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The bike:
Tandems are brilliantly practical, said no one ever. But one needs a heart of stone to not love an unwieldy, cumbersome machine like that. We can tour together even though we have disparate cycling skills. She can photograph (which is handy, given she’s a photographer), and we can play trivial pursuit when the road gets boring.
The frame is not yet decided. We already have a tandem, an excellent Santana, but we want to upgrade to a coupled frame because we’d hate to be in a situation where we couldn’t pop the bike on a train, bus or boat because of its size. We might never use the couplings, but I suspect it’d open up a whole lot of options if we had it.
We looked at Co-Motion (expensive), Santana (expensive), Orbit (expensive) and Thorn (still expensive, but much less than the others). A further complicator is that we’d like to use Rohloff transmission, so there’s only a few bikes out there that meet our two requirements. I’ve been keeping an eye on a multitude of second-hand websites, and in 8 months I only saw 3 bikes that are: a) coupled, b) Rohloff, c) our size.
But I know something will be arranged eventually, so for the time I have some other considerations in regards to the build. Internet, teach me all you know:
Wheel size: our Santana is 26’ and I much prefer the way it handles when compared to the 700c Dawes we had before. I’m not sure the wheel size is the main responsible, but smaller wheels are stronger too. In the midst of these considerations I started thinking of 650b, with some plump tires to cushion the ride. We’re lightweight, but there will be plenty of luggage, and for some reason I thought that a nice wide rim with wide tires would deal better with the load. Am I off? I know most people opt for 26in saying that it’s easier to get tires in other countries, but I could easily fit fresh tires in Turkey, for instance, and ride for another 8,000km on them, or not? Or ask a mate to post some tires to somewhere on the way. Faff? The wheelset I’m studying now is Surly Ultra New 36h front, Rohloff 36h rear, both laced to Mavic EX830, with Schwalbe Super Moto-x 2.4.
Brakes: I was planning to use Sypres front and rear, with Hope V2 Ventilated rotors (huge!). I have one such rotor (huge!) on the Santana and it’s amazingly solid (huge!). But then I read some proper criticism of Spyres on the latest Bicycle Quarterly (yup, in case the 650b talk hadn’t blown the whistle yet), and now I don’t know what to think. I’ll probably go for it anyway, but since I never used it I thought I’d ask.
Luggage: we might want to use Ortlieb back rollers on the front rack – probably a Surly Nice 2.0. Will we die?
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Have you thought about getting a frame builder to modify an existing tandem to exact needs
Rohloff shouldn't be an issue, they make a retrofit kit.
Couplers are expensive though. I had Winston Vaz look at my Santana once, he said adding couplers would be way more trouble than it's worth. We'd have to import from the US, they cost a few hundred each (don't remember well, but it's a lot), plus the labour and the risks involved.
There's one or two options I'm looking at the moment, hopefully something will materialise soon so I'd say frame is not an immediate concern. Because I might pick a frame in the next days, I started thinking of wheelset and brakes, hence the considerations above. Fallback option is to get a Thorn anyway.
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What an adventure plan. I'd love to do it myself.
Having ridden a Thorn tandem with couplers I can say that they certainly do the job, cope with loads well and are fun to ride. The travellers had ridden it 10,000km, in many countries. They were carrying such luggage though, so check out http://ultralightcycling.blogspot.com for some lightweight inspiration.
Make sure you can fully dissemble everything and remount it with the tools you have. Not totally vital, but a brilliant excuse to spend hours tinkering and learning in the name of preparation.
Disc brake savvy mechanics might be thin on the ground in Kyrgyzstan. Choose a caliper/hose/lever assembly based on reliability. I know a mechanic who preaches Deore for the fit-and-forget factor. No idea if appropriate for a tandem though.
If 26" wheels work for you then great, you can indeed find tyres everywhere. Only if they offer some disadvantage to you would I suggest a different size - like if you wanted to use a specific 700c tandem frame.
It goes without saying, carry the hard-to-find: mech hanger, disc brake pads, spokes, a chain, chain split links and cartridge bearings if you use them. Riders doing Cape Town to Cairo find me here in Rwanda and say "you got any stock of [some very specific] brake pad?" I commiserate and suggest a Rwanda camping holiday while we DHL it over, or a 1000km limp to Nairobi to find a shop.
Anyway, happily subscribed. It'll be great to see photos as you head ever further east.
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Thanks for the tips. Rwanda!?! How amazing!
I’ll definitey bring spares — and good to know what you’d recommend —, but ‘fit and forget’ is the plan where possible. Especially transmission and brakes.
That said, the romantic in me likes to think that if something goes wrong and we’re forced to stay /go somewhere, it’ll be part of the trip. In so many travel books a misfortune leads to amusing stories.
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I've never properly tried tubeless tyres on any of my bikes so someone with more experience can answer better. I know they puncture less and can have lower rolling resistance. You would need to carry sealant, plus inner tubes as a back up. Tubeless tyres do tend to be very tight to mount onto rims. Personally I'd just use tubes inside proper touring tyres, keep an eye on pressure and routinely check them. You can find tubes and patches in most countries.
Yeah it's romantic to have unplanned stops, for sure, but that can turn to frustration if you get really stuck. One friend attempting Cape Town to Cairo ran into that issue with visas, couldn't enter DRC after multiple attempts (probably for the best), waited two months in Rwanda/Uganda while trying, got frustrated, flew to India instead, cycled until kidnapped by some Indian rebel group, was released unharmed and then featured on Indian national TV with the headline ticker: "John the Canadian is safe!" He was a bit naive by planning to cycle solo across DRC, so probably wasn't careful enough in general.
TL/DR: Do your visa homework, do your rebel research. -
My thoughts:
- this is a great idea, and I love your concept of just going to see things that interest you rather than trying to make it a great boring struggle.
- 26" wheels with as big a tyre as you can fit. that way it'll be more comfy than anything else.
- hydro discs are reliable enough (if you stick to a common shimano unit) these days, and you need the power on a fully loaded tandem!
- run tubeless so you can have a lot comfier ride and a lot fewer flats. if you have a problem no big deal, just chuck a tube in there until your next bike shop rolls along
- ortlieb back rollers on the front are totally fine if your rack fits it
- this is a great idea, and I love your concept of just going to see things that interest you rather than trying to make it a great boring struggle.
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no shit!
he went on his bicycle to various cities of Maharashtra including Pune
Thats where I am from! /csb
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yeah, you might also like http://www.bikepacking.com/plan/traveling-tubeless-guide/
on hydro - fair enough. I haven't had any issues in 1 hard year of using secondhand slx 675 brakes, and they were £70 for two, complete with levers, callipers, everything.
if you want to stick with mechanical maybe get some of that super nice compressionless housing.
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BB7s are meant to be super powerful? Could even bring a spare caliper and cable setup.
I don't see tubeless being a good idea on a tandem, you'll wear through a rear super quick. Marathon plus I reckon.
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after the chat above I changed plans to a 26' build. Considering Marathon Almotion 2.15, might have a little less tread but more cushion
BB7s then? I'll research. Still trying to figure out how much maintenance and tuning the HY?RD needs
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I wouldn't touch a half and half cable/hydro setup on a tandem. Not very much fluid to boil on a descent.
Marathon Plus was just to have lots of tread to wear through.
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About
Asia on a tandem
Posted by
@ough
In the spring me and my girlfriend will hop on a tandem and ride eastwards, for a very long time. We'll be terminating our rent contract, getting rid of most of our things, and leaving London behind after more than 10 years here. It's frightening.
A few things we know:
We'll go slow. The longer we take to reach the end, the best. Our meagre savings are likely to be the biggest constraint, but if we could take 2 years it'd be incredible.
My stupid approach to touring involves setting arbitrary targets and letting them govern the experience. When an intersection reveal an enticing road, or I pass by a pretty village, I lie to myself thinking 'oh, if I only I could linger here'. Now I will.
Above all, we're traveling. We want to see things and to stay in places; we are not applying for membership at the Explorers & Adventurers Guild. This means we won't be terribly ashamed to take a bus or train here and there, when logistically or emotionally essential.
We don't know where exactly the end is yet, but we know we'd like to winter somewhere. We'll probably be around Central Asia in a year's time, so we'd need to figure out something between Turkey and China (I guess). We'd probably need to work during this period to earn a bit of money, so that might be a factor in choosing our spot.
Our ever-changing planned route currently goes through France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey, heading North to Georgia and Azerbaijan, from where we would ferry to Kazakhstan. This can be a direct route to China, but we're also keen on exploring Kyrgyzstan, some of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, so will likely detour here, before finally entering China, then Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.