Our BWR Winning Ritchey Tandem

The bike that gave us the win at Belgian Waffle Ride San Diego!

Road cyclists looking at Garmin Computer

Frame: Ritchey Break-away Outback tandem

This steel frame is designed to handle the rigors of offroad riding. Ritchey’s Break-Away design allows the tandem to be split into three parts and packed into two suitcases for transport.

Drivetrain: SRAM Force/Eagle AXS

To get the most out of the Breakaway frame, we decide to use a fully wireless groupset. This way, the only cable running to the rear of the frame was a single brake cable. To get a wide enough range of gears, we ran a mullet setup with SRAM’s mountain bike derailleur and 10-50T cassette in the rear. Our chainring of choice was a 44T.

Tires: IRC Boken Plus (700c x 38mm)

We chose the Boken Plus because we wanted a tire that would be fast on the road while still offering a little traction on the dirt. Our fork clearance prevented us from running anything bigger (in fact, we had to file down the fork just to make the Bokens work). For tire pressure, we opted to run high (for tubeless tires) at 50 PSI. Our hope was to avoid the hassle of unnecessary pinch flats – our total weight was close to 350 lbs after all.

Wheels:

Built in-house at Performance by our Bicycle Category Manger, Spencer. We used Velocity Cliffhanger Rims for durability, a Surly front hub, and a White Industries rear hub. This frame has a rear spacing of QR x 145mm which limited our options for SRAM XD hubs.

BRAKES: Yokozuna Motoko

To make it easier to assemble and disassemble the frame, we opted to use cable-actuated disc brakes. These brakes from Yokozuna feature a closed hydraulic system to provide some of the benefits of hydraulic without the need for hoses.