The opinions expressed in this pages are only opinions and should not be interpreted as the absolute truth.
January 2007 update : see at the bottom of the page in PDF format the opinion of Thierry Schmid on the Hase Pino.
At 17 years old, in 1989, Hase wins a youth construction competition with a Tandem tricycle. The company Hasebikes is founded in 1994 in Bochum (Germany). Le Lepus trike, still in production, is invented in 1995 and the Pino comes to production in 1996 along with the Kettwiesel (an other trike) which is a big success. For more details about Hasebikes one can browse the history page of the Hase web site (in inglish and german).
The internet web site of Hase shows the different kind of bikes sold as of today by the Hase company. It is interesting to note that Hase does not build any "classical" bicycle.
The Les specifications can change at any time. What is given in the following table applied in August 2005.
| Total length | from 210 cm to 237 cm. |
| Height | 108 cm. |
| Seat height front |
63 cm without suspended fork, 68 cm with suspended fork. |
| Weight | 21,5 kg according to the Hase web site, 24 kg according to the owner's manual. |
| Frame | CrMo steel. There is a titanum version for a weight of 13,7 kg. |
| Gears | Shimano cassette 11-32, rear deraileur Shimano Deore. Chainrings 28-38-48, front deraileur
Shimano Deore LX (FD-M571).
Twist shifters SRAM MRX
pro (in option, it is possible of having bar end Shimano DuraAce shifters). The rear chainring of the liaison chain is mounted with a freewheel allowing the front rider to coast independently. |
| Brakes | Magura Big disc brakes, 180 mm of diameter. According to the owner's manual this tandem is
specified with Magura Julie Tandem disv brakes. The Big being not referenced on the
Magura web site, I emailed them to ask for more information
on this. The answer from Magura, dated August 8, 2005 : The Big brake is based on the Julie Caliper with 2000 International Standard. Its color is silver. The master cylinder is the Julie one or can be a specific Big with a large rectangular expansion reservoir. This brake is particularly well adapted to tandems : the caliper is less sensitive to heat. It is certified to be used on a tandem. |
| Front wheel | 20" (406 ETRTO), double wall rim Alexrims DM 24 in alloy, 32 spokes, hub TX Quando, tire Schwalbe Marathon HS308 20"x1.75". |
| Rear wheel | 26", double wall rim Alexrims DM 24 in alloy, 32 spokes, hub TX Quando, tire Schwalbe Marathon HS308 26"x1.75". |
| Fenders | SKS, plastic front and rear. |
| Lights | Rear Basta Ray Steady Standlight. Front Lumotec Oval. |
| Bike-stand | The 2-leg model from ESGE, mounted under the rear bottom bracket. |
Generally speaking and after a few hundreds of kilometers, we like this tandem. The making is serious, it is
very rigid and the geometry is such that it is very stable even when standing on the paddles or at low speed.
The front seat is normally the main reason for buying this particular tandem. A plastic mesh is tightened
on a steel frame. The "back" mesh is independent from the "seat" mesh. My partner thinks the seat is too short.
The meshes are tightened with straps that one can see horizontally through the back of the seat. In case one
need to carry the tandem on the roof of the car, a few minutes are all what you need to remove or put back
the back of the seat.
The frame being made of steel tube of big diameter (51 mm pour le top tube and the diagonal tube), this
guaranty an excellent rigidity. The detail of this photo is an example of the care of the assembly. On the
enlarged photo, one can see in the red ellipse a vertical white line at the joint of the telescopic part of
the frame on the front of the bike. This white line corresponds to an thin tube, certainly made of nylon, inserted
between the outer tube and the inner part of the telescopic tube. This allows to the inner part of the frame to be
moved with very few friction and without scratching the paint.
When adjusting this telescopic part of the frame, there is nothing to avoid that the inner tube rotate. We
regret the absence of a thin line of paint on this part to help to align the front chainring in the same
vertical plane as the rear chainring.
The vertical distance between the rear bottom bracket axle and the ground is 30 cm. This is 3 cm
more than the ame distance measured on our other bikes or our other tandem. Once the saddle height is
correctly set by respect to the bottom bracket, it is not possible to keep seated whith one foot on the floor.
That's too bad, it wa so convenient to stop that way. I assume the reason for this geometry is to allow the
captain to look the road above the head (or the helmet) of the stoker. Say, Mr Hase, could you seat my
partner in a lower way ?
Hase pretend it is possible to ride this tandem alone (one single person). This is true and should be
enlighted. On a classical tandem it is quite dangerous to ride alone because the rear wheel does not have
enough grip without the stoker weight. Not only there is a risk to lay the tandem down in a sharp curve but
it is also impossible to rely on the rear brake. This cannot happen with the Pino as its short wheel base
results is a more "central" position of the Captain, allowing him to ride alone when needed. To pick someone
at the train station or go buy some food during a self supported ride with stops in campsites.
This photo compares the length of the Captain cockpit for my single bike and our Pino. Even if this is not
obvious on the photo for parallax reasons, the axles of rear wheels and the saddles of both bikes are pretty
well aligned together. On the other side, as pointed by the two red arrows, there is 18 to 20 cm of
difference between the positions of hands on the two bikes. Of course, one would not want to have the hands
as much in front on the Pino as they are on my own bike because the width of the handlebar is very different :
55 cm instead of 41 cm. See also the remarks on the handlebar adjustments.
By the way, I am not the first to find this tandem slightly too short as we can find the same opinion expressed on March 19, 2001 by Alex Wetmore on a forum from the International Human Powered Vehicle Association.
We cannot close on the frame chapter without any remark on the excellent design of the frame part where the rear
rack is attached. Every one that had once their feet touching the pannier while paddling will appreciate. The shape
of the part of the frame supporting the rear brake, the wheel and the rear rack has also a very nice looking.
Because Hase only make one ssize of Pino tandems, it is necessary to be able to adjust the position and height
of the front handlebar accordingly to the size and preferences of the Captain. The handlebar can be moved to the
front. I suggest to replace the flat washers by self-locking washers where points the arrow to avoid that the
bolt unscrew by itself. On the photo one can also see the quick release used to adjust the slant of the front
seat.
The height of the handlebar can also be adjusted. During some time, I could not be completely satisfied of my
position. It is possible to move some more the handlebar toward the fron but, as this adjustment is made by a
movement of rotation, this puts the handles in a position way too horizontal and the big part of the SRAM
shifters ended by incommoding the blood circulation in my hands. Very uncomfortable.
This also comes from the fact the hand is placed in a position contrary to what was planned
by the shifter maker. Because the handles of this handlebar are placed in the direction of the bike instead of
being perpendicular, it would certainly not be convenient to use trigger-type shifters. This is why, Hase
limits the choice of shifters to SRAM Grpshift and Shimano DuraAce de type bar end shifters (such as the one
shown on right).
The solution to this issue is very simple. You only have to turn the shifters and mount them in the position
planned by SRAM, that is to say that the thumb and index are against the big part of the shifter. The drawback
is that the routing of the shifter cables become more difficult. It is needed to replace the cables and the
cable housing.
We appreciated the power and ease of the braking. Two fingers are enough on the handles. An emergency braking
allowed even to lock the rear wheel.
We did not liked the initial setup of the brakes. The left lever commanded the rear brake and the right lever commanded
the front brake. Anglo-saxons generally prefers this setting but, in France, we prefer to command the front brake with
the left lever. Because these brakes are powerful enough to lock the wheel, in case of emergency, I prefer not to have
to think long to know which lever I have to release. Switch the brake lever is a simple operation but that should
only be made by a professional as it implies to reset the level of oil in the brake levers.
Because of the semi bent position, the front partner may loose the pedals sometime. Hase delivers this tandem
with VP pedals with one flat side and one side that receive a cleat compatible with Shimano SPD. That is a good
idea as many tandemists do not use cleats under their shoes. And for the big number of them using cleats, it
is quite easy to find shoes allowing to use Shimano SPD-like cleats without being a problem when walking.
We use Shimano SPD cleats for years and we found the VP pedals delivered with the tandem to be very difficult
to use with original Shimano cleats. Particularly, when adjusting the pedal spring to its minimum tension, it was
still hard to unlock the shoe from the pedal. We didn't tried the original VP cleats delivered with the tandem.
We won't give any opinion about the quality of the VP pedals. This is just to say they are not 100%
compatibles.
For what concern the rear seat, Hase delivers this tandem with low end pedals that we replaced quickly.
As soon as we are two to press on the pedals or, on the contrary when one of the partners wishes to stop
paddling on a tandem, it is needed to use toe clips or automatic pedals. Whatever your favorite, toe clips
or automatic pedals, the delivered rear pedals are a bad choice. We suggest to Hase not to deliver pedals with
the tandem and leave the retailer handle the customer choice. And, by the way, why not leaving the choice of
the saddle to the customer ?
This singular in the title is a despaired cry. How to imagine a tandem with a single
bottle cage ? Moreover, the front seat is so close than I cannot catch the water bottle between my
legs : my helmet hits the helmet of my partner and she hates that.
A few aluminum pieces, a little tube, four rivets and here is the issue of the missing front bottle cage
solved. And while we are at it, we can have the bike computer fixed in one intelligent place...
So, what about this Mr Hase ?
To begin with, I was skeptical about the interes of this device. Then I could see, it is not so bad. This is a
freewheel tied to the rear left liaison chainring. Depending on which side you look at it you will see a ring of
bolts or nuts on the inside of the chainring. This allow to the front partner to coast independently in case
he or she is tired or in sharp curves (depending on the size of the front partner and the position of the front
bottom bracket, the foot can touch the front wheel). very useful also to lock quietly one's shoes when starting.
Unfortunately the mirror is not delivered with the tandem. Because of the specific geometry
of the handlebar, it is quite difficult to find a mirror. Here an old Rhode Gear model plus some work to
adapt a collar to it. It is sodifficult to find a mirror to fit on this tandem we would have appreciated if
it would have been delivered with the tandem.
After having adjusted the position of the front bottom bracket by means of adjusting the telescopic front
part of the frame, the liaison chain may need to be shortened. Then it will be needed to play with the front
chain adjuster. This is a very simple system but we don't need anything more complex. Just unscrew one nut,
position the chain adjuster (the lower wheel) to remove chain slack, then tighten the nut. Note that in the upper
position there is two jockey wheels side to side to support the chain going to and coming back from the front
chainring. Although the presence of three jockey wheels and the protection tubes around the chain (on the front),
the system does not make much noise.
A propos de la chaîne, on appréciera les protections de pédaliers (visibles sur certaines photos) et
les tubes de protection de la chaîne de liaison, entre le siège avant et le pédalier avant. Ainsi
équipé, on ne craindra pas de salir son smoking ou sa robe de bal en cas de cocktail ou de
sortie-restaurant.
This photo is a Hase Pino, probably from 2001. Note the evolution, sign of the technical vitality of the company.
We found a few defects to this tandem (at least one, maybe two, water bottle cage missing and the
turned position of the SRAM shifter that was so uncomfortable). We also found ways to correct these issues.
We tried an un-suspended Pino during about one hour, then we rode about 500 km with a front suspended
fork and can only advise to get one.
This tandem is worth the try. We bought ours at M5 France (next to Annecy, France). M5 France is located near a 21 km long bike path and the store has a Pino tandem for test rides. It is not that often one can try a tandem so why not go and try...
Vincent Vallet
email : vin.vallet at free.fr
By end of 2006, Thierry Schmid sent me the report of his own test of the Hase Pino. To be read in PDF format (694 Kb).
Mathieu Monceaux bought a Pino in April 2008. His page (in French) gives his opinion about this tandem and shows the modifications he did.
