Tandems of the forum

Fantastic!!

Big rep!
Looking forward to when my daughter is old enough to fit our tandem!

We caught the overnight ferry to Harwich then rode to Chelmsford to break the journey up for the children. Back to London today.

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What a trip 👌. Interested to know your route back from harwich and if you’d recommend it

When I've had a full day I've used cycle.travel to plot a route back from Harwich (roughly NCR 51 to Colchester then NCR1 and lanes to Chelmsford, then lanes to Upminster and follow the cycle routes into town); it's mostly laney and pleasant, but next time I think I'd rather get the train back (either direct from Harwich, or ride to Manningtree and get the fast train back from there) and have an extra day's touring in NL.

Really happy to see the purple monster out there adventuring.

I'm speccing a new tandem for a clubmate who has lost his sight. I'll probably be the main pilot. The idea is for it to be reasonably quick so we can keep up with club runs and do the odd TT (with no expectation of a fast time), rather than having to haul heavy weights.
Team weight under 150kg and no luggage.
Budget about £2k-ish.

Nothing ideal has show up second hand so we are considering a new Dolan. Will probably get frame only and have it built up by LBS.
https://www.dolan-bikes.com/tdr-frameset/

Any views on this frame?

Also hubs. My plan is to get rims from Lightbicycle - who add extra material to strengthen for tandem use - and build on an appropriate hub. Good / bad idea, and what hubs should I look at?

And any suggestions for tandem chainsets? The stock Dolan one only comes with 175mm cranks for the pilot and I use 165 so that doesn't appeal.

LBS will have a view on these but would like to have some ideas first.

Yes, yes, yes 😂
Only been home a few hours but already looking at routes for Bilbao to Barcelona.

https://ridewithgps.com/events/157661-tandem-to-amsterdam#routes/36915366/preview

Full route is here. Is fine back from Harwich, in the main, however would make some changes arround Colchester.
There's a couple of off road bits in there however they were fine. It's the 40mph stuff that I'd change. Safe enough though. I rode the trip with my brother back in 2016 with the same route.

This is exactly what I've been thinking of for a few years - would you mind sharing the route

Way behind the curve 🤦🏻‍♂️

OK, now have the motivation to fix up our tandem. 70s' Bob jackson road/race tandem so not really for luggage (don't think the wheels would handle anything more than just riders TBH).

I did it over 5 days with my brother in 2016 but that didn't allow much stopping time but if you don't have time on your side and don't mind between 130-180km a day, that's an option too. You pretty much don't cycle on a road for the entire European leg.

Saw this lovely example of a triple seater on leboncoin. Hand built in Saint-Etienne, fillet brazed Vitus GTI tubing.

(NB - it's not mine, and I'm not collecting or posting, but I can help with the French if anyone's really keen.)

More pics here:
https://www.leboncoin.fr/velos/2033813029.htm

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Holy crap look at that thing. I'd love to try it.

26kg though! Imagine hefting it about....

26kg seems alright for three?? Pretty sure mine was around 20kg

It's only 3kg more than one of the original Paris Velibs, and young scamps seemed to have no trouble lifting them up when throwing them off bridges into the Seine...😉

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26kg though!

That's only 8.7kg per rider, pretty light for a VTT 😉

Yeah pretty light per rider, sure. I just mean literally lifting/positioning the thing around, let alone any stairs, obstacles or other faff. Obviously still worth it, just thinking it would be challenging.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiuWTDC7OwA

Is anyone here interested in a Phil Wood Eccentric Bottom bracket Shell? £40 posted

It is the set screw type which I think is a Singular Cycles design. Realised it doesn't work on our Dave Yates.

We get to go to McDonald's as long as we cycle there which is a 7 mile round trip. This time on the Dave Moulton tandem

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I might be.
Will know more this evening as am meeting mate who runs bike shop to talk through our tandem build.

Anyone nearby tomorrow afternoon?

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Finally got the tandem back home after leaving it for ages at work where I was assembling it.

All operating quite nicely on the way back except for the captains non drive side crank nearly falling off. Tightened up crank bolt but I’m kind of dreading finding a 170mm nds crossover crank which I’ll prob have to do if it threatens to fall off on the next ride again.

The threaded / threadless adaptor works great, thank you Brommers! :)

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@Hulsroy