Evening all.

I am hoping to ride an end to end with my father shortly. We would like to do it on a tandem. We could buy one but I think the hassle and cost will be lower if we can hire.

We would like something suitable for both of us to ride captain and stoker. The route will all be on road or Sustrans so something that will ride comfortably at a fair pace would be best (this could range from a slick tyred MTB variant to a Dawes Super Galaxy tourer type with Thorn touring style between).

Does anyone know a good source of hiring (in the SE or Wales). Would also be interested in hiring from forum member if anyone has something suitable for 6’/5’10” riders. The going rate for two weeks seems to be about £250.

http://www.jdcycles.co.uk/

and

http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/

are the most often touted tandem specialists. My Tandem has 6″ forks and 2.4″ tyres so not ideal for touring at the moment!

Edit: have you seen this page?

http://www.tandem-club.org.uk/_tandemhire.htm

Yes I have seen the tandem club page and have tried most of the London ones including Totally Tandems in London but they haven’t answered messages left yet (tried 3 times over the last couple of weeks) so thinking I may need to search elsewhere.

Hmm JD are just miles away so think they are out of contention. I suppose SJS might be OK but not clear from their website if they hire tandems at all.

Ask on the tandemclub message board if anyone will lend / hire you one?

Like NBT mine is not a quick road tourer 🙂 2.4 sticky tyres are a bit slow. However if the loan of one in Edinburgh is any good to you it can be hybridised a bit

http://Www.totally-bikes.com rent Thorn tandems. Perfect bikes for the job..

To be fair, if things are looking sticky I could refit the rigid forks and slick tyres on mine, let me know if you;re running out of options

TJ and nbt. Thank you very much for the offers – I will keep it in mind.

neil_the_wheel – do you know if they are in operation?? They look ideal, the website has loads of information and the blog/twitter posts are recent but they have not answered e-mails or phonecalls. Seems odd.

We’re buying ours from http://www.tandems.co.uk – unbelievably helpful. Try giving them a ring on 01756 748400 and see if they can point you in the right direction.