Asia on a tandem

Yea crossing into Laos in a few days. Here in Asia its definitely cheaper to 'eat out' yea. You can find delicious cooked food everywhere! For Turkey and Iran it was still useful on the long stretches

Good to know, thanks. Laos, uh? Pretty cool

what about a Salsa Powderkeg....

look at all those bottle cages!

Looks cool, for sure. No couplers though.

oh yeah, forgot about that.
would be so good on gravel/doubletrack tho.

Also sick fadez

If you want ultimate portability take a look at the KHS 'sausage dog' folding tandem. Will probably save you a lot of $$$ too

Fund my trip! Buy my tandem!

Not a bad option, but I can't see how we'd fit all our luggage on that!

Seems sad you're selling such an otherwise great bike.

I remember reading this blog a while ago, it might have some useful tandem logistical stuff in there.

http://shesnotpedallingontheback.com/kit/

Hmm if you have the right racks you can fit the right bags, but that may require some modifications on the front end. Bike Friday also sells interesting things in the folding department

talking about folding tandems, how ugly is this?

Feels a bit

Talk to me about insurance, please.

Tomorrow we'll give a call to these two:
http://www.adventuresinsurance.co.uk
http://www.campbellirvinedirect.com

Anyone has any experience with either, or another recommendation?

Alright, there is a bike being built for us in Bridgwater. After a mega protracted and frustrating chat with Ritchey about their rad-looking Double Breakaway, we're getting a Thorn.

Couplers, Rohloff, 3 brakes (V-Brakes + disc on rear), tons of touring pedigree. Should look something like this

Out of interest, how come the split is in front of the seat tube and not in the middle for minimum pack size

So you don't have a timing chain dangling around I'd imagine

Just for that? You could just take it off and put it in a butty bag

Actually now I think about it it's probably because the boom-tube is so massive so you couldn't put a coupler on it.

yes, Thorn is quite set on their ways on that. I'm with @PhilDAS, I'd have though that minimum pack size would trump all else, but their view is that breaking the chain is faff.

I think splitting a bike IS faff anyway, but I suspect it's designed for people that want to put it in the trunk of a Mondeo SW in 2 mins.

there are couplers for boom tube, as long as it's circular

Learning!

I'm intrigued by the whole mission and the bike isn't even built yet. One to watch this year that's for sure. So much to learn. I'm really impressed with your open-minded approach.

wicked. very sensible choice I think. love the double rear brake!

wonder what V brakes they'll spec for maximum performance?

Deore XT with blue Swissstop Blue Brake pads, on a CSS coated rim