Tandems of the forum

I'm thinking something like a flared mtb bar rather than a full swept set like the Captain's bars.

Like these maybe:

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Tony Oliver tandem on Facebook marketplace:

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/738012827459588

Have you ever had any grief with this? We adore our Orbit but, as big baby non-drivers, being limited to the WCML for train travel is a pain in the arse. An S&S conversion (+some other mods) is a tempting idea.

surprisingly not! I'm still always slightly on the alert in case we get challenged - one member of station staff was once slightly suspicious about it, but only whilst we were on a platform waiting to board & only fairly gently "does it come apart quickly? yes very. is it easy to move the segments? yes very." Only positive experiences so far, can recommend!

Interesting, and something I shall keep in mind. Our Orbit does pretty much everything we want it to and we're emotionally attached to it now, so going for a conversion rather than a new bike is appealing.

Photo from the last day of this summer's tour back home in Ecosse attached for good measure.

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I already posted this in the deals thread but my word this is such a good deal. I am really working hard not to leave a derisory bid https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285059218295

yeah... we used to have a Vernon Barker tandem with some lovely fillets & some sentimental value, but ultimately sold it as a second-hand Thorn with rohloff/s&s was so much cheaper than a conversion & arguably better size for us (the Barker was custom-made but not for us...)

This looks good

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165738829401

A brief appeal.

A friend of mine, and his son, are cycling from London to Worthing on the 30th (Friday) in support of the Rainbow Trust.

Does anyone have a tandem they could borrow for the ride?

They are both 6' ish and live in Londons famous South East London.

Please advise.

I've got a single speed one, right sort of size. It's in storage at the moment, I've got a broken leg, so logistics might be interesting.

Any good?

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Thanks. Will get back you you in due course.

Sorry for the very late reply - had to drive my mum back to Manchester, which was....long.

Will PM now.

No worries. I've got a broken leg, I'm short of excitement

has anyone got experience of tandems on trains? Trying to figure out logistics of taking ours to loire valley from Bristol.

So far ferry seems the best crossing option

What trainline?

Not GWR anyway!

Tandems on trains is hard. See the Tandem Club for their info:
https://tandem-club.org.uk/files/information/trains/index.html

Many years ago I took the Plymouth - St Malo ferry with a tandem, which leaves you only a couple of TER journeys away from Nantes.

Every website will discourage you from taking tandems on trains. It seems like Cross Country have free bike spaces, but they say no tandems. In my experience it's always a risk but it tends to work out if you have no shame. In the French TERs I already hung our tandem upright near the toilet, just made sure it was safe and not blocking anyone's way. In the one or two events we didn't manage to board we were lucky to be able to wait for the next train and try again. Rules are applied by people, and some people are nice.

I know nobody wants to plan and buy tickets for a long trip knowing that it can fail at any point, and it may well be that rules are stricter now than 10 years ago. But my hunch is that if you find a way to get the bike to Plymouth you'll be fine.

this. the biggie is trains like the gwr trains with insane designs for bike racks but, otherwise, if it will fit then there’s likely to be a nice person to let it on

Thanks for the tips everyone! @ough really appreciate the sound sense. I think we'd maybe be able to haggle a lift with a friend to Plymouth so that could be quite simple.

Once in Nantes it looks like we could probably take the Velo loire trains pretty easily - https://en.francevelotourisme.com/tips-and-advices/getting-to-and-around-france-with-a-bicycle/train-velo-loire

Another option would be to just drive ourselves down to Nantes from the ferry and leave our car there. Removes the risk element at least I suppose, and might mean we can just relax a bit more

Does anyone have a cheap tandem that want to get rid of? It needs to fit me, 1m 83 tall, and my 10-year old daughter (who is tall for her age) to do the school run.

I don't want to spend lots as she's only got 18 months left at junior school, and once she's at secondary school I expect the idea of her dad dropping her off on a tandem will lose it's lustre.

It also will need to potentially fit me when I might buy it off Andy.

I do, but not for sale. Thorn Voyager, I got it for £350 I think, from the tandem club classifieds. I'll have a quick look and see if there's anything suitable.
Hold the line caller....

https://tandem-club.org.uk/forSale?cmd=view&id=938 is the only one on there at the moment
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225329955896
one on facebook - https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/622519446072348

Duh, it was Porstsmouth, not Plymouth!

They look great.

Don’t know if it counts as cheap but I saw this the other day and thought it looked cool https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/175558325243 Not too sure about the sizing for your daughter but could maybe work?