Folding Bikes - Carnielli Graziella

Hi,

I've just got hold of a Carnielli folding tandem:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amphalon/sets/72157601700443028/detail/

From what I can gather they were originally sold with a 3 speed hub gear/brake. Mine has been upgraded to a 5 speed hub (though with a nasty pastic changer which has just broken).

Does anyone have nay further information about these? I'd particularly like to see any original marketing materials etc.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Tom

Neat bike.

No pics of it folded???

Hi,

I've just got hold of a Carnielli folding tandem:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amphalon/sets/72157601700443028/detail/

From what I can gather they were originally sold with a 3 speed hub gear/brake. Mine has been upgraded to a 5 speed hub (though with a nasty pastic changer which has just broken).

Does anyone have nay further information about these? I'd particularly like to see any original marketing materials etc.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Tom


NICE bike,

My friend has a tandem very similar to yours, here in Oz. I am trying to convince him to install a Sturmey Archer 8 speed hub or a Nexus 8.....and some modern light rims and tyres....and drop bars...and...and....

Thanks, the folding mechanism is fairly low tech - the front uptube folds round by 180 degrees. Though guess if there was some clever mechanism involving splitting the chain it wouldn't have survived from 1970.

I like the idea of putting a new geared hub on it, though the bike shop which serviced it doesn't think much of the new Sturmey Archer hubs - you'd need somethign pretty strong to cope with a tandem wouldn't you?

It weighs a ton too, huge amounts of metal on it so I think a lower gearing is more sensible. When I get the gears fixed (going to bodge it with two three speed shifters, one for up, one for down), I'll try and take it on a longer run. We took it to the London Freewheel at the weekend and found it pretty fast.

Tom

Thanks, the folding mechanism is fairly low tech - the front uptube folds round by 180 degrees. Though guess if there was some clever mechanism involving splitting the chain it wouldn't have survived from 1970.

I like the idea of putting a new geared hub on it, though the bike shop which serviced it doesn't think much of the new Sturmey Archer hubs - you'd need somethign pretty strong to cope with a tandem wouldn't you?

It weighs a ton too, huge amounts of metal on it so I think a lower gearing is more sensible. When I get the gears fixed (going to bodge it with two three speed shifters, one for up, one for down), I'll try and take it on a longer run. We took it to the London Freewheel at the weekend and found it pretty fast.

Tom

Tom,
The new S/A 8 spd hubs are made in Asia as far as I know and they are of a better quality than the ones made in the UK...go figure!! That's according to Sheldon Brown.
Maybe you could ask the bike shop what they thought of the Shimano Nexus red band 8spd hub...it's getting good reviews OR if you want to go all out...a Rohloff 14 spd would be nice ;)

Thanks, the folding mechanism is fairly low tech - the front uptube folds round by 180 degrees. Though guess if there was some clever mechanism involving splitting the chain it wouldn't have survived from 1970.

I like the idea of putting a new geared hub on it, though the bike shop which serviced it doesn't think much of the new Sturmey Archer hubs - you'd need somethign pretty strong to cope with a tandem wouldn't you?

It weighs a ton too, huge amounts of metal on it so I think a lower gearing is more sensible. When I get the gears fixed (going to bodge it with two three speed shifters, one for up, one for down), I'll try and take it on a longer run. We took it to the London Freewheel at the weekend and found it pretty fast.

Tom

I can't speak about the five and seven speed SA hubs, but the SRF-3 is in my opinion probably the best 3 speed sturmey archer hub that was ever made. There's a lot of old crap talked about stuff that's made in the far east by a lot of bike shops. He's probably upset that the British factory shut down and the rights were sold to Sunrace. If SA had made the new hubs that they had already designed, the company might still be running. The whole saga of mismanagement of Raleigh / SA by Tube Investments is a textbook example of how to ruin a good business. You should read Tony Hadland's accounts of the saga of decline. very instructive. Take it from me - the srf - 3 is a great hub and very efficient. It will last tens of thousands of miles I think and it has no false neutrals. I lube mine with oil now instead of the special greases.