Cannondale

After everything was said and done, here is a summary of the upgrades/swaps that we did on out Cannondale Road Tandem. Nashbar/Winwood cyclocross fork replaces the Cannondale Tandem Specific Fatty fork. Avid SD-7 linear pull brakes replace the Avid BB-7 mechanical disc brakes. Custom wheels built from Shimano M760 hubs, DT Swiss R1.1 rims and WheelSmith DB spokes replaces OEM 40 hole wheels.

Ok, finally the wheels are built. I managed to get them done Saturday evening for their maiden ride on Sunday. There are a lot of steps that go into building a strong wheel. They can be found all over the Internet so I won’t bore you with the details of the build process.

Now that all the parts are here is it time to actually build the wheels. So the parts list is as follows. DT Swiss R 1.1 double eyelet rims, Shimano 32-hole M760-S mountain bike hubs, Wheelsmith DB14 double-butted spokes (silver) with black spoke nipples and finally some Ritchey snap on rim strips.

This could just as well be titled, “How to make stuff work.” In a previous article I explained the choices I faced when trying to decide what to do about a new higher-performance wheel set for our tandem. Now that the parts are here I am going to take you step by step through the conversion process that I used for the Shimano FH-M760 rear non-disc hub. (See pictorial gallery below)

Our Cannondale Road Tandem is going to get new wheels. I have looked around for something that will be durable yet provide a significant performance boost by shedding a considerable amount of weight. Not wanting to spend the kind of money Rolf wants for their Vigor Tandem Wheel Set or Topolino’s AX3.0 Wheel Set, I have looked for other options. I finally settled on building my own set of wheels.

The first thing I needed to consider was what components I was going to use, I had some great success with DT Swiss R1.1 rims. Not the original R1.1 but the newer model with dual eyelets. My other choice was to use something like the Velocity Fusion or Deep V rims. I made a decision that the DT rims would be my choice.

Today Nicole and I got to ride with a new group of people. Some of the Dirt Divas (if you have never heard of the Dirt Divas, just visit their web site here to find out more about them) came out to ride from Waxhaw, NC. They were planning a slightly longer route than the normal Sunday group that also included some of the only hills in Union County. Nicole and I decided we would ride with them this afternoon so we could get in some hills. If you are a regular reader of The Incidental Cyclist, you might remember that we are starting our training to ride in the Assault on Marion this coming June.