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Hi,
Thanks for sharing, nice story.
I am glad nothing bad happened with the failed brake cable!
I agree that they are difficult to sell as they take space, you need to convince somebody else to join you, and I know I will not get back the amount of money I've put into restoring it to this stage but I've enjoyed the whole process.
ElGato
@clubman
This beautiful machine is similar to a Selbach tandem I owned about 25 years ago.
The Selbach also had Chater chainsets, Resilion cantilevers and was almost the same colour. It had a cyclo standard three speed which worked well but didn't really have a low enough bottom gear for my purposes - carrying a child whose power to weight ratio wasn't all that impressive.
This machine was unrestored and had clearly seen quite a bit of use,but I got it into near perfect mechanical condition although it would have looked very shabby alongside this Bates.
I used it a fair amount with two of my children. I took my son on a Hounslow club run (Staines to Amersham and back), partly because I wanted him to experience The Broadway Cafe while it was still going. This was a greasy spoon establishment in a very attractive late medieval timber framed building - the cafe proprietor had no idea at all what the building was or that anyone might be interested in it and he had covered some of the internal framing with formica, presumably to make it look more 'with it'. In winter there would be an open coal fire going.
The ride was pretty hard going for me but I felt it would be worth it to give the boy a memorable experience which would be unrepeatable by the time he was a few years older. It all worked - we got there and back, the fire was lovely to sit by after the cold drizzle we'd had on the way - what could possibly go wrong? What went wrong was that he didn't remember anything about - a few years later when I referred to that day he couldn't remember it at all, a complete blank.
More relevant to this column is that when the time came to sell, although the Selbach was often the centre of attention when in use, it proved difficult to find a buyer. I can't remember exactly how long it took but I do remember I was beginning to give up hope. Eventually some one gave me £200 for it (not really so very far off the price here, allowing for inflation and the cost of getting this one into its present condition). The money went on a discounted East German Alto Sax for my daughter.
Finally, I feel obliged to mention that I did have one potentially dangerous problem: I fitted a newly made rear brake cable made up by an old established London bike shop. It broke, suddenly and unexpectedly. It failed on the soldered joint where the single cable from the brake lever splits into two. Luckily no harm was done but I don't feel happy when I think what might have happened.