Superb, that’s a brilliant piece of garden shed engineering!
By no means intended as a criticism, but considering how much effort you’ve put in, I’m guessing you’ve addressed the issues of not being able to heat treat the frame post welding and came up with a cunning solution?

The BB height looks great, but you’ll loose a lot of clearance with the big timing rings – its the front chainring that we always used to bash, so we used to run a bashring. I’ve now changed to 22t timing rings to maximise clearance over steps & drops. I didn’t use ‘proper’ tandem cranks, just normal ones with pedals rebuilt and lots of threadlock. Might be worth considering as a future mod.

You might like to try moving the timing of the front back two or three teeth so that the stoker leads

We do the opposite, stoker 1 or 2 teeth behind. That gives Sandy a moment to feel my changes in pedal pressure before she comes onto a power stroke. 90 degrees out might work on road, but off-road your stoker will have their toes amputated the first time you go through a rock section with YOUR pedals level!

Looking forward to seeing photo’s of it in action 🙂

Rob

There’d better be one next year, we want to come!!!

There are a few places left if you’ve nothing planned for tomorrow!

The bike trailer is ready for tomorrow’s first ever Glenbranter uplift. Tom’s Mandrover is even getting a special valet today in preparation (ok, he’ll take the child seats out and remove the dog hair!).

Now we had a last-minute hiccup yesterday when FCS told us there was a charge for giving us permission to use the forest. We’d not been told about this before, which is why we were just charging the standard £4 Cowalfest booking fee to cover admin costs. To cover this charge there will be a donation box tomorrow. A mere £3 each will cover it, so still only £7 for what we hope will be a brilliant day. As I said, it is a donation, because we had advertised at £4, so don’t feel we can ask for extra, but Cowalfest runs as a not-for-profit organisation so it would help a lot.

Right, I’ll have a word with the weather gods and arrange some sunshine!

Cheers,
Rob

Better to book via the Cowalfest website please Graeme. Then we can claim back some petrol money for Tom’s Mandrover! The princely sum of £4, bargain!

See you next weekend.

Rob

It looks like me and the missus will be able to pick up our Ventana ECDM by then, so hopefully see you there

oooh, you’ll love it. Our ECdM was a complete revelation, both downhill, and especially uphill. You’ll find yourself pedalling through stuff you used to stall on. After 5 years we still haven’t found it’s limits.

And the collective noun? A stampede? A thundering?
Or, a tsunami of tandems?

Gutted we can’t be there.

Rob & Sandy

+1 for self-employed.
Knowing that breaking myself = no income had a significant effect. Even having an accident policy isn’t a huge consolation.

Going back a few years, well about 20 if I think about it….

Clockwork on Dartmoor.

Rob

A limo definitely not needed, Nancy can go on the top of a Suzuki Swift! The Mazda 323f we had before was great because the roofline was so low. Once you’ve got the hang of it then it is a one-person job. If you car has a high roof then a wee step might make it safer. Also have the door(s) open so you can stand on the sill. I hold the fork leg, and the diagonal down-tube, hoist it up in the air, walk up to the car, and get the tyres into the channel, then push it up to the vertical. A strap round the front crank arm onto the rack upright and she’ll stay in place while you do the other straps.

Our DIY rack is the channel section of 2 solo racks bolted end on end. The 2 uprights are the steel legs from an old bed frame, welded onto a 6mm plate that is bolted to the roof bars.

Solid as a rock!

Rob

Phew, memory seems to be holding up ok then!

Rockhopper’s link is a little out as that is industrial gas turbines, and the shaft speed quoted is, I think, the shaft speed of the free power turbine which would then drive the pump/generator/propeller shaft.

It is a bit complicated due to all sorts of aerodynamic jiggery-pokery. Rolls-Royce engines are 3 shaft – low, intermediate, and high pressure systems. GE & P&W used 2 shaft.

It’s been a few years since I left RR, but from memory the Trent500 at take off would be running the LP system (ie the front fan & LP turbine) around 3000rpm, the IP system around 8000, and the HP system 10,000+.

I’m sure someone a bit closer to the action will be along shortly and correct me if I’m way out!

Rob

Seems quite handy on the local country lanes to indicate to oncoming traffic that you’ve got a passing place to move into.

Playing devils advocate, in this situation, why not consider a left indicator? considering the OP’s point of flashing lights being used incorrectly, would this be clearer to oncoming traffic?

Rob

Meet Vinnie, our 1984 VW T25.

Slow? Yep, 50-55 normal, 60 downhill with a tailwind. Hills? Well, we get to the top eventually, usually in 3rd or 2nd. That’s when you can find 2nd in the gearbox, its a bit elusive at times.

Thirsty? Yep, we’d love to see 30mpg, but 27/28 is normal.

Reliable? Yes, when you’ve fixed everything that will/can/does either break/wear out/corrode/fall off/rust.

Would we change him? Nope, not for the world, but you either need deep pockets and an expert local, and very friendly garage, or you need an ever growing toolbox and be willing to put the hours in getting dirty.

But as a tandem-transporting biking wagon, he’s uttery brilliant 🙂

Rob

pacerc200 – sorry for the delay, have just answered your questions over on facebook.
Northwind – the more the merrier!

Please don’t expect Inners or Nevis Range, or bring a full-on downhill monsterbike, but the trails are great fun, and this is something we’ve wanted to organise for years.

The cake production will get into full swing shortly…..

Rob

Shameless bump 🙂

Result! Good karma 🙂

You know us buddy, I’m sure there will be cake 🙂

Rob

Some cracking pics here.
One of us from Glencoe last month….

Might help if I added its Saturday 13th October!

If you can slum it the chippie is good too

+1, the fish supper is superb.

Gutted 🙁 We’re away on holiday that weekend or we’d be there.
Promise you’ll do another in the spring!

Rob & Sandy

20 years ago? When pink lycra was made cool by Schmoo’s cycles?

Ahhhhhh, my eyes………..

Sorry I’m a bit late on this one, but as the photo is of us at Glentress, then I’ll chip in!
@Twiglett-monster – Hi rich, long time no see, how’s the toaster? Well spotted, it is indeed us on our latest steed Nancy.

@xiphon, if you want to write offensive things about people you don’t know, prehaps think before pressing ‘enter’. If you’d rather take Sandys place then I’ll see you at Glencoe next weekend and you can ride the red DH route like we did this weekend.

As far as the bike, it’s not a Raleigh, its a Ventana El conquistador. It came from JD cycles after we’d tried their demo bike. Brilliant shop, brilliant people.
We do have our original cannondale frame for sale (looks similar to TJ’s) if you want to build one up.
The main problem you’ll find on the lower end frames (even the cannondales) is the bottom brackets are a normal solo bike height around 11-12 inches. When the going gets bumpy you’ll be grounding the boom tube & smacking your stokers toes onto rocks or upslopes. The off-road specific frames raise the BB to around 13-14 inches.

Cheers,
Rob

Previous- Configuration Project Manager at Rolls-Royce
Current – driving instructor

chianti…?

Phew, glad it’s not just my mind that comes up with odd connections too! 🙂

We’re dog-sitting our daughters bulldog at the moment. She is getting on a bit but lots of health problems, as suggested above. No real character as far as I can tell. Wouldn’t want one.
We had a rescue greyhound, which was my first dog. Fantastic. Needs very little exercise, laid back, lovely character (unless you’re a cat, then you’re dinner)and brilliant with kids. Would strongly recommend visiting a greyhound rehoming charity. They’ll find a dog that suits you and your lifestyle (or tell you if you aren’t suitable). I’d suspect they’ll want less than £100 donation too.

Red the greyhound enjoying his retirement on a beach in Kintyre…

Rob

Mmmmm, still sounds like a bearing has gone in a bit squint and isn’t seated all the way home.

Have you got the spacers the wrong way round?

I was about to say the same, but just checked on Hope’s exploded diagram and the freehub>hub spacer is the long one anyway, so it’s not that.

Is the hub bearing on the freehub side seated all the way home? If it’s not right in that’d cause your problem. Drop a pawl into the pawl ring. If it doesn’t go below flush with the top of the pawl ring then the bearing isn’t seated properly.

Rob

the sound of a low flying merlin engine(strapped to a hurricane, spit or lancaster) is just the most amazing thing for me….

Yep. Sends shivers down my spine every time. Being an apprentice at Rolls Royce meant I got to polish the company Spitfire, and watch its impromptu displays at RR Hucknall. Just the most beautiful sight, sound and smell in the world.

Rob

Try Sainsburys, who are underwritten by lloyds. Tandem & P7 listed separately on house policy for very reasonable money. No experience of bike theft, but they’ve been very good to deal with about the house & contents. We’re about to move back into our house after it was wrecked by fire last May.

Brilliant thread, very humbling. Well done STW 🙂

Lest we forget.

Please excuse the slight hijack, but sounds like some knowledgeable folks involved – can the lifts in these areas carry a tandem?
Our daughter & hubby have been riding in Morzine this week, and the pics have got us toying with the idea of driving over next summer in our VW T25. Sandy only rides tandem, so we’d need to know if it could go up the lifts.
Thanks.

End of hijack, sorry OP 🙂

Same here with ratchet rings for the Big ‘Un on the tandem 🙁

We usually have a rule on group rides that we all help out to fix any mechanicals or punctures, never leave a rider and all that

The only exception is when the midges are out, then it’s every man for himself. Surprising how fast you can bodge when being bitten

Yep, same here in bonny Dunoon!

Please tell me that footage was speeded up! Bloody incredible!

Bought a replacement battery for my Acer laptop from Ebay. Rubbish. Laptop wouldn’t even boot up properly, yet with a new OEM battery it worked perfectly
And I don’t think it’s just laptop batteries either, bought a replacement for my Blackberry from eBay and that’s rubbish too.
OEM every time.

JMC

Ride free

40 hole does seem overkill. 36 spokes on a big un has done us (and you) perfectly well, and we ain’t a light team. I’m even considering building a less burly pair of wheels on 32 hole hubs with a strong rim.
IMHO it seems 40 hole is traditional for tandems, therefore that’s what we should use and what people make. Experience says 36 hole is fine with improvements in rim, hub & spoke design & materials.

Rob

Has anyone found a good tandem parts source?

The only tandem experts we’ve found in the UK are JD Cycles in Ilkley. They know their stuff and have demo tandems, including a Ventana ECdM, which is what convinced us to buy ours.
Been tandeming 15 years now and the best source of info is the Yahoo group Double Forte, which I suspect is the forum TJ was referring to.
The only things we’ve ever needed to be tandem specific are cranks, but then we broke that rule by building our own drivetrain that did what we wanted it to do.
The only rule we’ve followed is to avoid light kit, buy components that will survive a tactical nuclear strike, because on a tandem you can’t wheelie/hop/unweight over anything, just bash through it. That’s how we’ve ended up with zochhi 66 forks, D321 rims on Big Uns, DH bars & stem, Hope Ti6 brakes.

Rob

Will be in exactly the same position soon TJ, the ratchet ring in our Big Un was replaced a few years ago but is getting a bit tired. NOS Big Un’s have appeared on eBay recently, or as you suggest a bulb to get the ratchet ring from.
I’ve been considering a Nukeproof Generator wheelset. I know they’re not tandem specific, but might be worth trying at reasonable money. Agree the King and DT hubs are serious money, the new Hope hub from JD Cycles might be middle ground to go for, through 40 holes seems a bit overkill? 36 spokes have never let us down.

Rob

Topeak Mountain Morph. Brilliant.