Want to get a cheapish tandem £700ish I guess, as the wife fancies the idea and frankly I reckon it would be a good crack! Can any one point me in the direction of some tandem related sites? Google proved fruitless apart from tandemclub.org which is pretty unhelpful on where to buy, any info. gratefully received!

JD Cycles in Ilkley are very helpfull.

You might struggle to get anything off roadable for that much though.

might be worth sniffing around some of the hire centres if you are near any – its the end of the season and in past here in the peak i've seen them selling off ex hire ones

it is good fun much more social than riding 50m apart

spa cycles harrogate will help.

Amos, where abouts are you? Definately recommend a test ride before you part with serious amounts of cash.
If in Scotland there's us and a few other tandem teams up here who am sure will let you have a go.
If you can get to Ilkley then JD Cycles mentioned above are the dogs danglys and have a range of demo bikes.

For an MTB tandem specific forum, have a look here..
Double Forte

or any other questions just post 'em up & TJ, SSS or myself will be along with (hopefully) useful advice!

Rob

There was a Dawes I seem to remember. Or maybe find a frame welder and make one out of two inbreds?

Do you mean off or on road? I can't think of anything I'd like to do less than off roading with Mrs Boblo…

SJS have s/h tandems in. Might be worth trying one of these first? If you get in to it, you can then trade up.

I went in via this route. Bought a s/h Dawes Horizon Twin from SJS for £500 then a couple of years later went for the made to measure George Longstaff. £££'s though.

We're really into it now. Just got back from French Channel to Med (Caen to Montpellier). Long distance touring is our 'thing'.

Oh forgot to say if you're in the midlands you can have a spin round on ours.

Definitely try before you buy. £700 is right at the bottom of the range even secondhand. Dawes double edge probably your best bet – a rigid one went for £650 on e bay recently.

Secondhand tandems are fairly rare on tho market but do appear.

Try one first then decide how much you want to spend. Some couples get on really well with them – some want to kill after a few minutes

Some couples get on really well with them – some want to kill after a few minutes

We go through both of these extreems on a regular basis.

From this to one of us almost walking home. 😯 😉

Thankyou STW massive again some great advice, I'm based near Reading so a little too far I'm afraid Rob. Should just clarify I'm after a basic tandem as there'll be no gnarly sick radness from Mrs Amos that's for sure and I was planning on strapping Baby Amos to it. My wife has a cycle to work scheme, think we may and try to take this piss and maybe use that! Not that the scheme will allow tandem purchase will be interesting trying though.

Cheers Mat

Mat, check ebay. There is a Dawes tandem 19/16 ending tomorrow, it's cheap, aluminium frame, a-head and apparently pretty good.

Cheers Hairychested I'm on it!

My wife has a cycle to work scheme, think we may and try to take this piss and maybe use that! Not that the scheme will allow tandem purchase will be interesting trying though.

Is it specifically in the rules that you can't? Don't really see why not – where mrs aracer now works we could certainly ride a tandem to work (I go within 100m of where she works if I ride in), were it not that we've not even ridden the tandem once since she's worked there, and it wouldn't work with our childcare arrangements.

Gonna check rules today, worth a punt hey1

Let us know how you get on, I was only joking the other day that my next Cyclescheme purchase would be a tandem – a colleague is buying a house 2 minutes walk away so it might be a goer!

I bought one off ebay, just a cheapie for taking the kids to school. It cost about £400 posted. It worked really well for the 12 months it was needed. I think it was called a Viking Sarotoga???

We have a Dawes Duet, it is good for light trails and road work, we used to use a trailer bike with it as well.

Dont be fooled by cheap tandems it could put you off.

Our first old school steel dawes was ok and pretty cheap for seeing if its your thing but it did feel like it had a hinge down the middle !!!!however we used it for two years then sold it for what we paid for it. might be better to buy say a dawes then if you dont like it it shouldn,t be too difficult to sell it on

You know that eventually you will want to go offroad 😀 so having something to trade on has got to be a good thing

Years ago I rode an ancient then tandem, 1 gear, hub brake plus a front calliper one, steel frame, 26" wheels with some very basic tyres. I rode it on and off road, often with a mate and loads of luggage, it was fine. When it snapped I had it re-welded.
Dawes have made tandems for yonks, had I had enough storage space I would've bought one a long time ago.

Not entirely sure which route to go down, called halfords cycle scheme regards a tandem and the girl said that there's not anything preventing getting one but need to really work at the same place and suggested calling the local tax office and ask whether they'd be happy to let some one have a tandem tax free if they can prove they worked near one another (bit of bullshit should cover that 😉 not that I'd encourage this kind of behaviour :D) Let you know what happens

Hi Amos

We have a Cannondale MT900 that is currently up for sale – not been used much and well within your price range (was thinking about £550 ish) and a quality / very stiff frame so a good starting point. Some friends are trying it at weekend but they may decide its not for them so could be up for grabs. Have you got an email I can send a spec sheet to?

Mick

Can you send me pics and info too please.

Amos – Southwater cycles (so not terribly far from Reading) have (and sell) Dawes tandems for hire; you can ride from there along the (very gentle offroad, old railway line) Downs link which runs from Guildford to Shoreham) or on-road. Never tried one, but see them in the shop there when I drop in. If you go, let me know what you think! (might give it a go with GF).

In Oxford there's a bike shop called Warlands that do Tandems. It's probably a 5 minute walk from the Train station so you could get there dead easy from Reading. Think they stock Landscape and Dawes Tandems.

Mick_r pics and spec to mathew.simsATbtinternet.com again thanks all for the advice