# Fire up front, Flowers in the rear



## Bigwheel (Jan 12, 2004)

Thought some of you would like to see this. It was built for a couple that scores quite well in the mid west racing scene. 

http://www.quiringcycles.net/igallery/igallery.asp?d=\tandem\aluminum+29'er+tandem\&page


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## MichiganClydesdale (Mar 24, 2004)

*nice....and fast*

I was in Scott's shop (for work on one of my frames), 2x during the construction phase of this frame. I got to see the rear triangle constructed, and it was amazing to me how beefy the tubes were, for the Epps. I'm a 29er tandem owner, so I was particularly interested in this one. I didn't think to look for the final pics with paint, so thanks for posting. That frame may very well win a couple midwest races, and not just in the tandem class.


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## Speedub.Nate (Dec 31, 2003)

Sweet! I'd love to see pics of the full build. I'm always curious about rim selection for 29" tandems.


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## bbudell (Jun 10, 2005)

*Check out the fork*

I was talking with Scott about the build and I guess he used a Columbus Nivacrom Max tubeset for the fork. It was a tubeset that came out years ago and was so stiff and overbuilt that it didn't see much use for singles. The fork looks to have a pretty small axel to crown distance so I am guessing that this tandem won't see a suspension fork. The setup should make for a light, stiff tandem fork for a light weight team like the Eppens!


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## Bigwheel (Jan 12, 2004)

Had a report from Q about the Ore2Shore today and he said that the Eppens tandem in race form weighs in at 33 lbs. and they were 14th overall. He said they had a super light wheelset that they have been running without failure (so far). Sorry I don't have a picture of it but maybe someone that was there took one?

He stoked a tandem that he built for an old friend (the red one) and although they had a flat 5 miles in and according to Scott about 500 people passed them and they didn't have anything but a sea of people to work through after getting back on course they ended up 84th. He was mightily impressed at the freight train speed of the tandem for sure. Especially in the sandy sections where he said if someone was right on their tail going in they were 50' off the back in about 2 seconds! He was a bit sore today though because riding a tandem at speed over rough terrain in the back seat is like a day on a jackhammer!


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## bbudell (Jun 10, 2005)

*Details on the Eppens' build*

Ore to Shore was a great race! I was the captain on the tandem with Quiring and it was a ball flying down some of the sections. Quiring wasn't exaggerating about the sand. The big wheels with a lot of weight behind them were incredibly fast on the downhills, flats and sandy sections. We were able to steamroll through stuff that bogged down other bikes.

I posted the following on the DF forum about the Eppens' build:

"Some of you might be interesting in how they had setup their bike. Pictures of the frameset have been posted on the Quiring Cycles website but it sounded like the Eppens had just built it up in the last few weeks. They estimated the total weight at about 31 lbs! They were running Surly Mr. Whirly cranks with the timing chain on the granny instead of on the left. Drive train and disk brakes were XTR. The wheels were 32H, Stans rims (Flow, I think), DT revolution spokes, King hubs all wrapped up in 2.2" Schwalbe tires (I think Racing Ralphs) with Stans tubeless. No suspension to be found anywhere."

Brian and Kim were super nice and approachable. I asked Brian if he had noticed any undesirable flex in the wheels and he said they felt solid. From talking to the other racers that were up front with them, it sounded like they had a couple of dropped chains at bad times in the race. The story I heard was when they would shift from the big ring to the middle, sometimes the chain would overshoot and jam up with their timing chain on the granny. A real bummer for them because my experience on the big wheels made me guess that their bike was probably faster on this course than their old tandem.


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## MichiganClydesdale (Mar 24, 2004)

*timing on right*

they ran their timing chain on the right side, with the 24 granny, and used a 24 timing ring up front? wild.


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