One thing to budget for – a suspension seatpost makes it a lot more comfy for the stoker. Parallelogram types are best

Remember rule number one for tandeming. The pilots job is to make sure the stoker enjoys the ride
there is no rule two

Nobody ever told me about matching riding tops. Its a no from me. nbt likes pink and I like blue (wink).

@tjagain. There is another rule intrinsically link to your “rule No 1”. Never miss an opportunity to stand up.

I’m with TJ on all of the above; after many years of tandem rides for bad weather commutes, café days and especially touring, our Dawes Double Edge has settled into a fast and fun set up:
Rigid fork; wide, strong bars and chunky stem. Hope M4 front for control, BB7 rear for emergency heat handling, both 200mm. Thudbuster post on the back. 3×10 to get the extensive gear range and yes, it’s very slow up 20% climbs like the Lecht. And stupendously fast down the other side. Wheels are 650b, 36h on Hope. These fit in the 26″ frame just fine with tyres around 38mm, even with mudguards on.
Fastest trailer descent was well over 85kph and we’ve never had an issue with boiling that front brake. We also do what TJ describes, braking in sharper bursts and communicating this to the stoker, so she doesn’t get a fright. See Rule 1.
A tandem copes mush better with a wet, windy day than a conventional bike, plus the Mrs gets a better view of the world when not having to watch out for hazards

For the Tandem Curious, I have a Circe Morpheus Semi Recumbent Tandem – Ideal for Touring Scotland, and you can hire it! It comes with 4 panniers and a trailer for gear or a child and expedition support if you need it. https://www.facebook.com/cosybike

Got a French Family coming next week doing some West coast and Trossachs.

How are you getting on with the tandem? 

Still enjoying it! We’re going cycle camping on it this weekend in fact. Hope the weather holds up! 🙂

Alpkit/Sonder have a ti tandem for anyone needing some extra bling.

Alpkit/Sonder have a ti tandem for anyone with waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more money than sense.

Fixed that for you there.

We’re off out on ours next weekend (bank hol) for a food festival up in South Shields. We’ll be taking a couple of panniers and stocking up on nice stuff (rabbit black pudding, anyone?) : )

The davinci symbiosis used to have a ti option and if you hit the options list hard you could get up to over £10 000!

Well, I’ve put the deposit on the Ridgeback and pick it up with the g/f in a few weeks. Very excited about it TBH. Planning on doing some decent mileage to get in sync prior to the trip.
Reckon the trip will be about 600kms all in, which will mean 100km/day which I’m hopeful will be manageable.
Tickets booked so I’m beyond the point of no return!
Dumb q: on the ferry you’re booked as a foot passenger, do you normally pre-book the bike (ferry bookings open in a few weeks)?

Just got to workout a means of carrying and dispensing ashes without the stoker or bike getting covered in them!! 😬

Last time I went on the ferry I seem to recollect some confusion over the 1 bike 2 people situation, so we must have booked the bike on 🤔

Whats peoples view on the ridgeback panorama for pucker touring – it looks a good basis but I’m not sure about 700c wheels & 36 spoked wheels?

NO reason why the wheels should not be strong enough for road touring. The days of needing high spoke counts for tandems are over really – stronger rims and spokes have seen to that. We run a 36 spoke wheel – admitedly rohloff and 26″ so stronger but that is used for offroad touring and is still surviving.

In my experience most ferry operators require you to book your bike. P&O give a friendly little prompt on their booking system if you book one bike and 2 passengers, checking that you are riding a tandem. DFDS count a tandem as 2 bikes, and booking has to be done by phone – their website can’t cope with booking 2 people and bikes.

Cheers TJ 👍 was the only thing putting me off as we broke 5 spokes on our Dawes last year, but to be fair that was on a 12yr old bike & spoke fatigue was probably the cause. Just need to get Mrs DB on board with the purchase.

36 will be fine even for touring with panniers on, our gravel/road Dawes has 48 spoke, very stiff but makes for a sluggish ride feel, we have used 32 holes on our mtb tandems for years they’ve been fine, we have the odd spoke break in the rear but no major issues, so if your touring just take a few spares just in case taped to the chain stay. We are currently in Vermont riding with the Etor group at the Kingdom Trails on a rented Ventana Edcm which has 32 hole boost wheels, strength and stiffness is fine as they are getting a hard work out on the trails here.