Sparky and Mrs Sparky's Pashley tandem

We're driving back to London from a parental visit and stopped in Norwich for a coffee. We passed a bric-a-brac shop near our old flat and popped in. This Pashley was in there for £275. We argued them down to £230 and walked out with it.

I bought some spanners from Poundland and took it apart in a car park. Miraculously it went in the car. I'm now sat squashed in the back of a Corsa, covered in parts, whizzing up the A11.

It seems in good condition. No pitting on the chrome. Gears all work. Needs a little clean and service. Maybe new tyres, chain and saddles.

Any tips? Thinking I'll just clean it and service it. Size-wise it's a bit small but will be good for little jaunts to the pub or whatever. No good for long journeys probably.

1 Attachment

Sweet!

Current tyres are a little cracked. What's a good bet for replacement? Maybe tanwall. 650 x 35mm on there currently - "Camel" brand, made in Thailand...

1 Attachment

Michelin World Tour? Black or gumwall.
Schwalbe Delta Cruiser come in cream.

Good shout. I'll look into it.

Quick little fix on the front mudguard, which had started breaking. Replaced a missing rivet with my pop gun.

Stripped and cleaned the front hub but it's still a little graunchy. Good enough for pootling though. Will clean the bike down tomorrow, put it all back together and see if I can take it for a little spin.

1 Attachment

Just got it all together and went for a spin around the block.

It. Does. Not. Stop.

Brakes are awful. Will new pads do much, or should I look at new rims/brakes? When you pull the lever hard you can see that everything flexes: lever, brake lever mount, cable stops, calliper arms. Brakes have come a long way since the 70s.

It looks like a modern front calliper would pop in easily. And a modern lever. The back may be more tricky.

1 Attachment

Looks like steel rims which are useless, combined with rock hard pads.

New wheels, brakes and tyres will make it feel like a different (much better) bike. Are they 650c? Alloys will have moved on leaps and bounds since, making those rims feel slippery as shit, as will brake pads. If its 650c with long drop calipers, you might manage 700c/650b with short drop calipers. 700c obviously being cheaper due to lack of availability in rim brake 650b wheelsets

Clean rims and get the leather insert brake pads. Be fine.

it looks like there are two brake calipers on the rear. do they both operate of the same lever or does the stoker have a lever to slow you down when it all gets a bit hairy downhill?

There are two calipers and two sets of cabling. They both meet at the brake lever, which tugs them both. Ineffectually.

Here's mine before it broke. Paid something like £90 for it at got many 1000's of happy miles out of it. Here it is freshly shod on Michelin World Tour 26 1 3/8 tyres. It had an Atom hub brake too and was still woeful at stopping. I remember fitting some of those salmon coloured brake pads which helped quite a bit. Those rims are dreadful for braking especially in the wet but I accepted that to swap them out, the tandem was going to loose some of its 'character' so I didn't bother.

I'm a bit torn about what to do now. I spoke to @AugustWheelworks and he's suggested some 26" rims and a SA 3-speed hub with drum brake. I'd probably then get a pair of modern long-drop brakes (not sure what drop I'd need) and fit one at the back and one at the front. That would improve the stopping power but would lose a bit of character.

At the moment it's very original, but it's also too dangerous to use anywhere with traffic or hills.

That's great. You don't still have it?

Unfortunately not, it snapped where the top tube meets the head tube. I then parked it up in the communal hallway in our building intending to get it fixed. It disappeared one day and I thought my girlfriend had secretly had it taken away to be fixed like on of those programmes on the telly and it was going to be returned fixed. Unfortunately, that wasn't to be the case and the housing association either deemed it a fire risk and had it removed or it was stolen. RIP 4 Eva in r heartz.

How much does your 'tandem team' weigh? I'd imagine this will flex so much. I only ever had my 25kg daughter on the back of mine. I'd probably not spend much on it. Just accept that the brakes will scrub speed at best and if you want more out of a tandem, go down the getting a proper tandem route. In saying that, I had mine down to Brighton multiple times and a decent tour of Sussex.

Your tandem brings back many happy memories for me and my Pashley got me into proper tandeming. I'll stop spamming your thread now and watch to see what you do with yours. Best of luck!

I need to think about it. Leaving it as-is won't work as it just didn't stop. At all. Maybe new pads would make it pootle-able. Going for new hubs, spokes, rims, tyres, brakes, cables, levers etc starts to get expensive.

I've gone from giddy excitement to frustrated bafflement in 24 hours.

In saying that, I spent an absolute fortune on mine sourcing NOS parts. There's no doubt about it, your Pashley has miles of style. I reckon it's ace. Start with some decent pads and have them setup correctly. If not, I'll take it off you.

Perhaps some modern cheapish dual pivot Tektro brakes with leather insert brake blocks might do the trick. I've never liked centre-pull brakes or chromed brake surfaces.

Get some new pads and rub some tar on the rims.

What are these leather pads that a few of you have mentioned?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xleather+brake+pads.TRS0&_nkw=leather+brake+pads&_sacat=0

This is how my great grandpa's homies once stopped an out of control tandem ;)

From here:
https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/171950/

1 Attachment

But yeah, clean and degrease, leather pads. I've had some bikes over the years with horrifically flexy brakes but a bit of time and energy should do the trick.
Save the fancy, expensive brakes for your soon-to-be-purchased touring tandem.