Is it not Fynefest this weekend? My brother’ll probably be passed out in a ditch as we speak

Yep sure is. We had planned to spend the weekend there but mrs tandemwarriors had to do family duties so I’m at home fettling the VW instead.
Been a beautiful day here by the Holy Loch until the rain arrived about an hour ago. Cairndow is 30 mins up the road so probably a midge-fest now unfortunately. Still, after a few Vital Sparks & a few Highlanders you’ll never notice the little blighters 🙂
Rob

Discovered last weekend at Glencoe Mountain en-route to Ft William.

Never come across Oban Brewery before yet I live in Argyll.
Also try something from the guys at Fyne Ales[/url], especially this…

Just up the road from us and going from strength to strength.

Rob

Also remember to play anything by Runrig 🙂

Yep, in a trio “Brian Blessed’s Ball Bag” please don’t ask!

Rob

Change hope BB bearings? I’m measuring life in years here.

Yep, just changed mine after 6+ years of maintenance-less abuse.

I’ve heard (coughs) that its easy to lift over the gate, ride along the dam then lift over the gate at the other end. Never seen anyone ‘official’ at the dam the 3 times I’ve been there.

Just back from a 400 mile weekend tour in our T25 from home in Dunoon to Glenlivet and Laggan. Home is where you park it, often a trail centre car park 🙂

Sandy cooks a few chillis and similar during the week then freezes them. Chuck em in the fridge as you leave and by day 2 or 3 they’ve just defrosted enough to heat up on the hob. Bring some nice fresh bread and there’s a great dinner with minimal faffing.
Google earth is very useful for finding wild camping spots before you leave home.
A full petrol/diesel can under the seat is very useful when you get carried away finding ‘remote places’ and then discover the nearest petrol station is just beyond the range of the fuel left in the tank.

Rob

You might be talking a T4 or T5, but I put Toyo’s basic van rated tyre on our T25 Transporter for about £50 a corner.

We were planning to take the VW camper over for a recce this weekend anyway, then spotted this was on. Will be on an orange Soul, not tandeming this weekend. Not sure whether to do the organised ride or just try out the trails there.
Anyone else camping? We usually wild camp but might be in need of a shower Saturday night if the weather forecast is to be believed!!

Rob

[Puts hands up]
we were gutted we couldn’t make the last one. Although we’re now in Argyll we spent our early tandem years in the Peaks, so would love to go back.

Rob & Sandy

or find that old cassette in the spares box and get the spacers out of that. File off the 3 tabs on the inside and they’re the same size as BB spacers. I replaced the naff Hope plastic spacers on my Hope BB (before they changed them to aluminium)like this.

Rob

Yep, bought a pair a month ago from them on the same basis that it looked just like the Thule one.
One works well, other the winder mechanism failed after the first use so has been sent back. Was collected FOC and waiting to hear back from them but hopefully just a duff one. Overall works well. The U brackets wouldn’t fit round my roof bars so had to fashion some long T nuts to fit them. If you’ve thin aero bars they’ll fit out of the box.
I’d be happy to get another from them.

Rob

I recall having the same problem. Am trying to remember how I fixed it and I think I found I hadn’t pressed the non-drive side bearing fully home.
Worth checking.

Rob

Storing?
Here in Argyll they are worn for all 12 months!!!

On the P7 I used small zipties and strapped it to the rear brake hose. As Northwind says, I could still pull a bit extra cable through to ensure I could take the post out without undoing everything.

Rob

Very good post.
Mrs tandemwarrior has been under the drs for 15+ years for high blood pressure, ME, ‘womens things’ and a host of other things. She always complains that life insurance and travel insurance is always far more expensive when she discloses these, but her argument is she is much more of a ‘known quantity’ when compared to me who has barely seen a doctor in my life, am never (touch wood) ill, but could be a ticking time bomb. And if it can happen to Steve Worland….

I think a visit to the docs for a health check is in order. Thank you for the kick in the butt.

Rob

^ superb!!!!

Ditto Club 80-90, fantastic forum.
There’s a wee o-ring in there if I remember from when I stripped and rebuilt the DG in Vinnie.
There should also be a very heath-robinson looking jubilee clip on a wee bracket that secures the dipstick tube to the water pipe that crosses behind it. If this is missing the whole tube can move in & out.

Crankcase pressure is possible – the pipe from the breather tower to the top of the carb can collapse, but usually pressure is vented via the o-ring in the bottom of the breather tower being rock-hard, not sealing,and sending oil mist all over the top of the crankcase!

Rob (& Vinnie the T25)

Saw it in Edinburgh a few weeks ago. Utterly, utterly brilliant.
And the goose had us in stitches!

We’ve run the same pair of Ti6’s since about ’04, originally on the Cannondale and now on the Ventana, and they’re still going strong.
Obviously, our experience may be different, but I’ve found them to be excellent, and have utter trust in them, which on a tandem coming down the red run at Glencoe is worth more than anything.

To pick up on the previous comments-

They would look cool on a tandem though, wouldn’t they.

Yep they sure do!

It’s not just about power when you’re talking about tandems

Agreed, you tend to use the back brake more, and it can do a hell of a lot more stopping than on a solo because there’s more weight on the back wheel. The Cannondale could only fit a 185mm rear disc, but the Ventana is running 203mm.

on a tandem I’d imagine any ‘give’ in the hose becomes significant for the rear brake given the length of the run. you wouldn’t need to have much hose expansion under pressure to lose a lot of braking force.

Yep, braided hoses help, as does careful bleeding as there’s a lot of hose to hide air bubbles. Another benefit of Hope’s – the bleeding is very easy.

We’ve had no problems with fade so far with Mini Mono brakes on Clee Hill or the Black Mountains, so this may all be overkill anyway

The words ‘brake’ and ‘overkill’ cannot be used in the same sentence when discussing MTB tandems!

You’ll save an arse load of weight over the M6’s – mostly in the ridiculous almost motorbike heavy lever the M6 came with.

On something that weights around 50lbs + 2 people and cannot hop, wheelie, or unweight a wheel, and therefore survives by being the slightly more irresistible force than the immovable object, saving weight is well down the priority list. Durability, function, ‘please don’t break and kill me and my wife’ and more durability are top of my list. Also that big lever is handy, as you can get a second or even third finger on there if need be! On a big descent (as per the pic above) you’ll pick up speed so fast that you’ll be braking almost all the time, so one-finger braking soon gets tiring.
After that descent at Glencoe, which we did a number of times, the discs were blue with heat at the bottom. No boiling fluid but just a hint of them starting to loose bite.

I recall JD Cycles in Ilkley, purveyors of all things tandem, tested loads of tandem disc brakes by steaming down the big hill into Ilkley and seeing what stopped quickest, and what didn’t fade. I think Magura Gustavs came out top, followed by Hope.
On all the high end MTB tandems I’ve seen, I don’t recall Shimano being the brake of choice on any.

As I said, just our experience, others may disagree, but I’d put a pair of Ti6’s on a tandem any day.

Rob & Sandy

Muddy Fox Courier circa 1989. To be fair this is actually the 2nd proper bike. Before this was the red special edition Courier with the seatstay U-brake and Exage groupset. The headtube bust after 6 months and was replaced with this. Which in turn broke after 11 months, by which time the Clockwork had been born……

Isn’t fashion a wonderful thing 🙂

Rob

Got a bit over-excited when that popped up on Facebook tonight!!

Merlin-tastic 🙂

Rob

Just to chuck our experience in there-

We’re running a Marzocchi 66 from about 2006. Coil sprung but air preload. Travel is about 140mm but set to sag to about 90mm. We’ve found damping is the most important factor. Two of you peddling hard (well us anyhow) gets to fork bobbing unless the damping was dialled in correctly. Same on fast berms(thinking “berm baby berm” & GT freeride park)- the front would try and tuck under (v scary!) until the damping & preload were spot on. Seems a narrow window of optimum performance but they are so adjustable you can make them work brilliantly, I didn’t understand the phrase ‘bottomless travel’ until we had these. I have no idea what we’d do if they die!

I recall TJ did run dirtjumpers. I recall Alex @ MTB Tandems in the USA offers the White Bros as the best tandem fork.

Rob

Back in 2001 (I think) we went to Quito for a friends wedding. On his stag-do we did this… http://www.bikingdutchman.com/one-day-tours/cotopaxi/ which was brilliant.

Rob

It’s history, habit and conservatism

From 15 years of mountain-tandeming I’d agree with that. Our rear wheel was replaced last month after 15 years service. 36hole Mavic D321 on Hope Big Un. Never touched it with a spoke key since it was built by Leisure Lakes @ Breaston, Nottm, but found a broken spoke the month before it was retired. And that was hammered round the Peaks on the hardtail Cannondale for the first 7+ years, and has since done Scotland, Lakes, Glencoe red on the Ventana with 4″ travel. It only got replaced because the ratchet ring has no teeth left and Hope have no more spares. We aren’t a light team, and I’ve always gone for the most bombproof components possible, but my conclusion is that the wheel was overkill.

After much deliberation have replaced it with a Stans Flow EX on a 32hole Pro2 with a 10mm bolt thru axle. Ill health has stopped us getting out on the new wheel but will report back.

Rob & Sandy

karnali,
for frame & original peperoni fork, all cranks+bash ring, Hope rear disc adaptor & axles, was thinking about £400 plus postage. Can send more photos if you’re interested.

Rob

If you’re still looking then I’ve our old Cannondale frame, rigid fork (not the Bombers in the pic) and cranks. It’s getting lonely in the garage since the arrival of the Ventana frame.

Let me know if you’re interested.

Cheers,
Rob

He knew he’d get a fine or reprimand for it and did it anyway. My estimations of him went up a bit today.

Agreed.

The knack of remembering conversations with people you only meet irregularly is a rare one – always felt a teeny bit special popping upstairs at BT.

+1
Last time I was in I said “I’ve got shorts xxx and they keep falling apart” yes, he replied, they do, so we don’t stock them. Try these…. yup, he was damn right. No matter what sex, shape or size you were he was just honest, genuine and nice company to be in.
Good luck Keith.

Rob & Sandy

Well chuffed with my HiLo. Replaced the cable twice becasue they get sticky quite easily, but 18 months of faultless operation in the crappy Argyll climate 🙂

nbt has some excellent suggestions.

Our ventana has done the Iron Keld descent (south to north direction) and its reet good. The brideways in the Kentmere/Stavely area are also very tandemable. Only solo’d the full Skiddaw loop but we tandemed the Keswick/Threlkeld/Blencathra centre/Lonscale/Latrigg loop, which is good, but a bit nervy on the Lonscale rocks!
Whinlatter blue is actually good fun on a tandem, and one of the guys at Cyclewise is a tandemer too so good for an mtbtandem gossip, which is something we rarely get!

Enjoy

Rob

As said above, depends on what hub you’ve got, but on the Big ‘Un on the tandem the spacers are slightly different lengths – longest one goes on the disc side.

Rob

Bike CV goes like this:
87-88 Raleigh Mustang
88-89 ltd edition Muddy Fox Courier (the red one)
90-91 another Courier (red one broke)
91-98 Orange Clockwork (other Courier broke)
98-05 Orange X2 (after Clockwork broke)
05 to present Orange P7 (after X2 broke)

And with Mrs Tandemwarriors-
98-08 cannondale MT1000 (retired)
08 to present Ventana ECdM

in no way wishing to be pedantic richmtb, but just so StuF doesn’t go trying to find both of them and get very confused, Glen Loin & Corrigrogain are different names for the same route – Glen Loin is the singletrack, Corrigrogain is the farm where you turn off the Loch Sloy road onto the singletrack.

Either way, you’e right it’s an ideal afternoon ride (but could be mega midgy late in the day), even linked in with the Succoth trails or out to the railway station. And even better is the excellent Village Inn at Arrochar is a stones-throw away 🙂

Rob

Hello from Dunoon. Well actually in the office in Gourock at the moment so can almost see you up Loch long!

A few choices, though less than you’d think.

You can go from Carrick south along the shore and come out at Ardentinny.

From Lochgoilhead there’s the Dukes Pass – a loop over to the Rest & be Thankful, via Ardgarten, then the Dukes pass which is a great tral that brings you back to Lochgoilhead. Mostly fireroad but an enjoyable day out.

Also at Ardgarten you can head up the Cobbler (great day out) or the Corriegrogain circuit.

Enjoy 🙂

Rob

Might be taking the tandem up, she’s only been back once since the trail building weekend last year.
Now, where did I put the braking parachute?………

welding ti any light straw/ yellow might be salvageable just

the blue indicates completely ****

+1

blue=oxygen embrittlement= knackered.

Always two sides, and I’m going to sit well on the fence.
All I will say is Tom is a genuinely committed guy, which was obvious from the Hot Diggity weekend (still one of the best weekends EVER). Andy equally keen to make the most of what the difficult Glencoe landscape has to offer and make Glencoe financially viable.
And we found the staff really great.
At Nevis Range:
“Do you think you could get our tandem on the lifts?”
“No.” end of conversation.

At Glencoe the same day as we passed on the way home:
“Do you think you could get our tandem on the lifts?”
“Erm, never tried, but we’ll sure as hell have a go”.
And they did, and it worked, even stopping the lift at the bottom to check the balance, and again at the top and helping get Nancy off. And the rest is Glencoe history.

Such a shame its not worked out for everyone. Yes GC isn’t Nevis, and as I understand it won’t get the funding that Nevis does, but both times we were there with the bikes the vibe was great.

Fingers crossed everything gets smoothed out.
Rob

yep, had an ancient front hub fail like that after 12 years, and a Ti-glide rear fail the same way after 14 years. Both times I called Hope and they offered to replace them with Pro II’s at cost price. I’d call that way beyond the call of duty!

Ooooh, that looks nice, thanks TuckerUK 🙂

And yes, garden needs finishing, still a mess after the house was rebuilt!

Cheers, Rob