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@6pt
Which brings us to now! Many lessons learnt, and plenty of time to pull things together before we head off on the next tour (well, just under two weeks now). This year is the Big One. We'll be off for more than a month, and we want nothing to go wrong. More than that, we want everything to be Right.
So, first off, the tandem's being resprayed.
When I last saw it it looked like this:
Sad and broken.
It's being done in a metallic gunmetal grey by Mario Vaz (as he's local. you try walking a tandem frame much further than a mile or so), and is being held up by the decals which are frustratingly hard to source. Soul (on here) found some old ones on eBay which I snapped up then scanned and redrew so I had enough for the full tandem. Vaz is having them made, and it should be done 'soon'.
Next, completely new wheels. Out with the underbuilt deore/319s. In with the 40h Mavic A719s on Orbit Tandem hubs. Strong enough to see us through many problem free miles. Hopefully.
I wanted to go Hope for something sexy and British-made, but their tandem hubs only come in 145 and this Super Galaxy is for some reason a 135mm frame that I was reluctant to have cold set.
I enquired whether they'd be able to either custom-drill a 40h version of their strongest mtb hub or shorten the axle on a tandem hub, but they refused. Boo. Other option was going for Phil, who the internet suggests are the only tandem rear hubs guaranteed to have no issues, but price after shipping and taxes made my wallet cry so that wasn't going to happen. They were built at Brixton (thanks Jim! Again!) speedily, and so far all I can say about them is that they look round. And that 80 spokes is a lot of spokes.
O O
Racks: Tubus, obviously. Tara and Cargo. They should last.
And some modern BCD cranks, so sourcing replacement rings should be a little less stressful next time around. The problem with this is that the timing cranks use a 39t chainring, not a 34t, so I may well need to join 3 chains instead of the usual 2 to make the distance.
The pile of bits also has a NOS JIS headset (why?!), two new bottom brackets, two sets of compact drops + lizardskins to cover them in (thanks to the compact bar thread), a new four bolt stoker stem + shim to hold one of them in place, some (more) modern(ish) shaped v-brake levers (tektro rl520. there are so few choices for this without going for standard road levers and using a travel agent or something similar) to go on the front and new mudguards so we can stay dry without having the ratty old ones. I still need to get cables (inners/outers), new timing chain and drive chain and maybe a new cassette (haven't checked how worn the old one is yet), as well as a new front tyre. And a new Garmin + out-front mount. Hopefully that's the end of the direct tandem expenditure. We're still acquiring assorted bits of lightweight camping gear (Helinox table, anybody?) and I'm looking at sensible lighter-weight tools to take as we'll be a bit tighter for space than previous years and I'm not keen to take the usual toolbox items (portable cassette tool!).
Once the frame is back in my possession I'll piece it together and it'll become apparent what really obvious bits I've missed out.
So far, big shout-outs to Brixton Cycles, Spa Cycles and tandems.co.uk for being rather awesome in helping us get this together.