Somewhere along the line, tandem bicycles picked up the nickname divorce machines – however, more often than not the couple that rides together stays together. In the case of Salsa’s Product manager Tim Krueger, he says the tandem is the only time he can get his wife to go mountain biking with him. This year at FrostBike, the Salsas on display were Salsa employees’ personal bikes, and this tandem happens to be mostly the bike Tim and his wife have been riding.
The day glo Proto tandem frame shown here is the 3rd prototype that just arrived before the show and was built up with the build kit from the second prototype. Tim said that with the 3rd prototype they have dialed in the geometry and have mostly figured out the custom chromoly tubeset that is used for the bike. Parts like the one piece diagonal support from the headtube to the rear BB, and the chainstays were custom designed for the tandem to keep things stiff enough to actually mountain bike on. Thanks to modern mountain bike wheel technology, custom tandem wheels aren’t needed and a standard 29″ wheelset built on stock Stan’s Flow rims with 142×12/15mm thru axle hubs are used instead. Tim was happy to point out that this wheelset had over 1000 miles on it so far and is is perfect shape.
More after the break.
Salsa’s Alternator dropouts were chosen thanks to there ability to run single speed or adjust wheel base, as well as being 142x12mm thru axle compatible.
No hiding the fact that it’s a prototype. We’re told that a production version of the tandem could be ready as early as this year’s SaddleDrive, which is QBP’s dealer show out west, which will be July 20th this year. While the tandem is possible for SaddleDrive, we were able to find out that the BearGrease Carbon will be announced then as well as something completely new for Salsa’s mountain bikes.
Apparently, White Brothers released a dual crown tandem version of the Loop at the same time they introduced the single crown versions of the fork for normal mountain bikes. Tim said it’s a stock fork that is working great on the bike.
