Thought I knew how to true a wheel until I tried a 32 spoke tandem rim

I've been fixing bikes for about 4 years now and always thought I was decent at truing wheels. Then a guy came in with an old tandem wheel that was way out of wack and I figured 20 minutes tops. Nope. It took me almost 2 hours and I still had to redo half the spokes because I kept overcorrecting. The tension on tandem wheels is just completely different and you have to be way more careful. Has anyone else spent way longer than expected on something they thought would be easy?

3 comments

3 Comments

oliver_fisher2mo ago

Yeah tandem wheels are a whole different beast.

wadeyoung2mo ago

And I saw this video where a guy was explaining how the weight distribution on tandems is just totally different from a regular bike. Like the rear wheel has to handle way more force from both riders pedaling at once, especially going uphill. I guess spokes on those things need to be tighter and you're basically asking for a broken rim if you try to run them too light. Always seemed like a nightmare to me, one person having a bad day on the back can throw the whole thing off.

sageallen1mo ago

Heard this exact nightmare from my buddy Mike. He and his wife had an old Cannondale tandem and were cruising down this long hill near Boulder when the rear rim just exploded, like bang and then a mess of spokes everywhere. They were going maybe 30 mph and he said the back end started shimmying so bad his wife screamed and he thought they were gonna eat pavement. Apparently he'd been running the wheels at regular pressure and never checked the spokes for tightness, figured it'd be fine. Took him months to find a replacement wheel that could actually handle both of them stomping on the pedals.