Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - big project bike

so one day while out and about me and my room mate/ best friend saw this couple riding a tandem and having a great time, so we starting thinking about how to make a fixed gear tandem, if it was possible, how it would work, and how much fun it could be. Mind you neither of us had ever even seen a tandem up close.

We got so excited about it that before the day was over craigs list to the rescue we owned an old schwinn tandem. It was set up with 26" wheels ss with a coaster brake. It had cruiser bars and two old huge spring loaded cruiser seats.

First thing we did is change out the wheels for a set of 27" roads we had spare with a cassette, and just set the chain on 1 gear. We swapped out the worse of the seats for a sun dried, rock hard kashimax. Then we worked in changing out the bars. Broke the rear bar clamp that was attached to the seat post, swapped the two posts, cut the stem off an old rusty walmart bike and welded it on to the clean seat post. It now has some cut up bmx bars. We took the cruiser bars that were on the front, flipped them and bent them inward to make some major pursuit bars.

So for a while we rode the bike ss brakeless around until we bent the rear wheel. So now we have his set of Dp18's on there. I have started to sand the paint off. It looks like it was brown, then painted over with pink, then painted over again with silver.

Work that still needs to be done:
Finish sanding and repaint
Remove break guides and the likes
Get legit bullhorns for the front
Fabricate some mustache bars for the rear (need more clearance for the ol knees)
Get two new seats
Cut off the old bar clamp from the rear seat post and smooth out
Maybe replace the fork with something not 5lbs
Buy some bb adapters so we can install new cranks for front and back
Get new pedals with clips and straps
Build new wheels. 48h rear and 40h front
Get about $500-$600 to do all this, but we are both broke right now.

All will come in time but we hope to get a nice bike out of this. It's all just something to mess around on. It makes for some awesome cruising, and since it's two people driving one bike the thing really is quite fast and fun.

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k283/poeticdude29/tandem1.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k283/poeticdude29/tandem4.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k283/poeticdude29/tandem2.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k283/poeticdude29/tandem3.jpg

Looks fun...and brakeless singlespeed sound dangerous lol. My parents have a tandem but I've never actually ridden it. Might try it out next time I go visit them.

to be fair it was pretty dangerous when we rode it ss. My foot on the back tire was our only means of slowing down, and there were a few times when we had to make that always handy sharp right turn to avoid being hit.

With his wheels on there it is fixed now though, so a little safer. It's great though. I need to completely trust him to direct us, steer, avoid hitting things, and he has to completely trust me to stop us. We have gotten pretty good at track stands but sliding a a challenge we have yet to master.

The bike really is very fun and gets some good laughs

i have a rusty beat up tandem that has potential to be a nice machine again. i think the only thing on it thats really broken is the second set of chain rings. nice work though looks like a blast

This thread made my day. Well executed. :thumb:

I'm just waiting to see this thing parked in front of the Naked Lounge.

Brakeless + booger welds + no retention = deathtrap I'm all about alt bikes, but this thing is kinda scary.

can you guys skid? that would be crazy...tandem skid

As for the replacing fork, they put beefy ones on tandems for a reason. ;)

can you guys skid? that would be crazy...tandem skid

Skidz are really hard because neither of us can lock up the wheels by ourselves. There is too much weight (I'm 145, he's 155, bike is 40) and momentum with too high a gearing. That means we both have to wrok together on it, which means being able to perfectly time it all. We will master it in time.


As for the replacing fork, they put beefy ones on tandems for a reason.

I was thinking maybe the fork on the new Milwaukee trick frame that is coming out. It's a bmx styled fork, which simply means it should be strong enough but lighter and a little more aggressive handling. But at the same time I would like to bike to retain some styling once finished. You know, not look like a monster