Homebrew remote propedal for the back of Nancy….

Sandy can’t reach the propedal lever, but this is operated from an old gripshift and works a treat.

Rob

thanks chaps, will do a search too.

Cheers,
Rob

Mmmmm, fancy borrowing a greyhound for the weekend and testing it? He’s very friendly and will reward you with licks?? 🙂

Rob

What’s the boot space like? I really like the look of them, but I suspect Cuillin the greyhound won’t be too impressed with the boot accommodation!!

Rob

Another vote for Slanj. Fortunately got a friend who’s a kiltmaker, but got the rest of the outfit from Slanj in Glasgow. Very helpful staff, recommended.

X-Fusion HiLo (27.2mm) on my P7 for a year now, bloody brilliant bit of kit and works perfectly.

Another club323f member here 🙂
Ours died last year due to corrosion in the rear subframe. She had 180k on the clock when this last pic was taken in Glencoe.

Rob

Yep, have done since my first Clockwork in ’93. Just set the chain so it will just accommodate big/big so it doesn’t all jam up if you accidentally shift into big/big. The chain will be slack in small/small, but how often do you go below the 5th sprocket before going back to the middle ring?

Rob

I’m very obviously missing something about how to, and I’m pretty convinced it’s about where I’m looking.

Ideas?

Imaging you’re chasing Dexter 😉

Rob

Visited for a day in November – utterly amazing. We got home then had to watch Angels & Demons again to see some of the sights, and realised we’d had lunch in the square where the cardinal gets drowned in the fountain.

Might sound a bit sad (waits for an STW culture slagging), but watch it before you go and it’ll fire your imagination for all the history you’re going to be immersed in.

Rob

Mind your eyes – here comes some 80’s lycra, my first Muddy Fox, circa 1988…..

And one from 1996 on the NATS summer solstace ride with the essential Peak District weapons of a Clockwork with Pace forks. This was about 6.30am at Ladybower, after a 4.30am start at Bamford. And if you recognise him, yep that’s Paul from Cotic at the front.

Rob

Only just removed my RC40’s from the P7 after about 7 years, to be replaced by a set of Pikes.
Only changed them to get a stiffer bolt-through front. Dead easy to service, launch control lock-down system is brilliant.

Rob

reggiegasket – slight hijack (sorry OP), what tyres are you running on your D321? Got D321’s on the tandem and been trying to get a non-UST Advantage and a WTB Motoraptor to seat without success. Loads of leccy tape before the rim strip, but even the magic STW ghetto inflating pop bottle won’t seat it 🙁 How did you manage it? Black magic?
Cheers, Rob

Isn’t ‘floating’ simply another way of saying ‘moves a bit but in the controlled way we intended’ ?

Pads out, hold one piston in the retracted position with a tyre lever, and pump the other piston out as far as you dare without it popping out. Then use a cotton bud with degreaser to clean round the piston. Lube as suggested above, repeat other side.

Kept mine going until I had the time for a proper strip and rebuild.

Rob

X-tools for £7
Had it for a couple of years, excellent.

Rob

Here’s the photos………

Rob

^ Ah, Brycey has sorted the facebook photos, they weren’t showing earlier Rob!!
Makes a good excuse for a bump for the evening crowd.

Here’s the photos…
Custom build Alpine 160

Custom Diva hardtail

Custom Elite

Please keep ’em peeled.
Thanks,
Rob

Ex-Hucknall and Ex-Sinfin A (OED Building) here 🙂

Here’s our first greyhound, Red…

We lost him about 3 years ago. Just before Christmas we adopted Cuillin, a 3 year old from Scottish Greyhound Sanctuary[/url].

Ditto everything said above. They are great pets, not that demanding, and will love you more than they love themselves. But there’s very few that can be trusted off-lead. Our daughter’s ex-racer can be let off and trusted (mostly) to come back. Red never did, though he might for a cocktail sausage. Don’t think Cuillin will but we’re trying to train him. Talk to your local greyhound charity, they’re great people and want the best for the dogs. They’ll guide you to a dog that suits you and your lifestyle.

Rob & Sandy & Cuillin (currently snoozing on the floor next to me, look………)

I moved mine to Spanglefish a few months ago. The free version is good, then you can upgrade to remove all the ads. Very easy to create and modify your pages.
Here’s mine so you get the idea.

Rob

The Draper ones look similar to the X Tools pair I got from CRC (£15.99)about 3 years ago. Very impressed with them.

How about using a 3 leg puller? Drop a suitably sized socket inside so it sits on the shoulder, then 3 leg bearing puller around the headset, and the centre pushy bit can push against the socket?

How about Mansefield House at Arrochar, have a look here[/url]. Owned by some very good friends of ours, and some good biking from the door. Glencoe an hour away, Loch Lomond 5 mins away, Glasgow 40 mins away, feels like a world away! And if it looks familiar, you might have seen them on Relocation Relocation!!

Rob

We’ve got to the stage now when we aproach a gate, mrs ssstu jumps off opens the gate and i ride through. she them jumps back on as i ride out of the gate.

Ooooh, need to suggest that one to mrs tandemwarriors, though I think with her wee legs we may need an ejector seat!

We also can’t stand and pedal, so lots of grunting low gears. We have folded the 32t sprocket over on a SRAM cassette before!

Graham. I’ve a USE shokpost in the garage if you’re interested.

Rob

As above. The answer to most questions related to tandem kit is ‘the biggest possible’ !!

Tourist Eagle (buzzard)

Get lots of this round here (Dunoon, Argyll). I’ve seen a golden eagle twice around here in 10 years, the first time was riding up behind the Loch Striven refuelling base with 2 mates. It was having its dinner in the culvert at the side of the fire road, until it heard us coming.

An eagle is like a flying barn door, they’re properly, crap your pants, big up close.

Oh god yes, it was like a hang glider taking off, you could feel the wash from its wing beats. We didn’t say a word to each other for a few mins, although we were all keeping an eye out if it came back for us for dessert! Then a buzzard flew over, which looked like a sparrow in comparison. Then we were sure.

I got a used one and have stuck a jagwire outer cable and Teflon coated gear inner and this has helped massively.

+ lots
The cable supplied is naff, I’ve swapped to a teflon coated cable and it’s much better. That’s the only issue I’ve had with my HiLo in 12 months, excellent bit of kit.

Rob

Nail, excellent post, and I recall us going through the same learning curve 😀
Hang on, we’re still on the learning curve after 14 years!!!

Rob

Do you not find the 22t chainrings wear realy fast?

Not noticed any wear at all so far. I’d read on Double Forte that it could be a problem with this set-up, but the chain gauge says its all fine. I use a singlespeed chain on the timing side, no idea if they are more durable because they don’t need to flex side to side. The timing rings are standard Middleburn. It does need very careful adjustment of the EBB though, the chain tension is very sensitive.

The previous build had FSA 34t timing rings with abash ring at the front, which had been on about 5 years. Before that it had the Sugino rings that came on the original Cannondale, they must’ve lasted almost 10 years, which might explain why they were so heavy!

Nail, know what you mean about ruts! The first time we took the Cannondale to the Peaks, I got us in a rut, couldn’t work out how to get out, so bailed out- only to see Sandy going past still sitting on the back. Oooops 🙄

Rob

Going back a page, MTG was asking about cranksets. AFAIK you need specific cranksets for a tandem as the pedals need to be reverse threaded on all except the stoker driveside.

Technically dead right, however……

it does work with ‘normal’ cranks. I’ve an old RF crank fitted the wrong way round as the captains cranks. I swapped the spindles in the SPD’s so the pedals weren’t back to front, then threadlocked them into the cranks. I put a line of paint across the end of the spindle and the crank so I could see if the thread backed off, and after 2 years its not moved at all.
The rear timing side is a normal square taper drive side crank with the outer ring tabs ground off. Again the pedal spindle changed for RH thread and threadlocked. The other benefit is we now run 22t timing rings, so loads of clearance for steps & drops.

There’s no way we’d be without our 20t granny ring. 20/34 bottom gear is great for Scotland. And us being unfit 🙂

Rob

Are they in vogue or a dead horse?

I’d say neither, they just suit certain people in certain circumstances.

Mountain bike tandem: slow and heavy

Uphill – undoubtedly. Downhill – not so sure, frighteningly quick down Glencoe when you let go of the anchors!

Rob

oh good, glad it wasn’t just our house that had the “who was that?” discussion!!

Looks brilliant, soooooooo gutted we were out of the country. And looks perfect tandeming trails too.
Can we do it again?

Rob

Ride free JMC.

Still hankering after that red Spesh 🙂

Rob

Don’t worry, it is easy.
I guess you’re talking about the rear hub? Remove the cassette, then using 2 large flat screwdrivers lever out the axle end cap from inside the freehub, it should slide off the axle.
When that’s off, the freehub will pull off, just make sure you don’t loose the pawls & springs or spacer. Prise out the hub seal and that’s it, you can clean the ratchet ring & pawls. If you need to change bearings then they just press out, there are no circlips anywhere.

Shout up if you get stuck!

Rob

We also struggle a bit on corners as I quite often drop the outside pedal whereas Mrs NBT will just coast round pedals level most of the time

Yep, we had that one too! Anyone riding behind us will hear me shouting ‘left down’ or ‘right down’ or ‘level’ so we get the pedal position correct for each corner, because Sandy can’t see over my head unless she’s standing, so doesn’t know what’s coming next.

Had one incident last week where we got to the bottom and she said “I normally take a different line over to the right”

“I know,” I said, “I could feel you leaning that way to get me over there!”
Yep, which answers that question that non-tandemers always ask – “but you can’t steer at the back”. Oh yes they bloody well can!!!!

FB-ATB – Member
What’s a tandem like on tight trails?

Challenging, is the answer! We can do the whole red route at Glentress (except magic mushroom/mushroom pie which are tight on a solo). There’s just 2 climbing hairpins we can’t get round, on the singletrack climb from the picnic bench to the fireroad climb to spooky wood. Just imagine you’re steering a bus rather than your car.

why don’t the pedals just stay with their relative cranks with lots of thread lock?

We run SPD’s, so there’s a ‘front’ and a ‘back’ on each pedal. If you take the LH pedal and put it on the RHS, the SPD mechanism is facing backwards, so won’t engage with a cleat.

singlespeedstu – Member
So then going back to this altering the timing between captain and stoker.
Do you not find that when you do this that neither of you can get the cranks flat while stood up and rolling?

just 1 or 2 teeth we don’t really notice when level pedals, but Sandy will often shout that she wants to change lead foot.

slowrider – Member
That is AWESOME! My lad can’t ride a bike due to his cerebral palsy but we just about get by on a tandem.

That’s how we first discovered the mountain tandem. We were at CYB on a NATS weekend trip back in about 1996, I was riding, Sandy wasn’t a rider then and was passing the time in the cafe. I came back down the final descent into the car park and could hear my wife screaming with laughter from about half a mile away! As I came out into the car park she went flying past on the back of a red cannondale tandem with moto triple clamps on the front.
Turns out it was 2 brothers, one of whom had CP, and this was how he got his biking kicks, stoking for his brother. With Sandy’s ME, turns out it was a perfect solution for us too.

I did think about your crank system but it wouldn’t work with the chainsets I had as I guess you need them without a billet pipe axle i.e not with outer bb bearings as you need to attach a right hand chainset pedal to the left-hand rear

Yep, captains chainset is my old Raceface Evolve just fitted wrong way round. Strip the pedals, take the axles out, swap them round, rebuild.
Rear is on a square taper BB, though I guess ISIS or Octalink would work too, so you can fit 2 driveside cranks. I had a spare set of the same pedals, so could put a RH axle in the LH pedal. Threadlock everything and touch wood I’ve not had a problem with anything trying to undo itself.

Well I have been repairing several broken Ali Mtb frames for years and never actually had any problems and I’m still thrashing them some of them and based on prior experience I don’t expect any problems.

In which case, I wish you many miles happy thrashing 🙂

Rob