IanS

A couple of questions:

1. I have a standard Corrima C+ rear road disc wheel that I am looking to use on my tandem for TTs. However, the rear spacing on my tandem is 145 mm and the disc is spaced for a solo bike. To improve strength, I'm looking to replace the hollow axel witha solid axel and use track nuts rather than a scewer.

Has anybody done this and have any suggestions?

2. Ideally I wanted to use a tandem specific hub/wheel and the wheel covers that wheelbuilders provide. However, apparently these don't fit my Bontrager Racelite wheels because of the dishing on this tandem wheel.

I'd be very interested to hear what others have done if they wanted to use a rear disc wheel.

Cheers

merlinextraligh

You're right the Wheel builders cover won't fit on a wheel with a 145 mm hub. The shape of the disc keeps it from laying flat. I cobbled one up a bit and got it to sort of work, but wouldn't recommend it.

I have a HED disc that I thought about changing to 145mm spacing. The HED folks strongly advised against it. I don't know if they were just giving the safe answer in a litigious world or if they really thought it was a bad idea. At a minimum it voids the warranty.

We ended up using a Zipp 808 rim, which is not that far off from the aerodynamics of a disc, particularly considering the relative amount of drag you get from the rear wheel on a tandem.

Dean V

This is what I made so that we could use a 130mm wheel in our C'Dale. It is a custom derailleur hanger which spaces the wheel and derailleur in 7.5mm. There is also a 7.5mm spacer on the other side of the wheel.

merlinextraligh

Pretty cool solution. Want to make one for a Co-Motion?

Dean V

The wheel uses the standard 130mm axle but with the 145mm skewer. A longer axle and redishing the wheel is obviously not an option with a disc wheel. I did do this when I fitted some 130mm Mavic Cosmic Elite wheels though.
With the disc wheel I also used it in conjunction with a standard double crankset to bring the chain line to where it should be for the 130mm wheel.

conspiratemus1

Sorry, I saw "disc" and my mind read "disc brake" and I even convinced myself I saw spokes in your photo! Sheesh. My bad.

IanS

Hey Dean, apologies if this is obious from the pics but if I could summarize in words, are you saying that you have used a 145 mm skewer, a 7.5 mm spacer on the non-drive side, and a custom hanger on the drive side which acts as a spacer and also makes the necessary correction for the rear deraileur? If I've understood this correctly:

1. I assume it was necessary to shift the rear deraileur and that it isn't possible to just adjust it using the cable. Otherwise you would have used another 7.5 mm spacer and done this to bring the deraileur to the correct position? Was this a difficult thing to do?

2. Does this then mean that the entire weight of the bike is supported by the skewer itself? Clearly it works foryou but I would be a bit concerned that this may not be strong enough for our team weight. If this should indeed be a concern, I assume that rather than replacing the axel itself, it would in theory be possible to simply use a solid rod threaded for track nuts instead of a skewer?

3. If I were to replace the axel, I assume this would remove the need to shift the deraileur as it would place the cassette in the correct position?

Thanks agian.

nfmisso

1. no, derailleurs do not have enough travel; with out the spacer, you'll loose 3 or 4 of your lowest gears.
2. no, it is supported by the axle and the spacers. there is very little strength difference between and solid axle and a hollow one - do the math, strength is proportional to diameter to the fourth. If you choose to go with threaded rod, make sure you get high strength - standard threaded rod is around 25,000 psi yield, bicycle axles are typically around 150,000 psi yield.
3. no cassette/freewheel location is based on the hub.