Bastard, bastard and bastard.

My lovely custom George Longstaff tandem picked up a top tube ding a couple of days ago when it rolled away fully loaded and tipped over/clipped a post.

We’ve kept it almost immaculate for 20 years despite putting approx 50k miles on it and riding all over the World.

Arse and biscuits.

Bugger.

At least it’s repairable and you will get shiny new paint job….

That is true. Out of adversity comes opportunity. £600 of it 🙄

On the upside, it will look the dogs dangles. I’ve put off a refinish for as long as possible to avoid the inevitable first ding and the crappy paint in use today.

How do they remove the ding? Or is it a case of replacing the whole tube

Depend on the state of the ding but you can use tube blocks of the right diametre and squeeze it back into shape. Then flood the residual bumps with solder.

Thingumy Brodie has a good video on it.

I think it’s a bit off of the OP to post about a longstaff and not show us a picture of the beast. Preferably coming round a corner on two wheels.

Aye sorry. It’s not a tricycle so can only go round on 2 wheels… This was en route Nordkapp to Greece a few years ago.

Rourke’s have taken over the Longstaff business and say there’s a good chance of de-dinging rather than replacement but they’ll only know when they strip the damage back.

I did the same to a new to me frame on its first ride, clipped a gate and the shifters smashed into the top tube. Gutted as it was someone had kept in immaculate for 10 years and it was a rare frame that was never released officially.

Well the remediation process has been a lot less painful than incurring the damage…

Yesterday, photo/email exchange and quote from Rourke’s (who took over the Longstaff business). Raised claim today with Aviva, now settled and cash should be in my account within 3-5 working days. Ace. Sadly Rourke’s want 8 weeks elapsed to do the work so SWMBO/stokeur will be a bit grumpy 😕

All good.

Most importantly, what colour?

Shand Flickr page is good for inspiration…

Shand did a Stoater in hot pink the other week with tan walls, it looked fab

Colour? I’m thinking some form of iridescent purply blue with silver graphics. Need to finalise it in the next couple of weeks. Sadly, KTM orange has been vetoed by Management… 🙃

Surely with a tandem you can have your own colour on your half?

Yeah you can but being a bit OCD, it HAS to match the other half…

Ferrari Tour Du France Blue FTW 👍

Replacement tube or make good?

I’d take a replacement tube over filler.

You could keep riding it in the meantime. I have a De Rosa Neo Primato that I bought off a customer in the bike shop I worked in. It had fallen in his garage and picked up a ding in the toptube so he only wanted £300 for it and I’m still riding it a decade later. When I looked into repairs it was a new tube job.

I’ve budgeted for replace so that’s what I’d prefer assuming nothing else is disturbed. It’s fillet brazed so the stoker seat tube/seat stay/top tube junction is a bit busy and I’m concerned about another heat cycle there which would be required when changing the top tube.

I suppose the frame builder knows more about metallurgy/brazing than me so I shouid defer to his knowledge and experience.

Whatever, it HAS to be A1 afterwards (see OCD ref above) 😉

Full circle… I’ve had the frame back from Rourke’s having had them fill the dent, add a few braze ons and a repaint. I spent a couple of weeks stripping everything to the last bearing/spring/washer etc. Cleaned, fettled, adjusted and sorted. New chains, chainrings, cassette, bearings, cables and bar tape throughout. Very happy with it so far. 😀

First ride:

I like that you’ve found a bigger gate to lean it against for scale…

👍

Nice.

Looks good Miles