Trident Stories
From another happy Co-Motion family...
Hey larry, thought I'd let you know the bike is getting good use and the kids love it
– thanks again! Mike
(This is a report from a Co-Motion dealer)
Last week we received our much awaited Co-Motion Periscope Co-Pilot (S&S Coupled) tandem to add to our demo fleet. If you haven't heard of it, the Periscope tandem was just introduced for 2004. It was designed to be a family tandem that can easily accomodate riders of different sizes with the use of telescoping stainless seat tube masts, and adjustable stems captain and stoker.
This past Sunday, Ann and I took it out for a shakedown ride around our community of Cameron Park, CA. which includes hills of 8-12 % plus grades. Being a bit skeptical about a tandem with no lateral tube, lateral stiffness during stand-up climbing was something we wanted to test amongst other attributes. We have owned a BF Tandem Two'sday and while we enjoyed it, it lacked the lateral stiffness we had with our traditional direct lateral framed big wheeled tandems. The Periscope CP comes with oversized tubing 44.5mm OD for top, down and boom tube, and 38.5mm OD seat tubes. Wheel size is 26" (559), and came with Panaracer 26x1.5 HiRoad tires. I telescoped the stainless seat masts to approximate a medium frame (22/19) tandem before adjusting the seat posts to our normal height. Put a couple bottle cages on and we were on our way.
Immediately we found the ride very smooth and expect the wide section tires helped that. Unless we looked down, we couldn't tell that we were riding a very compact framed tandem. There was no flex in the seat masts which was something we noticed with the BF Tandem Two'sDay (however that wasn't a real negative). First climb we attempted standing Ann was able to torque the captains seat mast with her stoker bar. This was a shakedown test, so I increased the QR clamp force on my mast. We attacked some more hills standing and no more problems. To our surprise, the tandem was very stiff laterally with our 320lb team weight. We then did a long sit down climb up a 10-11% grade. Needed to use the 34th SRAM cog and the 30th granny. There was some chain rub on the inner cage of the front derailleur despite the cage being up against the seat tube. Perhaps some more tweaking on the cage is in order, or perhaps a 1mm spacer on the right bottom bracket side will solve that issue. Coming down the backside of the hill with switchbacks, the tandem felt like it was on rails.
We only had time for about 2 hours of riding, but we were thinking that we may have found our ideal travel and loaded touring tandem. There was a reason we ordered the Co-Pilot option since we do intend to fly with it in the future. As compact as the frame is, there should be plenty of space in our S&S cases for the tandem, racks, etc..
Rick Steele
Gold Country Cyclery
--Reprinted by permission of the author from a tandem e-mail list review--
Hi!
I had hoped to do my own assembly on the Co-Motion PeriScope tandem which was graciously donated to my organization by Terry Zmrhal, Microsoft, and Co-Motion, but finally had to give up the idea because of lack of time and take it to my LBS, which is where it would have been assembled anyway, since the owner's specialty is do-it-yourself--he keeps eight repair stands open for customers and allows them to use his plentiful supply of tools, helping them if needed (in turn, they buy a lot of parts from him). The PeriScope's claim to fame is its ultra-adjustable design with double-telescoping seat masts to accommodate anyone from the smallest to largest captains and stokers. The captain's and stoker's stems also have an extreme range of fore-and-aft adjustment. This is the 26-inch version; Co-Motion's Web site now shows a 700C version and a triplet. The LBS owner was quite charmed with the PeriScope and would like to have one himself. He observed that it would be easier to keep the right size tandem inventoried since this design will fit so many different people. For myself, I am looking forward to being able to accommodate many different sized stokers without the hassle of a kidback adapter.
Friday afternoon I rode it around the block outside the shop and got the immediate impression that I never wanted to ride another bike again. It is so light (weighs the same as the Tsunami aluminum tandem that I built, despite being made of steel), so taut (but not uncomfortable), and so responsive. Then I took it for a five-mile test ride on a local trail, and was still impressed. The captain's compartment is a bit on the short side for someone my size (6 ft. 4 in.), but not uncomfortable--I put in hundreds of miles on our original Huffy Savannah tandem, which has a captain's compartment about the same size. I mounted an Old Man Mountain Red Rock rack on the PeriScope; it is recommended by Co-Motion and when bought from them it comes with special long braces to attach to the extremely low rear part of the frame using L-brackets bolting to the brake bosses. The stoker's seat clears the rack at all positions.
Today we got it out for a ride with stokers. Our departing (alas--her husband got a job in Connecticut, over 600 miles away) captain/cook/trail mom rode it a couple miles solo to get used to it, then took one of our kid riders on board to stoke; it was the first time the stoker had ever complained about a bike being too small for her (we started with the rear seat all the way down)--very easy to remedy with the extreme adjustability. After that ride was finished, which went just fine, we raised the post a lot higher to fit the captain to the stoker's position, and I rode as captain. That also went just fine, with no sign of frame flex--the bike felt tight as a drum. The adult stoker did complain of the V-brake "noodle" being a little too close to her ankles; that would be easy to fix with some Q-spacers on the pedals. It would also be fixed by using some crank shorteners; those, or shorter crank arms would still be needed if the stokers were mostly on the small side (currently-installed arms are 165mm). Since we have several taller kids who ride regularly, shorter arms are not an option, but I will probably install the shorteners, which will offer several pedal positions.
Here's our departing captain/cook/trail mom (who is also our church cantor/organist and school choir teacher) with the first student rider.
Mark S.
Pittsburgh