Tandems of the forum

I’d have to double check! Bare with!

Update;

£60 = oil change and bike check. New drain plug and oils included.

£140 = above plus all new bearings and seals. Shifter shaft bearing not changed, it does not wear, it comes loose. - goes back to Rohloff for this, Thorn will be able to cover this shortly though.

No, I'll have a look and see if something fits.
That would explain why it sags a lot in the middle.

I'll have a look and see if something fits

Just change it for a known-good saddle. Some people like Brooks old-school saddles, but if you're not already one of them there's no point wasting your time trying to become one of them.

Yeah, I thought I'd give it a go, but the nose of it is annoying. Having ridden split nose saddles for years, I can't understand how people put up with your balls being crushed.

If the Brooks is adjusted correctly they should be 'nestled' rather than 'crushed'.

Try nose up, it feels backwards but it works!

ha nestled!

Notice how the two little ones go one side of the nest, and the long one over the other.

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I have several spare - pm me your address and I'll send you one.

The rohloff was a bit clunky, and somethims when going up hill it didnt want to shift down a gear, just jammed. If I took pressure of the pedals it then shifted.

Er yeah. I grew up with hub gears and loved the relative freedom of derailleur gears when I finally got some. (Still do.) Obviously, fixies are best.

Thanks but I have a big socket and spanner set and a normal spanner fine.

'Notice how the two little ones go one side of the nest, and the long one over the other.'

'Thanks but I have a big socket and spanner set...'

Boast post.

I'm interested in buying a tandem. Any tips? I'm looking at one on eBay, Claude butler majestic, for £175

I'd like to be able to fit a 6ft man on it, a 5'10 one as stoker, and also have the possibility of having a kid as a stoker with an extra crank from time to time

This is replacing my first tandem (a unique retro tandem which turned out to be not very pratical in the end). So far I only changed the saddles and the stoker seatpost. New tires, front light and a new handlebar are on my wish list.

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Forgot to froth about this at the time. Have wanted to try a tandem with Kate for ages, partly because she's less road confident than me and it would be nice if she could enjoy the scenery more and worry less about the riding, partly because she needs to eat all the time and is very slow up hills, and I'm tired of riding behind her all the time to match pace.

Some folks we know up the road have a beautiful Longstaff tandem that they don't ride much any more, and we basically have free rein to use it whenever we want, which is amazing. Took it out for the first time a couple of weekends ago, out into the countryside for fancy pub lunch, and it was amazing. Made a couple of kmph extra on our normal touring bike pace, I got a decent workout, and Kate enjoyed not having to think about piloting a lot more than she expected. Being able to hold conversations easily is great.

It's fillet brazed with bilaminate details, and definitely not noodly. Three rear brakes! The fit is perfect, might as well have been custom made for us. Slightly in love.

Kate was worried at first about turning and the possibility of falling off and such, but about 2 miles in while cycling out of Norwich some asshole in a Land Rover decided we needed a punishment pass and then stopped dead in front of us - unpleasant, but on the plus side as I managed to pilot the emergency maneuver around them without much trouble, she figured we could probably handle anything else.

Some changes I'd like to make with their permission regarding handlebars, and the front shifting is currently non-functional so I stayed in the big ring all the time (bless u Norfolk). What's the go-to large-ish tandem tyre? I can't imagine the Marathon pluses are any less of a hindrance on this than any other bike I've tried.

Just stick the marathons, you'll eat tyres otherwise. You don't want to be changing a rear tube!

None of the other Marathon tyres? Was thinking Marathon Supreme or something

What a wanker.

Glad you still had a good ride.

Once we got over it it was probably the nicest road ride I've had in a while. And we found a giant puffball, so definitely a net win.

We actually got similar on our tandem second time out. Some van pulled in too soon and nearly soon us out. So I threw my hand in the air, not even swearing this time. Guy then pulls alongside us and threatens to 'kick the shit out of me in front of my lady.
The thing that always amuses me, is the people that talk, just talk bollocks and are of no action.
That said, it wasnt a nice warm cycli g experiance for her, but it was a realistic picture of my daily cycling life.

Such a wonderful world we live in.

It's just London and the UK really. Other places can be a lot nicer. Some can be worse. Cities are generally horrible.

Don’t come to Somerset.

Or indeed the entire south coast

Marathon Almotion, I'd say. Much quicker than Mondials (not difficult), a good 70% of the longevity, first puncture after 3,000km.

An anecdote: we had a chance to compare our Mondial tyres versus a solo tourist, exact same tire, only used on loaded touring on both bikes. Our rear tyre looked worse after 5,000km than his front tyre after 10,000km.