I recently had the pleasure of stopping by Quiring Cycles World Headquarters in Freesoil, MI and picking up our new fat tandem.
We asked Scott to build up the frame to fit the widest tires and rims available because Wifey and I are planning to play on this beasty during all four seasons. On a few occasions I have pulled quick release axles out of the dropout on my single so we didn’t want to mess around and went with thru axles front and rear utilizing 142/197 mm spacing.
Scott Quiring built a lot of cool features into the frame and fork. It has dual Phil Wood 100mm eccentric bottom brackets so we can run single speed for beach riding. The Phil eccentrics with their mirror polished finish are almost too beautiful to hide inside the frame.
100mm Phil Wood EBB with custom machined BB shell
As usual for Quiring fat bikes, Scott fabricated a yoke to maximize stiffness, drivetrain clearance and tire clearance.
We are running Mr. Whirley cranks front and rear. That works out to a 2x drivetrain with a 36/28t combo and then the third ring position is utilized for the timing chain.
We plan to run gears in the winter but we hope to squeeze out as much beach riding as possible this fall.
Scott also built a tandem “rated” fork for this build. He utilized a Paragon Machine Works tapered steerer and beefy straight fork blades. Paragon dropouts and a custom modified RockShox Maxle keep the wheel on.
Another important aspect is the disk brake tab. We are running a 200mm rotor and 6 piston downhill brakes up front so he built the brake tab to distribute the increased stresses.
To keep us looking stylish, Scott used a combo of platinum silver paint with blue snowflakes that match the blue anodizing of the Hope hubs.
The complete package makes for a spiffy looking rig that is a ball to ride.
After an early morning beach cruise, the tandem gets Wifey approved.
For more information about Quiring Cycles, visit – www.quiringcycles.net
KBS…Like. Can’t wait to see that thing in person
How is the cushioning for the stoker over rough terrain and single track? Enough for big rides, or for harsh trails is it better to have rear sus?
It is definitely more forgiving than a hardtail 29er tandem. On our 29er tandem (also a Quiring with the same tubeset and similar geometry) my wife likes to use a thudbuster but feels no need on the fat bike tandem. We don’t have enough experience riding a full suspension tandem to really compare the fatty tandem directly to a full suspension tandem.
Our experience is that the fat bike tandem is to a 29er tandem similarly to how a fat bike is to a 29er. You get a degree of suspension out of the big tires but it is undamped so in really rough terrain you can have bouncing issues.
Very nice. Roughly how much would a tandem like that cost ?
is is a single speed set up or an Alfine or Rohloff hub? If single speed how does if work out for hills or getting from place to place? We want one!
Single speed. We run it SS primarily for beach riding so there are little to no hills to contend with in that scenario. It only takes about 10 minutes to swap on the cassette and screw on the derailleur and shifter so if we are going to hit trails I can just throw the gears on quickly and be ready to ride. We certainly can run gears on the beach too but it tends to cause a lot of wear and tear on those expensive bits.
SS can you tell me the gearing? And when you set it up for the trails? What model hubs? Thank you Enjoy the Ride!
Generally we run around 2:1 but it depends on the day/conditions.
We are using Hope hubs and so far they have held up great. The beauty of the Hopes is how easy they are to service. Because of the amount of sand/water the bike sees that was a big priority for us and so far everything has been great.
Thank you Ken I contacted Scott we are talking…..
We’ve been riding a 29″ tandem with a WB fork for a few years, we upgraded this year to a Ventana El Jefe fat tandem. We run 29+ most of the time, but with winter rolling in we’ll run 26 x 4″ tires; I also have 27+ wheels. We started with a Bluto fork, but due to stanchion flex we are now running a Surly ICT fork. We are planning to upgrade to a burlier suspension fork in the spring.
Tandems are not generally comfortable for the stoker (rear), so my wife uses a Thudbuster to take out the sting. Typically it’s up to the pilot (front) to make route choices that take the stokers comfort into account. Fatter tires do help reduce the impacts for the stoker, but there is no substitute for true suspension.
Ventana also makes a full suspension tandem, but the max tire size is 2.4″in the rear.