Harvey wrote, in part:
1) IMHO, the Atom drum hubs with oversized spokes were junk - altho ugh I do prefer having a hub brake in addition to a pair of caliper brake s on tandems."
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Our late '60s Pogliaghi tandem has a pair of very early Campagnolo side-pulls on it (the no-stamp calipers), which almost certainly came on it stock, and they work very nicely to stop the bike, even at speed. Caveat: they have older Mathauser pads installed. These make a huge difference in overall stopping power over the original Campagnolo pads. With the current set-up on the Pogliaghi, I don't feel any need for more braking power.
Regarding mixte Gitane tandems..the Gitanes with the triangulation-stoker-section (that is, a mixte-stoker-section), and no top-tube in the stoker-section, perform exceedingly poorly except for the most casual, easy kind of riding. Carmen and I once took our Gitane tandem of this kind, down a hill and into a nice, swooping right turn, doing about 35 mph, and I could distinctly feel the stoker section doing its level best to go off on its own about midway through the turn. It was...thrilling, I'll say that.
The Pogliaghi, by contrast, has no such inclinations, and is very stable. Jack Taylors and Herses and similar french tandems are the best, as Jan Heine has pointed out. Better to invest in a top-quality vintage tandem than try to make a silk-purse out of an irredeemable sow's ear.
Charles Andrews SoCal
...where we had a lovely ride around Brian Baylis's turf of La Mesa today. What a day here in southern California today. Just exquisite...
"What concerns me is not the way things are, but rather the way people think things are."
- Epictitus