Cycle Camp Summer, Tandemania and Busting My Thud

With the kids in NY I have had an ongoing "cycling camp" for the last month. It started with way
too many rides and miles, I got tired. Now the pattern has been 3-4 road rides a week and a MTB ride on Sunday, plus a Tandem ride with Barb.

Every summer we get the Tandem out, and find it never quite works. A little too small for me, a bit too big for Barb, squished, bad saddles, poor shifting, annoying brakes - its just not the tuned machine I've
come to expect and maintain. SO the shopping or fixing starts, summer is over and we forget about it until the next summer.

This year the strategy is "strategic upgrades" - find the easy things that annoy and seek to fix. For me its stem and handlebars, so we are adapting the quill to aheadset and slapping on a big carbon wing bar on closeout from Neuvation. Of course the first quill was too big to fit the fork, waiting for the second.

Cane Creek levers will replace the current roady levers, and so the evil little pulleys on the V-brakes go away. Barb has one new saddle so far and seems to like it, her new suspension post also too big for the 26.8 mm hole on the stoker. Getting her partial toe clips to hold her feet in, will try again on the post.

Speaking of seatposts, I got a Thudbuster ST for the MTB and took it for a break in ride at Camp Tamarancho. It felt good, and despite feeling tired I bested my previous 2 laps early in the summer, in
large part to a higher heart rate aided by me sitting in the saddle and pushing more. Only mishap was the bolt coming loose on the saddle tie-down, resulting in a freaky vibration sound when I was out of the saddle. Tightened right up. Good, subtle product, should keep me out of the bike shop for a few months :)

Waiting for the quill adapter to kick off the serious Tandem overhaul, but found a C-Dale MT800 L/S that could at least work with Zeb. Must resist!