Originally Posted by
flangehead
I don't know if this is the same problem madpogue has, but for my ride it is the clearance around the straddle cable end while trying to pinch the pads closed that is difficult, not the overall access.
A problem I could probably solve but it is easier to just install the wheel with the tire deflated.
Yes, it's access to the straddle cable end, but for a different reason. Your bike is different in two ways.
One, Your drive chainrings are on the pilot's crank. My tandem is more "conventional" in that the drive chainrings are under the stoker. That's where my issue is. It's not hard to reach the straddle release, but the release is on the drive side on my bike, so your tender skin is right next to the spiky pointy teeth of the chainrings. Worse yet, the bike originally came as a half-step-plus-granny, so that middle chainring was something like 48 teeth, and RIGHT next to the release. It's MUCH less of an issue now, with a more common 42-ish-tooth middle chainring.
And that's the other difference; the straddle release is on the timing side on my rear U-brake. Ironically, if we swapped brakes, your straddle release would be on the drive side where there'd be plenty of room to reach it. And mine would be on the timing side, where there'd be no larger chainring digging into my hand.
Off-topic, but take a look at the rear shift cable in that photo. There's a guide forward of the drive-side brake mounting boss, guiding the cable directly toward the boss. But then the cable deviates from that direction and passes around the boss. With all my bikes with chainstay-mounted U-brakes, the cable passes through a hole in the drive-side brake boss. Are you sure yours doesn't have that hole? The cable changing direction coming out of that guide, and then going around the boss (hard to tell if it rides on a guide there) seems odd.