Asia on a tandem

I really like the turn this is taking. Diving straight in the deep end and slowly making your way closer to home seems nice somehow.

Those comotion tandems are LOVELY. Can always add the dynamo and a Igaro at a later stage .
Envious all all this touring chat.
When do you pick it up?

Still waiting for final confirmation, but at some point in July.

Good call on Co-Motion, I love their touring bikes. More modern approach than the Thorn too. Exciting!

Pedals: I'm keen on using lambdas, but I also want to use power grips. Lambdas don't have that little lip that let you kick and roll to flip the pedal when the straps are facing down. Is that a problem?

MKS pedal flip?

oh, didn't know that existed! The lambdas have that curved platform overshooting the reflector mounts, dont know if it'd work, but will prob test and see what happens. Thanks!

I'm sure you could easily make something similar

I have lambdas on my cross check, and they're awesome!

One thing to note is that they can get a tad slippy if it's wet and you're wearing shoes that aren't pretty much flat soled - I suppose that's the case with a lot of pedals tho...

I guess this wouldn't be much of a problem if you're sticking straps on them tho.

There is always this - https://www.flickr.com/photos/andy_squirrel/8184503557

Any progress pics? Or are they the sort of outfit that just smash them out quite quickly?

Not yet, we might get some once they’re done sticking the tubes together. I dunno how long the build itself takes, but it’ll be a good 4 months between order and delivery.

It’ll be fun to pick it up in the factory. Never bought a new bike before.

Countdown approaching one month to go.

Some things progressed well. The parts we're upgrading from the stock build have been ordered and are gradually arriving at the framebuilders. These are:

• Paul Klampers
  
• Paul levers
  
• Hope 203mm floating rotors
  
• Marathon Almotion 700c x 2.0
  
• MKS Lambda
  
• Power Grips
  
• Surly front rack
  
  

Main thing missing is the mudguards now, I'm still undecided on model. We also ordered framebags, it took a long while to get that right because I wanted to avoid dozens of poorly thought velcro straps all over. We looked at screw-mount systems, which also act as deterrent giving us one less bag to take out from the bike when we leave it unattended. It'd be really cool to do it like that, but after some serious consideration the bag makers wisely pointed out that the stoker bag is way too large and floaty (won't touch the boom tube), so in all likelihood we'd stress the mounting points in the long run and whatever is the weaker material would tear, stretch, fail, kaput. Final layout is this one, it'll be velcro on top and screws on bottom. We'll have zip closing towards each other, so we can lock them together with a single lock if needed (prob not, but hey).

And this is how it'll prob look on day one before we give it a bit more 'character' with towels, sandals and wet underwear hanging from every available surface.

We're thinking of adding a couple of Ortlieb accessories to the panniers, the bottle cage and the mini bag. Anyone has any experience using them? On the front we'll have a basket-type bag, to carry groceries, extra layers, random stuff. I don't want anything more than 2 panniers on the rear, if possible. We'll have to learn as we go along, we're surely bringing way more crap than we should (classic), but hard to tell what's not going to make the cut until we're riding. As result of our tandem luggage logistics fun, we have the first pictures of the frame. These are just details, showing position of additional bosses made for the framebags. But they are beautiful to us.

Which means the frame is built and on the queue for paint.

Oh, and it won't be grey

all those specs sounds great!

Now, what has not progressed well is getting insurance cover. Specialised services like Yellow Jersey and ETA aren't even close to what we need. We're having a look at other alternatives but that's going slowly and badly.

Other things on the list involve yellow fever vaccination, ordering new bank cards so they don't expire mid-trip, buying sleeping bag/quilts, and finishing clearing the house. We got rid of a good 70% of everything that was in it, but there's still loads to do. Oh, and ending my part in the business I started 10 years ago, and saying good bye to London. Easy.

More than anything, the realisation that in around a month's time we'll be on the road is starting to hit hard. Especially because everything still seems so bloody normal. We still buy groceries at the shop, go for a beer around the corner, do small talk with the shopkeepers. It's strange, so much happening and yet so little changes.

tried Insureandgo for cover? they sorted me out with some pretty niche trips I've done over the years

They’re our next port of call, tks.

What’s the niche trips?? Do tell

good. trips were mostly wild animal catching, handling, tagging in madagascar and mongolia

Had a colleague that used the ortlieb pouch - quite tempted by one myself really!

Kate has that mini bag thing. Puts valuables, phone and money and such in it so she can easily take it off and into shops/cafés etc. Seems v useful.

Oh, and ending my part in the business I started 10 years ago, and saying good bye to London. Easy.

Ten minute job

It exists!

3 Attachments

This is amazing! Bravo!

Oooooooffffffffff, so good!

Rad. That square framebag is going to be massive.