Tandems of the forum

http://www.dolan-bikes.com/tandem/dolan-tdr-tandem-road-bike.html

http://www.dolan-bikes.com/tandem/framesets/aluminium/dolan-tdr-aluminium-road-tandem-frameset.html

Ta

Excellent then...

Hub rim and spoke arrived today, along with cassettes, chain(s), special long tandem cables.

Excited!

If anyone is interested in renting a tandem get in touch.

My cannondale road/touring tandem is in London and eager to go on adventures. @jammy rented it recently for a race and it seemed to go ok, so I'm happy to do it again.

Very flexible fit. Pilot probably between 5'11 - 6'3 and the stoker between 5'4 - 6'2 no problem.

£40 a day. Collected in se15

Nearly there (just missing timing chain)

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Does anybody know if you should grease/oil the ball joint on box bike/tandem steering rods?

The one on the wee man in front tandem is squeaking a lot. But the manufacturer (Baronia bikes in Bielefeld) is long gone... the steering looks like so: [not mine same model]

Looking good :)

That's going to be upright at the front I guess?

Does anybody know if you should grease/oil the ball joint on box bike/tandem steering rods?

If they are all metal, grease them. If they are polymer lined, I'd be a bit circumspect about throwing just any old petroleum products at them

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_joint#Lubrication

If something squeaks, I lube it (except mice obvs).

True... May drop it...
Wanted matching bar front and back, Montmartre along with suspension seatpost was a good way to convince stocker that pursuing tandeming was the only logical answer to London transport for us...

This is quite local to me: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Steel-Tandem-Frame-/201654936552?hash=item2ef39223e8:g:xigAAOSw-YVXl0DC

Would short track ends indicate it's intended for hub gears?

@Scilly.Suffolk @mdcc_tester thanks :)

Should I worry about dirt adhering to the lubricant, or no worries in this use case?

[On lubing mice...cheese is better there ;)]

Put a flamethrowing on too against close passes that'll be extra convincing :p

Also #internetbikefit ;)

Would short track ends indicate it's intended for hub gears

Looking at it it looks very similar to my (almost ex) 1930s tandem, which came like you suspect with a Sturmey Archer 3 speed (in my case 3 speed badly modified into a 5 speed) with drum brake.

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Should I worry about dirt adhering to the lubricant

Wipe off any excess, as usual.

Inaugural ride (from Peckham to Camberwell, what an adventure!) on the Orbit.
I think the frame tracking was successful... All felt normal, the usual tandem long wheelbase "offset" feeling, but it feels much easier and faster than the Sun, which was the whole point of the upgrade, we should be able to go further away than London intra now is...
The upright position kills is likely to hurt my butt on longer rides, I may try a Brooks pro instead, the wider rear may help, but ultimately I may revert to drops and spread more my (heavy) self load more on to my arms, if I can't improve this.

Then... Then I realised that unlike what I was convinced of, the timing chainrings were not the same teeth count! Duh! Last night I re-adjusted twice without realising.
Luckily I had a spare ring and all is now normal. So weird to cycle out of tune!
So far, success!

Great news and brilliant job on the resurrection.
When I rode it last it wanted to go diagonally across the road.

Shit's flexy yo

the timing chainrings were not the same teeth count!

That would be fun :-)

If your tooth count is not an integer multiple of the chainring bolt count, make sure you have both rings clocked the same so that you eliminate chordal action.

I was about to PM you to let you know the good result!
It was about time, the frame had been hangind at Winston's for over a year!

No idea what this is about. Briefly tried to google the subject, read a bit of Sheldon Brown on the matter of Sync Chains... and watched the first minute of a youtube video on chordal action... too much math for me I'm afraid!
Things were to a large extend built with part bin and forum classified, I put together what I found. Rings are both 53, on 5 bolts spiders, 135bcd front and 130bcd back. Chain is a track chain as front chainset came with track chainring. Rear is a normal road ring.
Any good link for dummies to understand the phenomena?

Any good link for dummies to understand the phenomena?

If I'd been able to find a good diagram of how to clock 1:1 chain drives, I'd have included it :-)

Basically, you want the relation of the teeth to the NDS crank to be the same on both sets, so you rotate one of the rings 72° at a time until that's the case. Most likely whoever cut the rings made one tooth exactly in line with one of the bolt holes, but they could have made one roller in line with one of the bolt holes so there will be a tooth exactly half way between two bolt holes for an ring with an odd number of teeth. It doesn't really matter either way, the easiest way to clock them is to take both rings off and lay them over one another until both the teeth and the bolt holes line up, then make a Sharpie® mark by one of the bolt holes and use that hole on the spider arm opposite the crank on both sets.

I didn't actually give this any thought when I bought my cranks, I just picked the biggest chainring available, but now I'm glad I have 5n teeth on the sync rings so I don't have to think about what orientation to put them on the spiders :-)

So I tracked down a 173mm shimano skewer at SJS, works a treat. Fractionally shorter than the Hope skewer the wheels came with but plenty of thread engagement in the acorn nut and a much more positive clamping action. Thanks for the suggestion!

Are you using your front pannier as bike stand?
Like it!

Stoker's pedal