I happened to mention on Friday that I that I thought tandems were cool, and a guy at work piped up that he had a tandem in his garage that he hadn’t used for 20 years, and I could have it 🙂

So I went and picked it up on Friday night:

Its a Pashley Tourmaster, from some time in the late 60s or early 70s – I haven’t looked for a frame number or anything to confirm.

A quick wash and a basic service (degrease, lube and adjust) and it was working pretty well. We rode over the the Cheltenham literature festival on it yesterday without dying. I was amazed by how many people smile and wave when they see you on a tandem; it seems to spread happiness 🙂

Currently wondering how much to restore it, or whether to leave it as ‘rat look’ for a brilliant pub bike.

Oh, and for added nicheness, it appears to have 650b wheels, so it is bang up to date 😀

Dave

Über niche. Retro new school rat tandem on 650b.

How well do the brakes work? 2 people riding home from the pub with 60’s rim brakes??????

Tandems rock and they do indeed bring a smile to *most* people’s faces.

But yes, rim brakes on a tandem are scary. 203mm hydraulics FTW

brakes weren’t too bad – although were were just riding on the flat…. got up to quite a pace though, 52t on the front/middle means it’s pretty rapid when it wants to be!

You can see in the pic that it has 2 calipers on the back – they’re both wired up to the left brake lever. I might try and beef them up a bit, but I think discs are out of the question – I don’t have any spare spoons with which to make a disc mount 🙂

The paint is a tasteful hammerite blue, on top of (at least) hammerite yellow and hammerite green. Tempted to get it stripped and powdercoated, but I don’t want to get too caught up in tarting up what is essentially going to be a bike I use for having a laugh on, riding to the pub!

Dave

You rode to Cheltenham literature festival on a Tandem? I can’t think of anything more English that that. Were you wearing tweed? 8)

Were you wearing tweed?

No, but I’ll make sure I get some for next time 🙂

Just been looking at tandem stuff online – it could be a slippery slope if I start fully restoring it.

Maybe I’ll strip it all down this week and see what works and what doesn’t before I start shelling out money for the sake of it.

Luckily I own 2 workstands, so should be able to support it properly to work on it 😀

Dave

Won’t the wheels be 650c?

you rode to Cheltenham literature festival on a Tandem? I can’t think of anything more English that that. Were you wearing tweed?

😀

I hope the stoker was sitting bolt upright all the way,while reading a novel . 🙂

tbh I’m not actually sure what size they are… they’re most likely to be 650a (26×1 3/8″), but I was just trying to jump on the nichewagon 😳

Given the current popularity of 650b however, I might get some of those to stick on if the existing wheels prove to be fragile or worn out, since it’ll be easy to get tyres.

Dave

me and the wife have a cannondale tandem.it also has avid arch v brakes which has plenty of stopping power.tandems are great fun.the only annoying thing is people that says its cheating and “do you know shes not pedalling” weve heard it so often its like groundhog day!

I hope the stoker was sitting bolt upright all the way,while reading a novel

We’ve not quite reached that level of confidence yet – it was only our second ride (the first being up and down the road). She did however spend the whole time giggling, and doing less pedalling that I would have liked her to be doing!

Dave

Another Cheltonian Tandem

This was taken at the Colesbourn Inn after climbing up the A435 cirencester road. We later weighed the bike with all the kit at 48Kg 😯

Tandem by kieranpbennett, on Flickr

If you can fit one (depends on your rear wheel) I would highly recomend a rear hub brake. Mine operates on an old thumbshift lever mounted to the frame. This allows me to put a bit of “drag” on the rear wheel which helps on long descents.

But yes, rim brakes on a tandem are scary

Magura HS33 FTW – awesome on tandems. They even seem to have a road brake now which you might be able to fix onto the mounts on that thing.

Perfect for the Cheltenham literature festival

My mate has an old Motobecane tandem dating from 70s or early 80s. I think it has rim brakes f&r plus a rear drum brake. Went out on it with him a couple of times, bonkers thing to ride 🙂

Similar to this

But yes, rim brakes on a tandem are scary. 203mm hydraulics FTW

Disks are nice, but rims brakes are just fine. This isn’t the alps, after all. Have V bakes on the kiddyback and rim (wide Cantis) plus a drag brake on the adult tandem. The drag bake operates with an old gripshifter.

Get used to the “He/She’s not pedalling” – no I’ve never heard that before 🙄

I think I’ll probably stick with the caliper brakes for this beastie, it’s unlikely to ever make it out of town any time soon… I can see myself getting the bug though, so maybe some upgrades might be necessary in future 🙂

Loving the tandem pictures though, keep them coming 😀

Dave

Nice score love people that share and move stuff on.