Vernon Barker 531 tandem - rescue from the woods

I think this wax was about £5. It is excellent. 👌🏻

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oooh. Top tip.

Wax on:

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Wax off:

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Some parts:

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It's such a satisfying job isn't it?

Yeah hugely. To me it's second only to polishing a quill stem, right through all the grades of emery paper, then buffing on the polishing wheel to see your own silly, distorted face grin back at you.

This is the alu eccentric BB insert, and the bolts which holds it. It is used to make the extra chain taught because it's doesn't have a derailleur/tensioner!

There's some masking tape with capital letters written on the insert, but I couldn't make the text out.

The old BB was seized in this alu insert. Even though I had only put it in there a week or two ago for chainline calcs! Too much porridge that morning clearly. When I tried to remove it today all I would achieve was to slightly rotate the whole alu insert even though the frame bolts were very tight. The problem was that I had cleaned and greased the insert, and that allowed it to spin in the frame before I could add enough force to free the BB.

The solution was to remove the whole alu insert again (with the BB stuck inside it), clean off the grease, apply carbon assembly paste instead, slide it back into the frame, tighten the frame BB shell bolts to secure it, remove BB with all my strength, bin it, loosen BB shell bolts, remove the alu insert again, clean off the carbon assembly paste, regrease, reassemble, insert new BB. Epic faff.

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Tandem front BB shell and assembly... am so looking forward to tackling this.
Not.

To secure the BB tool I used an inner tube. A skewer wasn't an option because the BB spindle did not have a through hole.

As I don't have a vice here I cautiously stepped on the spanner. I thought it wasn't going to work but then came a CLICK and it span freely.

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Build currently:

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After seeing you out on this by the River Lea earlier today, got to say it looks even better in real life than it does here. Good build, looks great fun. It's made me hanker after my own tandem. How did it ride?

And done. First test ride a success.

The middle ring was the only way to achieve chain tension as the eccentric alone didn't have enough adjustment.

It's excitingly fast on the flats and top gear feels glorious. Still feels agile when riding solo, with a stoker it feels like a tank.

Brakes are strong enough but I've not tested with a weighty stoker yet!

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It was fun bumping into you. It was just after I wheeled it through the tight pedestrian gate by Ponder's End lock, right? Balanced upright on the rear wheel like a tandem t-rex?

Ride was great thanks, really solid and it felt smooth. You can feel the huge accumulation of momentum and just click smoothly through the gears as you gain pace, and you do keep gaining pace.

One noticeable difference is that when I ride my normal solo bike and go fast enough to hear wind roar (like 30+ kph) then I know I won't be able to go much faster for very long, or at least not without making a lot of lactic acid. On this tandem however I can hear that 30 kph wind roar and still expect to add another 10+ kph to the speed before hitting that same ceiling.

That's what it is like on my Rick Powell SS tandem. Lovely to ride on my own, and I was flying past other single bikes at the Velopark (riding solo).

With a big old stoker it felt pretty wobbly going round the corners. I don't know if that is technique / stoker nerves making him move about / inexperience - it was only our second attempt at riding it.

My microtandem with 16 inch wheels felt as twitchy as anything with my daughter on the back for the first ride, but then on saturday we did a very stable feeling 17 miles, even featuring a little bit of trackstanding. This was after the two SS tandem sessions.

Great work with the bike!

It looks glorious, I had completely written the paint off when I saw the Ebay listing, but you really brought it back to life!

My tandem only fits a kids as a stoker, so I can't imagine how it is to go so fast that you can hear the wind, all I can hear is requests for snacks.

It's very strange the excentric bb doesn't have enough adjustment to tighten the chain properly, but nice fix with the middle chainring

That was me, yep. Would have chatted to you properly but my wife was on a mission, (seemingly to cycle slightly further than she is comfortably able, therefore leaving herself fully knackered today!) and zipped off. I thought it looked like you picked up top speed quickly, far quicker than I usually can on a solo bike and kept it going far longer. (we were riding behind you for a bit and you distanced us in no time) It's made me really want a Tandem now.

I hope you keep your handlebar bar bag full of tasty treats.

My tandem only fits a kids as a stoker

Selling in a few years' time then? Dibs ;-)

Well.. That depends entirely on whether I stop reproducing.

But you can borrow it if you want :)

I’m going to make a frame bag for snacks!

Amazing work. This is glorious.

Thanks! :D

I'm already thinking about switching the bars to drops (captain) and bullhorns (stoker). Cruising speed will be even faster, and the stoker will be able to peek over the captain's head.

Also racks and mudguards. Basically I want a fast tourer for spring so I can just plough across Europe. Watch this space.

Nice!
Tandem looks R A D.