Our Calfee Journal

That's correct... The Calfee had the weekend off. That's our '98 Erickson sporting the low spoke count racing wheels with 700x23c Vredestein Fortezza tires that we've been using on our Calfee, pending the delivery of the Calfee's daily-driver wheel set. This is significant because it means I was able to coax Debbie into taking the Erickson back out instead of the Calfee for that all-important back-to-back test ride.

Summary: As mentioned in the first impressions entry on January 12 and again on the 30-day update back on February 10, Debbie is absolutely thrilled with the comfort and ride qualities of the Calfee. However, this past weekend I was able to persuade her to get back on the Erickson so we could get rebaselined on how it felt and handled in comparison to the Calfee. Well, there is one word that summed up what we both realized after we hit the first section of cracked asphalt: Wow!!! So, what does that mean?

Ride Qualities: To say the Calfee dampens out road vibration is an understatement: it's a virtual magic carpet ride compared to the very plush ride of our Erickson. Again, this was also what I experienced when doing back-to-back comparison rides on my single Calfee Tetra Pro and Erickson Signature over these same roads. So, it's fair to say the ride qualities of a Calfee single bike are replicated in the tandem.

Now, I should note the low spoke count racing wheels made the Erickson ride more harshly than it normally does on the slightly heavier (+1 lbs) 36° White Ind Racer-X hubset / Velocity Deep-V wheel set. Additionally, we've been running 700x25 Vredestein Fortezza tires on the Erickson for the past year. However, to make sure we were comparing apples-to-apples it was necessary to use the same wheel set, same tires, and same psi over the same roads. We even went so far as to make sure we only took two water bottles along.

Anyway, getting back to the ride, as previously noted, the minute we started to encounter less than smooth and broken asphalt the dramatic difference in vibration dampening became obvious to me, through the handlebars and my saddle. Both the Calfee and Erickson use True Temper Alpha Q X2 forks, so there's no differences there and, while the Calfee has E3 carbon wing bars vs. the Erickson's 3T Prima SL's, I suspect their vibration dampening qualities are a wash, as are those of the aluminum stems: Thomson X2 on the Calfee and Ritchey WCS on the Erickson. As for what my torso was feeling, the components were also a wash: both tandems use the same older model of Selle Italia ProLink TA saddle and the Calfee has a Thomson Masterpiece seat post whereas the Erickson has a heavier FSA SL-K carbon post.

I purposely held off on asking Debbie anything about the ride quality or perceived differences until we were about 5 miles into the ride and had crossed one of the worst sections of road on our loop. As we climbed out of the draw with the old narrow bridge crossing over a creek I asked her, "So, what do you think? Can you detect any difference?" Her reply was a resounding, "Oh yeah... I can't believe how rough this feels. The other bike (the Calfee) made everything feel smooth." In fact, Debbie went on to describe how she almost felt as though the Calfee was faster because of how it soaked up all of the road imperfections. While the physics associated with rolling resistance at the contact patch between the tire and road would suggest this isn't true, there's no denying Debbie's candid perceptions. This hearkens back to one of her first impressions on January 12, "It just felt lighter, faster, and easier to ride". As much as I love our Erickson, I've got to agree on this one: the Calfee is much more effortless, plush and just a pleasure to ride. It's also worth noting that in their present configurations, weight was not a significant factor as both tandems were within 1 lb of each other during this ride.

What About That Handling Thing: There were two notable differences in the handling today and I would characterize the Calfee as being more neutral than the Erickson at this point. As already suggested, the Calfee is easier to steer in a straight line but doesn't always seem to corner as fast as the Erickson. However, instead of feeling normal, after putting 300 miles on the Calfee the Erickson now felt a bit skittish at times. In fact, the only time the Erickson really felt like it was in the groove that I'm more familiar with was on a hard right with an off-camber rise at the apex of this particular corner. In many of the other tighter corners and curves I had to pay more attention to arresting the turn and lean angle with more aggressive steering inputs making for some less than smooth exits (no style points today).

As it was with the Calfee, I suspect if we stayed on the Erickson for the next few weeks the pendulum would swing back the other way and going to the Calfee would once again yield a somewhat sluggish feel in the corners. However, at least as of today, I think I'll be happy with the more neutral feel of the Calfee long term, assuming I'm able to find a natural rhythm through the switchbacks on the backside of Wolfpen Gap when we take it up to Dahlonega for its first 3 Gap ride.

Update: The '08 Rolfs provded to be the source of the initial handling issues. Once the conventional wheelset was mounted the handling was vastly improved. You'll find futher discussion on how various different wheelsets performed in all of the subsequent updates.

Which One Is Stiffer?: The Erickson is really an amazing frame when it comes to stiffness. Although often dismissed as an old fad, there is just something about the compact geometry, custom drawn ovalized top and boom tubes, oversized internal tube, bi-ovalized down tube, externally butted seat tubes, and fork blades masquerading as rear chain stays that makes this very long (31.5" stoker compartment) tandem laterally as stiff as can be, while still being vertically compliant enough to be comfortable on long rides. Of course, as already noted, the Calfee blows it away when it comes to vibration dampening.

However, like all things there are gives and takes and the Calfee is no exception. Today's ride on the Erickson has caused me to revise one of my earlier assessments: the Calfee does exhibit some tail wag that's not in evidence on the Erickson. It only shows up when Debbie's reaching down for her water bottle, adjusting herself on the saddle, or when she decides to really put in a big effort on her own. Also as noted in the first ride report, we can torque the rear triangle by standing and coasting on downhills with our weight standing on either the right or left side pedals in the 6 o'clock position.

Therefore, given the Calfee has less steering trail than the Erickson and the robust nature of the main frame, I'm inclined to believe it's the rear triangle that's a bit less robust than what we're accustomed to. I mentioned this to the folks at Calfee in January and they did offer to re-work the frame to stiffen it up... something that also makes carbon (and a nude finish in particular) somewhat unique and attractive as a frame material in that it can be reworked after the fact.

However, at that time and even today, I don't believe it's necessary. Actually, to be candid, Debbie's already issued her decree, "It's perfect... don't you dare mess with it." She's probably right , as it's just one of the nuances of the frame and it doesn't rise to the level of something that needs to be fixed because it's really not broken. In fact, if it's flexing when we're up and out of the saddle honking up hills or sprinting on the flats as I'll be darned if I can tell. Now, there was some noise coming out of the back end of the tandem last weekend when we attacked one particular hill that was a bit disconcerting. However, it's apparently something germane to the low spoke count racing wheels because it was also in evidence today on the Erickson. More on that in a minute.

Update: As noted earlier, the '08 Rolfs provded to be the source of the handling issues.

Anyway, in sum, the Calfee does have a bit more frame deflection than the Erickson. However, it doesn't seem to detract from the handling of the bike when it really matters and the other positive ride characteristics of the Calfee so far outweigh this one as to make it a non-issue.

My Nit - The Eccentric: As noted back on February 10, once I came up the learning curve it ceased to be a nit. I've got my 80g tub of Tacx Dynamic Paste ($11.99 at Lickton's, thank you very much) which is basically the same thing as FSA's Carbon Assembly Compound, two brand new eccentric bolts ($6.00/ea from Calfee + Shipping), and am all set for the next time that I need to adjust my sync chain. However, it's definitely a different design that threw me for a bit of a loop.

Update: See Update #11 in August for a description of the eccentric retrofit that permitted the use of a Bushnell eccentric which was more to my liking.

Low Spoke Count Racing Wheels: First Impressions: I figure now that we've put ~335 miles on the low spoke count racing wheels (300 on the Calfee & 35 today on the Erickson) I've gleened enough to offer a preliminary assessment. While the jury is still out on the question of being faster than conventional wheels of similar weight (they're still in work), I do have two observations... well, four.

1. Bearing play indicated the front hub's adjusting cap required reseating with less than 200 miles on the clock; however, the wheel has been fine since the adjustment was made. The bearing play became obvious on that same hard, off-camber corner mentioned earlier a few weeks back when some disconcerting sounds came out of the front wheel hub in the middle of that turn that hadn't been there before. I guess as someone else I recently spoke with also observed, I'm surprised the hub manufacturer still only uses one set-screw in their end-cap instead of two or even three.

2. There is an as of yet to be diagnosed noise coming from the rear wheel during out of the saddle aggressive climbing. Now, I am something of a bike thrower so the rear wheel is definitely getting a lot of side-loading. Hopefully it's the same maladay as the front hub where the adjusting cap just needs to be re-seated.

3. These types of wheels are dead sexy... just like my Campy Eurus G3s. However, I can't think of a good reason for recommending the use of these fairly expensive, low-spoke count racing wheels for daily use if a team puts a lot of non-competitive miles on their bike each year. I REALLY hope my conventional wheels would show up soon so these can be put on the hooks until we haul them out for 'special occasions'. Even my singles get stuck with the 32° Mavic Open Pro's on Record hubs or similar for daily riding while the G3s sit on the sidelines.

4. IMHO, this year's decals are a bit tacky but, thankfully, easy to remove if you're skilled with a heat gun. Last years were definitely the most tasteful to date. I much prefer the au naturale look which seems to compliment the understated au naturale finish of our tandem's frames.

Some Closing Thoughts: Building-up and riding lightweight tandems and bikes have some true merits, although some are less tangible than others: it's intersting to see what can be achieved, they can feel more lively, can make you feel invigorated, can be more comfortable and easy to ride like our Calfee, and can certainly be a joy to own if you're an enthusiast and afficianado of fine bicycle technology.

It's also worth noting that gram counting can become a bit of an addiction. I didn't realize how bad it can get until I started selecting and acquiring the parts I'd use to build-up our Calfee. In fact, while I always had a pretty good idea of what things weighed, I never actually took weight into consideration when making too many decisions and certainly didn't have our postal scale on my work bench as I do now.

I believe like most enthusiasts, in the back of my mind, I know that shaving grams does not deliver a lot of bang for the buck for the average non-professional / non-amateur racers, aside from the aforementioned euphoria, pride, and placebo effect that can be derived from hopping on a lightweight steed. However, even after reminding myself that I bought the Calfee for it's ride qualities, more-so than the light weight, once I had it built and looked at it hanging on the scale... instead of being amazed at how light it WAS, all I could think about was "what could I do to make it lighter?"

Thankfully, I came to grips with it by reminding myself that lighter isn't always better -- it's sometimes just lighter -- and curtailed my thoughts about "what if I changed out the....(fill in the blank)". Well, OK... I did sneak in a really strong titanium rear spindle in lieu of chomoly... now I'm just hoping it lasts as long.

However, throughout this entire process I never kidded myself into thinking this tandem would actually make us faster all by itself. After all, when it comes to the King of the Hill, county line sprints, time trials, and being the rabbits, it's the motors that make the real difference. So long as the wheels stay on, fast teams are just fast on whatever they ride. If, however, acquiring a finely made, performance tandem like a Calfee might be the catalyst that makes you ride a little bit more, a little bit harder, or that perhaps transforms you into an entirely different kind of team then that's a tangible bonus.

Bottom Line: Our Calfee continues to exceed our expectations. We may not be the fastest team you'll see by a wide margin, but we'll definitely be a happy team doing our best to do our best. Any team with the desire and means to carefully spec out a Calfee would likely find themselves quite pleased with the outcome... it's just got to be ridden long and hard to be fully appreciated.