KenNC

I am working on refurbishing a late 70s/early 80s Mairag tandem that has an Atom drum brake, Mafac cantilever brakes, and two brake cables running from the right brake lever.

The left lever controls the front cantilever brake, and the right lever controls both the rear drum brake, and the rear cantilever brake. Is this a departure from the norm? From what I read, the drum brake was more typically controlled by the left lever, and both cantilever brakes were controlled by the right lever.

This bike had another change made to it at some point, with shifters moved from down-tube to bar-end, and a rather unusual (IMHO) cable routing for the same, so a brake control modification might have been done at that time.

How would you set up these brake controls? I am planning to return it to the normal set-up with the left lever controlling only the drum brake. But am very interested in other opinions about how to set these up, including any perceived advantages/disadvantages of each alternative. Thanks!

I'll post more about the bike in the "classic & vintage" forum in a couple of weeks (hopefully), when I have before and after photos.

Alcanbrad

This is not uncommon though it is difficult to balance the braking force of the shared brakes. More typically done is to control the drum brake with a friction bar end shifter. Or, some folks give control of the drum brake to the stoker in which case there are many ways possible to actuate it.

KenNC

Glad you suggested this. Our more modern Santana tandem does just fine with a pair of direct pull cantilever brakes only, and I like the ability to independently operate the front and rear cantilevers. What you describe is an easy switch on this bike and I have the bar-end shifter already in place. I'll just switch one of the cables from the right lever over to the bar-end, lose the other bar-end shifter, and add downtube shifters back (as was original set-up, and which I like anyway) to control the derailleurs. This is being a friction shift bike where I won't be shifting as frequently as an index shift bike, I'd much prefer to have more versatile control of the brakes.

Rick

My Tandem has the thumb shifter on the left inside of the drop bar. I can actuate it with my left thumb. I have bar end shifters and hydraulic rim brakes. This was the standard setup on Burley Tandems with drop bars. The Hydraulic rim brakes were a big improvement. Magura currently only makes the flat bar versions of the hydraulic rim brake.