So, we’ve ridden it enough now on and off road to form some impressions. On road, it rides and handles very similar to our Dragonfly. Riding both of our Calfee’s I think is about as close to riding a high end single race bike as you can come on a tandem.
I haven’t weighed it, but I’d guesstimate the Tetra is 2-3 pounds heavier than the Dragonfly. ( slightly heavier frame, disc brakes, and a bigger cassette.) However I can’t say I feel the extra weight riding, and it’s more than 10 pounds lighter than our previous gravel bike.
The frame is as stiff as the Dragonfly, but has a little bit less vibration damping, and the rides feels a bit less lively. This would be expected, given the lighter high modulus tubes used on the Dragonfly.
Off road with the 650b wheels, it’s very capable doing forest roads, and easy single track. Its one draw back is a low bottom bracket. You need to be aware of where the bb and the pedals are going over difficult terrain.
The height of the bb on our bike is Calfee’s standard road geometry. The bbs on the Stock Calfee Adventure Tandem are higher for better ground clearance. We made the conscious choice of the lower bbs to keep the road handling of our Dragonfly. The “Swiss Army” do everything approach to the bike did require this compromise. If off road, particularly more technical off road was the priority, I would stick with the stock Adventure geometry.
We’re using 42mm Gravelkings now. I think I’m going to go to 48mm, to get just a little more ground clearance
