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Black Sheep Tandem DH

ssaddict

Monkey
Oct 4, 2001
472
0
Phoenix, AZ
Easily one of the coolest things at Interbike, this F'in Awesome FS tandem



Not only does it have a 1.5 HT, 7" of front and rear travel, (3) e13 chainguides, but the damn thing comes apart and turns into a SINGLE!!!

Yes you heard it right the quick couplers come apart and it goes from a tandem to a single rider bike in all of about 15min. QR cables that shorten for a perfect fit, and different rear shock mounting location for different leverage.

Talk about versatile!

Check out all the other pics on HCOR
 

buildyourown

Turbo Monkey
Feb 9, 2004
4,832
0
South Seattle
Those couplers are the shiz. I've installed them on steel dh bikes and the don't affect the ride at all. Really awesome if you travel a lot and want to take your bike. You should see how small the suitcase is that a single will fit in.
 

Kornphlake

Turbo Monkey
Oct 8, 2002
2,632
1
Portland, OR
So what is it like to ride a FS tandem? I've never ridden a ridgid tandem more than 20 feet but I imagine that to use 7" of travel you'd have to be hitting stuff that's really scary to be actually riding on a tandem.
 

OGRipper

back alley ripper
Feb 3, 2004
10,757
1,279
NORCAL is the hizzle
Kronphlake, you might be surprised how easy it is to use all that travel, but consider that (a) you're dealing with twice the rider weight; and (b) you can't lift the front wheel over obstacles, so you basically just bash your way down the trail, hitting everything like water bars, logs, and rocks that on a single you'd either fully hop or at least get your front wheel over.

Riding tandems off-road is way fun. You can't believe the traction you get when climbing the steep stuff (just keep pedaling!!). Plus it's damn near impossible to endo. Of course when you do endo, the stoker is suddenly about ten feet in the air - whoops.
 
Let's hope that's a 'show' bike only. Could you imagine someone wedging the front end into a big rock at 25mph...all that energy transfered throught eh top tube right into a 45 degree bend in a small diameter steel tube.
And the 1.5" headtube???!!! What's that all about? Are they actually thinking that the rest of the frame is so much stronger than an 1 1/8" headtube that they had to do a 1.5" instead?

Maybe it's just late and I'm cranky...but seeing that bike makes my head hurt.
 

ohio

The Fresno Kid
Nov 26, 2001
6,649
26
SF, CA
Internal14 said:
And the 1.5" headtube???!!! What's that all about?
Don't know about the top tube, but I'm guessng the 1.5 head tube is more for the fork's sake than the frames.
 

ssaddict

Monkey
Oct 4, 2001
472
0
Phoenix, AZ
Internal14 said:
Let's hope that's a 'show' bike only. Could you imagine someone wedging the front end into a big rock at 25mph...all that energy transfered throught eh top tube right into a 45 degree bend in a small diameter steel tube.
And the 1.5" headtube???!!! What's that all about? Are they actually thinking that the rest of the frame is so much stronger than an 1 1/8" headtube that they had to do a 1.5" instead?

Maybe it's just late and I'm cranky...but seeing that bike makes my head hurt.
When we were installing the guides, I think they guy said he already had over 1k miles on the damn thing touring across some foregin country earlier this year! Not a true DH bike, but when converted to a single it's pretty capable.

I'd rather ride this than the Cannondale I last rode (crashed). :D

OGRipper: glad you said "almost impossible", you think a DH bike is pretty heavy till you have a tandem land on you. :dead:
 

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
22,092
7,348
borcester rhymes
hey anybody have any contact info for black sheep? Their website is pretty crappy, and doesn't have a link for email

I always wanted him to build me one of these, maybe even out of ti!:
 

Attachments

auntesther

Monkey
Oct 15, 2001
293
0
Boston, MA
ssaddict said:
When we were installing the guides, I think they guy said he already had over 1k miles on the damn thing touring across some foregin country earlier this year! Not a true DH bike, but when converted to a single it's pretty capable.

I'd rather ride this than the Cannondale I last rode (crashed). :D

OGRipper: glad you said "almost impossible", you think a DH bike is pretty heavy till you have a tandem land on you. :dead:
Yeah I talked to that guy and he told me he rode around Asia on the tandem solo and just picked up random people to ride with in order to see the area. pretty neat.