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Summary: Although somewhat unexpected and unplanned, the sun, moon, and stars aligned for us during the last week of March such that we had a chance to visit with Craig Calfee. No, we didn't make a trip to San Jose, California or to Ghana. Instead, circumstances found us crossing paths when a road trip for a family event put us in eastern Pennsylvania on March 26th. This placed us within a relatively short 2-hour drive of Tandems East in Pittsgrove, New Jersey and, as luck would have it, they were holding their annual Tandem Expo on March 28 & 29. We were also given an extensive introduction to Topolino Technology's 1,520 gram AX 3.0-Tandem wheel set by no less than the company's founder, Rafe Schlanger; more on this later. Tandems East, Co-Motion & Calfee - 20 Years & Going Strong:
Our Pre-Expo Ride: While the Expo itself didn't begin until noon, a 10:30am start-time, self-guided 17 mile loop ride through what I'd describe as New Jersey's "low country" was offered as an option for those with an interest. We'd hoped to get a few rides in on Thursday and Friday during our stay in Pennsylvania; however, the weather just didn't cooperate. Therefore, the Calfee remained tucked inside the Tundra's shell throughout our visit. Thus, the opportunity to get a ride in on Saturday morning was something we were looking forward to, weather permitting. Thankfully, the sun came out Saturday and, while the temps never climbed above the low 40's and the winds added an extra bite to the air, we were able to team up with Beryl Brodsky & Tom Fritz from Virginia for the self-guided 17 mile loop ride around Elmer, New Jersey. It was a much-needed chance to stretch our legs, noting our trip to and from the tri-state area was book-ended by 12-hour long / 850 mile drives. As it is with most tandem rides, the five or six teams that rolled out of the school's parking lot around 10:30am all found their own tempo and fell into smaller pairings. Beryl and Tom made for great company on our ride, keeping us from getting lost on at least two occasions. Hopefully our paths will cross with Beryl and Tom again in the not too distant future so that we can visit with them a bit longer as we really enjoyed their company on our ride. Upon returning to the Pittsgrove Township Middle School imagine my surprise when we encountered our friend John Lee from Ohio in the parking lot. John had apparently combined a visit to the Expo with a visit with his son up in New York so that he too might have a chance to meet Craig Calfee and also get Mel to make a few tweaks to his Calfee Tetra Tandem. Unfortunately, we became so engrossed in the seminars that we didn't get to spend much time with John; however, we'll hopefully be able to do so in Tennessee this coming June during the Tennessee Tandem Rally. After depositing our Calfee Tetra Tandem in the seminar room for Mel's use during his Tandem 101 presentation, Debbie and I ducked into the restrooms so that we could get out of our riding togs, freshen up, and slip into street clothes for the rest of the day. The Display Area: The sad truth is, we never really spent much time in the school's gymnasium where the folks from Tandems East had set-up their product display area. However, late in the day after all of the seminars had concluded we did take one quick lap around the gym and I swear my jaw must have dropped: I'd never seen that many new tandems assembled and ready-to-ride in one place at the same time in my life! I wish I'd had my wits about me enough to take at least one photo to share, as it truly was an amazing sight. Therefore, imagine if you will what it would look like to see what must have been close to 70 tandems sitting bar-end to bar-end around the perimeter of a middle-school gymnasium / auditorium. Located in the center of the gym was a 24' x 16' rectangular arrangement of display tables covered with merchandise, with everything from jewelry for your lady to jewelry for your tandem. Going from memory, here's a virtual clockwise walk-around and description of the vast Tandem East bike inventory that had been moved from their 'shop' to the school:  As we entered the gym at what I'll call the lower left-hand corner of the rectangle, directly in front of us were 3 Calfee tandems. The first was a refurbished customer model sitting next to the same customer's newer open framed Calfee tandem sporting Topolino wheels, and then another Calfee Tetra Tandem that was part of the shop's new tandem inventory. Along side of the Calfees were the daVinci tandems, with models covering the full line of their current road bike offerings. Directly in front of the daVinci display was a Custom Co-Motion Triplet, a Co-Motion Periscope Trident, a second hand Rodriguez Triplet, and Kidz Tandem something of a reincarnation of the rear-steer courting tandems from the late 1800's. Returning to the perimeter of the gym and nearing the upper left-hand corner were some of the recently reintroduced Burley Piccolos and a row of what I believe were a number of previously owned tandems including a few Santana models and this is also where Mel's mechanics set-up house to pre-flight tandems for test rides. Tucked in the corner and next to a rear exit to the grounds of the school was a custom, S&S Ventana El Conquistador available for test rides that belonged to one of the seminar speakers, Malcolm Boyd. In fact, I believe we saw Beryl & Tom sporting some very big and expensive-looking grins when they returned from a spin around the school grounds on Malcolm's Ventana. Turning the Corner, the first tandem sitting before us was a stunning brushed titanium Seven Axiom 007 built up and ready to go: Sweet! However, right along side it were a couple of Bushnell tandems that caught my eye. Had we been buyers instead of just tire-kickers we would have grabbed the metallic gray one. It was our size and sporting some orange Velocity Deep-V rims and color-coordinated bar tape for an unbelievably low price given the quality of the frame and level of componentry. Next was a very long line of Cannondale tandems, ranging from the $1,699 Street tandems to the high-end R2 at $2,799 in the full range of size offerings. At the far end of the line was a bright orange Go-One 3, HPV: although it wasn't a tandem, it was really neat to see and I would have loved to have taken it for a spin around the school to get a feel for riding in the streamliner. Turning the next corner at the far upper right-hand end of the gym we found some merchandise and tour displays along with a collection of the entire KHS line of tandems, a Bilenky ViewPoint, a Ryan recumbent, and a collection of very nice-looking women's single bikes from Terry. Making our last turn at the lower right-hand corner of the gym was a sea of new old stock (NOS) Burley tandems, again covering almost the full product and size options of their line just before they exited the tandem business in the fall of 2006. Finally, as we approached our entry point to the gym we found ourselves looking at a very attractive and large number of Co-Motion road tandems, once again covering nearly the full-line of their offerings (Primera to Robusta) in a wide range of sizes and beautiful paint schemes. In summary, anyone who is either in the market for a tandem or who knows of someone in the market for a tandem could not possibly find themselves at a better place than this Expo to get started. Having visited a lot of bike shops in my life, the available inventory at Tandems East rivals all but the largest conventional bike shop inventories. As already stated, I'd also be hard pressed to imagine there is another place east of the Mississippi river where you'd find this many new tandems in one place at the same time and ready to ride. About the only shopper who might be disappointed would one that was only interested in finding a Santana tandem, as Santana is the only major brand of tandem they choose not to carry. Now, just to be clear, there are always this many tandems available to any customer who visits Tandem East at any time of the year. However, the Expo represents a unique opportunity to wander around, see, inspect, and take test rides from this vast collection of new tandem offerings in a nearly ideal environment and with all-hands on deck (Mel, Barb, and their team of mechanics) to assist you. Moreover, given many of those who attend the expo are already tandem owners, shoppers have ready access to tandem enthusiasts who are invariably willing to share their knowledge and insights. The Seminars: Our primary goals in making the trip over to Tandems East included: spending time with Mel & Barb Kornbluh; meeting Craig Calfee whom I've corresponded with for many years but had not yet met face-to-face; learning more about Topolino wheels; and, hearing what the folks from Co-Motion and daVinci had to say about their products. I am, after all, a tandem technology junkie, so this would be a virtual cornucopia of techno-geek speak. Had we never walked into the display area, the seminars alone would have made the entire extra leg of our journey to the tri-state area worthwhile. The Seminar area was a part of the schools lunchroom / small auditorium adjacent to the gymnasium. The ubiqitous digital projector connected to a laptop running slide shows was front & center. A buffet table was set up in the back of the room with all kinds of goodies to eat and drink with folding metal chairs available for seating. |
The Seminars: (continued) Mel Kornbluh, Founder & Co-Owner of Tandems East, kicked off the seminars with what he refers to as his Tandems 101 presentation. In addition to having a slide show running in the background with images of couples taken during their various rallies and tours over the years, Mel had three major props: a well-used vintage Jack Taylor touring tandem, a new Co-Motion Speedster, and our '08 Calfee Tetra Tandem. Mel also had a Bikeology catalog from the 70's featuring the Jack Taylor tandem that further helped to benchmark just how far tandems have evolved in the US since the days before Bill McCready introduced his Santana brand of tandems, and other like Cannondale, Burley, and Co-Motion reshaped the tandem and the tandem community. It was interesting to hear that Mel and Barb had to venture off to Europe to find their first tandem a Jack Taylor whereas today we take for granted just how many exceptional tandems are available, albeit from a limited number of specialized dealers. However, up and until about 20 years ago when Tandems East came into being, that was not the case. It was also interesting to see with the three tandems used in the display how the technology has evolved, contrasting the heavy steel tube sets and 5 speed transmissions of the Jack Taylor to the very lightweight steel tube set and 10 speed drive train of the Co-Motion, and the very advanced all-carbon frame used on the Calfee. Mel also talked about the tandem rally movement and, of course, touring which has become a very robust part of the overall tandem movement. As for the future of tandems, it was noted the manufacturers and tandem builders continue to struggle to keep parts suppliers interested in developing and producing tandem-specific parts like crank sets and stoker stems, as the annual volume is just so small compared to the conventional bike market. As for the demographics and level of interest in tandeming, that too seems to be in flux, which is something we've also noted as we conduct our annual surveys and talk with other enthusiasts and manufacturers. Malcolm Boyd, Founder of Tandem Club of America, ETR committee member, and off-road tandem enthusiast who is local to the area, was the second speaker for the day and although he has a deep and wide breath of tandem cycling knowledge, he focused his attention on off-road tandems. Resplendent in his Double Forte (Forum For Off Road Tandem Enthusiasts, i.e., Double F.O.R.T.E., get it?) jersey and standing along side of his custom steel S&S coupler-equipped Ventana El Conquistador de Montanas. Malcolm also had a slide show running in the background as he discussed off-road tandem technology, the activities, and impressions of what it's like to take a tandem off the paved road. We have a very personal connection to the off-road tandem movement in that we created Double Forte some eight years ago to help foster the off-road tandem movement and have had our fingers in some other activities that have helped to promote the activity. The concept of riding off-road piqued the interest of Beryl and Tom enough to take up Malcolm on his test ride offer. I was able to have a nice side bar discussion with Malcolm following his presentation and hope that we'll be able to meet up with Malcolm and his wife Judy, who was not present on Saturday, at a future road or off-road event. Just an exceptional person with boundless enthusiasm for tandeming. Bill Speckman, owner of Your Cycling Italia and Tandem East's business partner for their upcoming Italy tour in September spoke next. Again, a slide show ran in parallel as he described his background and experience as a cyclist and tour leader who lives in Italy. Unlike some tours that move from hotel to hotel over the course of a multi-day tour, his tours are based in Bassano in the Veneto region of northern Italy. This area is so incredibly rich in both cycling terrain and points of interest regional and related to the cycling industry that it allows all of the rides and activities to start and end at a central hotel (with air conditioning!!) eliminating the logistics and lost time associated with checking in and out of hotels every day. As a techno-junkie, just the allure of visiting all of the local bicycle and cycling industry fabrication facilities makes this a very attractive destination and tour format for us.
Brian Davis, Co-Owner of daVinci Design, was the next to speak. We truly got a kick out of Brian's talk as he is very animated, enjoys speaking to an audience, and has a wealth of anecdotes from his very eclectic background from which to draw upon when speaking. The "sales pitch" for daVinci designs tandems with their proprietary Independent Coasting System (ICS) was short and to the point: it's unique, it works well for their customers, and they pride themselves on their quality, attention to detail, and willingness to provide each customer with focused attention and support before, during, and after the sale. It was clear that Brian and daVinci's other Co-Owner, Todd Shusterman, have established an interesting partnership where each brings a very unique and different set of skills to the enterprise along with different views on many things that helps to drive their innovation. Brian was served up a plum of a question when one of the seminar attendees who had no experience with tandems asked that very basic question: is riding a tandem hard and does the daVinci ICS make it harder or easier to learn? Brian's reply, replete with personal anecdotes brought a chuckle from all of the more experienced tandem teams in the room who could relate to that same learning process. Again, all-in-all it was a very entertaining and informative session. I believe it was Craig Calfee, Owner of Calfee Design, who spoke next. Craig brought along a bamboo mountain bike and a Barstem, two of his company's more recent product offerings, to support part of his discussion. He also took advantage of having our Calfee Tetra Tandem close at hand to address the product that he's most often times associated with in the tandem community, his all-carbon tandem frames. As we have noted in our riding impressions, Craig pointed out that despite the allure of the lightweight and high-performance aspects of his carbon frames, the characteristic that endears most Calfee owners to their frames is sometimes the most unexpected one: it's the comfort. Again, it's hard to describe just how effective the all-carbon frames are at absorbing road vibration and that single characteristic comes into play during every moment that you're on the bike. Stokers, in particular, benefit from this characteristic, as Debbie will attest. The only material that he's encountered that does an even better job of dampening vibration is you guess it bamboo. Now, to be fair, I think Craig may have set aside the bamboo discussion for a moment while he discussed his integrated carbon handlebar / stem, aka. the Calfee Barstem. Unlike previous talks on the Barstem that I've watched on YouTube by Craig where he focused most of his attention on the rationale for bonding stems and bars together, what caught my attention in his talk at Tandems East was his selection of a carbon bar manufacturer and the fabrication methods they used that sold Craig on their bars. It's these little techno-details that always pique my interest Anyway, Craig then segued to his bamboo frame development with a funny anecdote about playing "fetch the stick" with his dog Luna. Apparently, there is an abundance of bamboo growing adjacent to Calfee's oceanside facility and it was the resiliency an strength of the bamboo sticks that Luna would play with that caught Craig's attention. To make a long story short, this precipitated Calfee's venture into the bamboo bicycle frame building business, rekindling commercial bamboo trade with Taiwan, and his more recent philanthropic efforts in Ghana. Overall, it was a fascinating discussion from a very forward-thinking and energetic entrepreneur that, along with our sidebar discussions, reaffirmed my long-held high regard for Craig. Stephen Mosca, President of USA & Canadian Distribution for Undercover Cycling, aka Go-One LLC was a surprise-presenter not on the agenda who introduced us to a very timely / green machine: the Go-One3 HPV. Stephen's venture is ambitious but given the drive for more clean forms of transportation and the right type of infrastructure / road accommodations, it could really be the ticket for personal transportation. The cool-factor alone was quite high for me, even though the practicality for both our terrain (hilly with narrow roads) and motorist temperaments (tolerance for cyclists) here in Georgia were both low. Even a SmartCar is a risky proposition for rush-hour type roads and motorists. Gary Forman, Sales & Customer Support for Co-Motion Cycles, was on hand to discuss both the single and tandem bike offerings from Co-Motion. As with all discussions about Co-Motion, the company's heritage and personalities are key to both the product design and customer satisfaction. Gary talked at length about the founders, Dwan Shepard and Dan Vrijmoet, and how Co-Motion came to be one of the premier tandem and bicycle fabrication houses in the US, as well as the close-knit team that presently comprise the work force. Gary brought along an S&S equipped Americano touring bike to support his talk and also used the Co-Motion Supremo that Mel had at the front of his talk. Gary emphasizing Co-Motion's use of sound design practices and extensive product testing as major strengths of their products, noting the principles ride and race the very same tandems that they sell. With a little prompting, Gary also branched into a bit of an overview of their expansive product line, to include the more recently added entry level Periscope frames and the new high-end Machiatto. The last speaker of the day was Rafe Schlanger, founder, president, and chief engineer of Topolino Technologies. This was, at least for me, the session I was most looking forward to as I really knew nothing about the Topolino wheels. I'd read all of the information on their web site and had also re-read personal impressions from what are at present only a handful of tandem teams using the AX 3.0-Tandem wheel sets. Therefore, I was really looking forward to learning more about the technologies used by Topolino as well as Rafe noting most of my successful tandem/cycling-related purchasing decision are the ones where I bet my money on the people behind the product, more so than just the product. Rafe impressed me immediately as the first thing he did was to pull everyone closer to the seat he took near the front of the room so that it would be easier for us to see and hear what he was talking about. I really enjoy it when folks making presentations make that effort to get more active engagement from their audience. Rafe went on to discuss his technologies and gave us all an opportunity to put our hands on cut-away examples of his spokes and hubs, the AX 3.0T wheel set, and a prototype of a new racing wheel. It was also fun to watch product development happening real-time as Craig Calfee and Rafe discussed something Craig would like to see added to the tandem wheel set. As best as we can tell, it was also Craig who advocated / championed the Topolino tandem wheel set. By the end of the session it was clear Rafe had developed a very innovative but practical approach to wheel design and manufacturing. His designs clearly leverage the properties of composites that inherently lend themselves to the function of spokes in a bicycle wheel and take an entirely new approach to the bicycle hub/spoke interface. Moreover, and much like the Calfee frames where owners ultimately realize that light weight and stiffness are not the most compelling performance features (comfort is), the same also appears to be true of the Topolino wheels, and in particular the newer Carbon Core series. Yes, they're light, have low-drag and are very stiff, but there's a lot more going on with these wheels than meets the eye. As for the value proposition, these wheels fit within a very narrow market niche where cost is not a major consideration / constraint to an enthusiast or highly competitive consumer, similar to many of the current high-end tandem offerings.
Dinner Afterwards: We were sincerely humbled when Mel & Barbara invited us to join them and their guests for dinner at the Ye Olde Centerton Inn after the Expo closed for the day and, as it turned out, our evening was the most rewarding part of the entire visit. Although tandems, tandeming and cycling remained topics of discussion, the majority of our time with our hosts and the other guests was spent learning more about them and their other interests. Our only regret is that we were not able to return on Sunday as there was still a lot of ground to cover (questions on new products), things to see (all those bikes), things to do (ride some of those bikes), and people to meet (our hosts and their guests). Final Thoughts: As noted earlier in this journal entry, a visit to either Tandem's East or their annual Tandem Expo is a must-do for anyone who lives within a few hours of South Jersey and who is in the market for their first tandem or thinking about a new tandem. It's very hard to find good information on tandems and having a resource like Tandems East is a blessing for anyone just starting out, as well as seasoned enthusiasts. |
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Update
#1: January 3, 2008: Our Calfee Tetra Tandem Arrives: Background
on why I selected a Calfee and what makes our frame unique.
Update
#2: January 12, 2008: Build 99% Complete... And The First Ride: First impressions on the build-up
and ride qualities as well as a description of the initial components,
the weight, cost, and some other thoughts.
Update
#3: February 10, 200: First 30 days & 250 miles: Dealing with a new type of eccentric,
trying to resolve some handling issues and working around an
RF interference issue with my stoker's wireless computer.
Update #4: February 24, 2008: First 45 days &
300 miles: Back-to-back
riding comparisons with our Erickson steel tandem and first impressions
of low-spoke count / paired-spoke racing wheels.
Update
#5: March 2, 2008: Ever Wonder How Much Influence Wheels and
Tires Have On Your Tandem's Performance? Our first chance to ride the Calfee with conventional
wheels solves the early handling issues.
Update
#6: March 16, 2008: As The Wheels Turn.... And Other Weighty
Issues: A little more
on wheel comparisons, disc brake rotor clearance, and some final
thoughts on our experience with low-spoke count / paired-spoke
racing wheels.
Update
#7: March 30, 2008: And Now For Something Completely Different:
Tandems East's '08 Tandem Expo:
Meeting Craig Calfee for the first time along with several other
industry representatives and enthusiasts while attending one
of the few tandem expos held here in the US.
Update
#8: April 19, 2008: It's the Little Things.... And Some New Wheels: A few tweaks, some different water
bottle cages, and yet another wheel set: these babies are keepers.
Update
#9: May 11, 2008: Back In Black... And More On Wheels: The Calfee takes on a more stealthy
look, an update on the Topolino's and a new set of old wheels:
Rolfs Part Deux.
Update
#10: May 27, 2008: Wheels, Rims, & Unexpected Consequences:
Debbie's Calfee:
We are so impressed with the Calfee tandem that a 3rd Calfee
bike is added to the family livery, plus updates on wheels, creaks,
and a short photo retrospective on US: 2008 compared to 1997.
Update
#11: August 12, 2008: The
Perfect Ride & The Penultimate Update: After about 8 months and a couple thousand
miles of fine tuning, our Calfee Tetra Tandem is Perfect. This
update includes a summary of the final adjustments made since
May and will likely be the last update before our final, year-in-review
over Christmas.
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If popping over to visit with Mel &
Barbara Kornbluh during their Expo wasn't enough, in and of itself,
it just so happened this year was also the 20th anniversary of
Tandems East. To commemorate this milestone they expanded their
Expo to include having several of their key business partner
/ industry representatives on hand for presentations and impromptu
meetings in the display area adjacent to the seminar room at
the Pittsgrove Township Middle School in Elmer, New Jersey. Of
course, it's noteworthy that 2008 is also the 20th anniversary
for Co-Motion and Calfee... an amazing coincidence if there ever
was one.