other issue that may arise is with the XTR FD cage design. It is intended for use with chainrings smaller than typical 52t road rings. So if you go with a ring larger than 48t, there may be a need to figure out how to tilt the FD to make the cage align better with the ring profile. Santana hacked this with the use of a shim/wedge. I suggest contacting Ric @ House of Tandems to inquire how he has implemented many of these.

Photo album here: https://goo.gl/photos/QRRvPFvggZrMXuHA9

bikeinxs

Twocicle that is a sweet bike.

DubT

The X-Shifter is perfect for this! Check with Pete at SportCrafters, they are USA distributors. Reasonable, simple and effective.

I am using it on our Calfee to shift the rear with no issues. We are running 10 X 1 but have a motor. Something your parents might want to consider.