Viewing 24 posts - 1 through 24 (of 24 total)
  • Talk to me about tandems
  • alwillis
    Full Member

    Surfing ebay on a quiet Sunday morning and spotted a wide range of tandems for beach cruisers to TT ones. Looking to get something fairly cheap, partly for the novelty value (I’m getting married next weekend and this could be a great form of informal transport!), and partly for actual use on the roads and maybe gravel tracks.

    Any experiences or things to avoid etc?

    Any stokers advice- my missus is a confident triathlete and cyclist, but isn’t sure about not having control!

    fluxhutchinson
    Free Member

    Being a triathlete she will be used to having no control 😆

    Edric64
    Free Member

    Make sure it has an eccentric bottom bracket to adjust timing chain .40 spokes for strength .Good gear range as they are slow on hills .There are many frame designs on tandems .Many cheap ones are poor and lack rigidity.I have had a couple of KHS mtb tandems which are quite good and cheap used .Watch out for knackered chainsets you have two cranks with rings on on the left which are tandem specific and bloody expensive if knackered .A cheap tandem chainset is at least £130 new

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    boblo
    Free Member

    Try these :

    Tandem Club

    spooky_b329
    Full Member

    Any stokers advice- my missus is a confident triathlete and cyclist, but isn’t sure about not having control!

    Who says she should be on the back?

    antigee
    Full Member

    not a lot of discussion in our household on who stokes as mrs antigee is shorter and thats the way most tandem frames are built up but I’m not sure how fixed that is

    its a great social way to ride as you can chat and there is none of that see you at the top of the hill business

    only stoked a handful of times and no brakes or steering is scary – I would list stoking for the teenage downhill riding son of a friend as one of life’s mistakes that I’d never repeat

    for holidays and/or if riding from front door is not a pleasant option give some consideration to transport – tandem specific racks are expensive

    lots of places hire them if you want to give it a go

    timber
    Full Member

    We got ours off here as a cheap foray into tandems.
    I had rode them a few times before, particularly as stoker to pace the shop road club as well as a couple of off road excursions to try and get one airborne.
    My wife is more of a recreational / occasional cyclist and we got it to extend the range of where we ride together (2 pubs distance rather than 1). Few initial moments of me being spun off my seat as she tried to steer, but she is quite comfortable now and wants to fit her kindle to my back.
    Not had much use recently as it blew the pistons in the rear brake before we moved house and I have only just built a big enough shed to bring it back from storage at work.

    Kieran
    Full Member

    Love ours, took the missus a while to get used to no controls but she loves it. We’re currently looking for an off-road one but the decent ones are v pricey

    [/url]Tandem by Kieran Bennett, on Flickr}

    boblo
    Free Member

    Go on then. Touring somewhere in Finland:

    alwillis
    Full Member

    Some good advice there! Hadn’t thought about her on the front, but at 5’8 ish I imagine it would be possible on a few tandems I’ve seen.

    I imagine it would mostly be used from the door, but transport had occurred to me- does anyone put theirs in the back of an estate car with the wheels off (golf estate)??

    convert
    Full Member

    I was the guide for a blind triathlete for a season and you do the bike leg on a tandem. We got pretty good on it by the end including standing hard climbing. If you like nice bikes you could be frustrated- low volume production makes them expensive anyway but a good strong and light one is not cheap. We rode one given to us/him by the Triathlon England that had some mediocre components for the money.

    boblo
    Free Member

    Ours goes into the back of a v70 with the front wheel off.

    TiRed
    Full Member

    If she is used to riding tri, look for a tandem with a looong stoker compartment. Most old tandems like my Super Galaxy are relatively short. Cannondale would be a good choice used.

    NICE tandems are not cheap. So my advice is by decent used and see if the bug bites. They provide a different flavour of cycling best suited to two riders of different abilities. My Kiddyback which has a 12″ rear being the obvious example.

    Finally, it is a closely guarded secret that the stoker gets the bettet ride – the captain balances and steers and seldom enjoys the view. And the stoker is always right!

    If you want something different look for a Haze Pino or Bilenky Counterpoint in the US.

    Subscribe to tandem@hobbes newsgroup

    Daren – also a tandem geek! There I’ve come out to the forum 😉

    alwillis
    Full Member

    Thanks Tired, I’m looking at the Dolan which seems to be decent sized in the back. Got half an eye on a few local TTs rather than sit up and beg touring.

    TiRed
    Full Member

    Dolan would be an excellent choice. Not an established tandem brand per se, but thought of highly for road in general. Cracknell rode his tandem LEJOG challenges on them.

    mick_r
    Full Member

    Hire one first (at least once). We eventually sold our Cannondale due to lack of use after kids (on the rare rides as a couple without the kids we always wanted to go proper mtbing).

    Things that might cause problems:-

    Different lead legs when pedals-level descending – we found this a particular problem off road. Only workable solution was whoever was driving got to choose which leg they wanted forward.

    If you are similar weights then it might be a handful (esp off road) – you really need front rider to be a bit bigger and heavier.

    You will be sat down a lot – is numbness a problem?

    antigee
    Full Member

    kierens pub and tandem pick is spot on

    and as timber says

    “My wife is more of a recreational / occasional cyclist and we got it to extend the range of where we ride together (2 pubs distance rather than 1)”

    worked for us for a while until mrs antigee joined a road club and can now easily outdistance me 🙂
    hopefully both back to working a lot from home soon so lunch break tandem rides it will be

    timber
    Full Member

    Ours goes in the back of a mk1 Octavia with just the front wheel off and only one of the rear seats folded down.

    There’s also a lawnmower and strimmer in the back too on this occasion.

    When we collected it we had a V50, which it fitted in diagonally with the front wheel off.

    hebdencyclist
    Free Member

    We rented one for the day from here and had a day riding in the Dales. We are both sold on it and will be buying one.

    You develop a joint language really quickly for communicating gear changes, pedalling/coasting, mounting/dismounting, standing up/sitting down (you have to synchronise it!)

    thecaptain
    Free Member

    2nd the recommendation for Cannondale – they make a brilliant road tandem frame, stiff as anything, tough as nails. Ours has covered around 60,000 miles over 20y, lots of touring and utility cycling, also 55 mins for a 25 mile time trial if you want to go fast! More length in the back than almost all steel frames (um…don’t actually know if that is still true now, but certainly was when we bought it).

    switchbacktrog
    Free Member

    Looking to get something fairly cheap, partly for the novelty value (I’m getting married next weekend and this could be a great form of informal transport!), and partly for actual use on the roads and maybe gravel tracks.

    There’s a Cannondale on Ebay at the moment, starting at £1000 which seems a lot to me. And it’s collection only from Glasgow, and viewing in Perth! Looks fine for what you want to use it for. Looks like hydraulic disks as well…………..just needs a suspension fork to make it a pretty capable off-roader.

    Can’t see it going for anywhere near the starting price. Looks like it’s been standing a while with rusty disks etc.

    thecaptain
    Free Member

    There’s also one for 600 which would be a hell of a bargain if it fits (M/S).

    switchbacktrog
    Free Member

    thecaptain – Member
    There’s also one for 600 which would be a hell of a bargain if it fits (M/S).

    That one looks to be in a far better condition, and about the right start price as well.

    mick_r
    Full Member

    We tried a few mtb tandems back to back – the Cannondale was by far the stiffest (torsionally). The top and diagonal tubes were one continuous piece from front to back (with holes for front seat tube to pierce and be welded in). This seemed to make a big stiffness improvement (Swallow and others also used to build like this).

    We got synchronised enough to bunnyhop it but were never airborne long enough to clear anything…….

    Sold it to friends for about £400. That 11 year old one is a joke at £1000 when it was only £1850 new – drivetrains and brakes etc take a hammering.

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