I just picked up a similar tandem and the tires are marked 26x1.75 as well. I haven't checked Sheldon yet, but I've never seen this size except on mountain bikes. Who knows, maybe it's actually MTB 26"! I'd be suprised though, this seems like just the right kind of bike to have weird sizes everywhere.

My gigantor purple CCM:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4013/...9a01d442_b.jpg

It wasn't unheard of for tire makers to mis-mark their tires especially up here. Canadian tire markings were quirky. I suspect they are the 571 mm bead 26 x 1 1/2" size...http://www.sheldonbrown.com/26/index.html

The Canadian 26 x 1 3/4 is the same bead 571 diameter, just wider. That's likely where this decimal marking came from.

They also made a 26 x 2" wheel for ballooners ...same 571 mm.

Yes "Riken ... 26 x 1.75" just like that. Can't see anything on the rims. What vintage you figger, late 70's? Don't know when they started using wire-feed welders. But there's also signs of brazing. Looks like the Headtube and forks have been replaced [same era CCM forks different paint] but both mudguards look original. Must have head-on-ed something or something. It would be easy to ram a curb or such when turning if you're used to handling a shorter bike I guess.

Just found a Raleigh Grand Prix 10 spd with leather saddle, Weinmann brakes, Stronglight cottered cranks, brass headbadge, French wheels, Shimano shifters, and nice lugwork, out back of a bike shop. They said "take it it's yours." Needs a paint job. OK... I was in a hurry, but couldn't just leave it there...

Wow, Tashi, the same "BBF2." Nice score, it looks in great shape. Your forks look different; slim like a roadbike. Mine have that old CCM kind of 'double butterfly' structure. Is it the Sachs Torpedo 3 spd?

I will try mtn bike tyres and see...

Got up inordinately early this morning and decided what my soul needed was a little espresso and a peaceful place to enjoy it... could not leave before I gave the girl a little sip of oil as she was ticking a little loudly last night which is her way of saying "feed me".

And even though it was not raining the old girl is drawn to water like I am to the sun so we compromised a little... and she was purring like a kitten.

http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/bikep...leigh2010c.JPG

Sweet. Nice leather and fabric stuff. Which model is that?

Our BBF2 turns more heads than any vehicle I've ever owned. Or driven as I can recall. People stare, kids point and yell "Look, a DOUBLE bike!"

Fir - It's a 1954 Raleigh Sports Club Conversion.

Wish my sports had the proper heron chainring, and dimpled fork :-] - yours had the northroad bars to start?

Now there's a bike you'd be reluctant to leave in a rack outside the theatre or opera.. which is a shame because who wants to drive their beater to the theatre? Need more valet parking for bikes I say. Or bike racks inside the theatre, just beside the orchestra pit. That would work.

This is my beater / rain bike.

:)

Figure that the local thieves would not give this bike a second glance and I do make sure to lock her up well if I take her shopping but she isn't a garage queen.

Fir - Will keep an eye out for a heron chain wheel for you... am sure we have a couple down at the bike co-op.

Ahh, now I see the connection "the old girl is drawn to water"... "This is my beater / rain bike."

Did you hear the old soviet joke about the giraffe? All the animals shared a joke and had a good laugh. 3 days later giraffe laughed. "I get it now," he said.

How does the ol' gal like the hard water? D'you go studded in winter? My [wife's] Twenty was very happy in the flakes, but I haven't tried the Sports's 26x1&3/8 in the white stuff. Once we get past the ugly stage [between plus 5 and minus 10 - give or take according to solar incidence] and into deep winter, the old gals should be quite happy so long as the tyres are broad enough to be stable and not chase ruts. Motorists appear to experience a paradigm shift when suddenly encountering me on my studded mtn bike at a 4-way intersection. That would be amplified some if I could find 26x1&3/8 carbide studs for my Sports :-)

Nokian claims to make a "Studded Trekking tyre. 100 Steel studs with durable Carbide pin and durable Gumwall casing. 26x1 1/2 40-584 38/38" and a "Studded Balloon tyre. 62 Steel studs with durable Carbide pin and durable Gumwall casing. 26x1 1/2x2 54-584 50/50" hmm...

As for thieves, there is a bit of a mania here for the vintage stuff - but p'raps people'd be thrown off by the drop bars.

Wish I 'ad some bits here you needed.

Fir - I have winter bikes... I won't subject the old girl to that although our first test ride saw some decent snow and she handled that fine.

I'm thinking as long as everything is nice and dry and there's no salt, it should be nicer than rain on the equipment, no? They say vintage aeroplanes do well in the high arctic. Maybe under 18c is a better rule-of-thumb because it can start dripping here at 14 or 15c, depending upon Mr Yellowball up there. Round here there's quite a bit of reliable non-liquid, unsaltable weather between November and March.

The old lady has had her frame sealed to preserve her patina and decals which should also serve to protect her from a little or a lot of rain... a wipe down with a little light oil serves to do the same thing on steel frames.

Fir, do you have an interesting accent to accompany your unusual and interesting writing style?

A Fixie for Africa
 

Tom, Sadly, I don't think so. Canucks are the only peeps in the whirled with no accent, %-) I dew love accents though! Find myself mimicking them unconciously. Get rather some stares at the airport. And after a long ride there's this clicking between words, rather like the freewheel - I fear it might mean something in Swahili or Kalihari or some such. Good reason to ride a fixie in Africa.

Western ones that is.

Yeah, I quite like the purple, and colour-matched fenders and chainguard. I don't like the deformed handlebar (boo low-quality steel stem), and the shifting needs tuning, but so far it's a damn reliable smile generator!

And yep, it does appear to be a Sachs 3-speed. Needs a little attention to work quite right but 2 gears get the job done for now.

Robin McNeil (a Canadian himself), in The Story of English, gave an explanation of why there's pretty much one accent across all of English speaking Canada. I don't remember it, and I'm not sure I believe it, either.

I'll have to look that book up.

I guess it's because of the fur trade and the railway. There's something about chasing beavers all over the shield that mixes things up. You know, traditionally they farmed in the summer and went off trapping or logging or digging rocks for the winter or minded lifts in Banff... There wasn't always enough to do if you stayed in one spot all year. Winter being like a national cocktail party. That's one theory anyway. The east was settled earlier, Newfoundland being Irish influenced, Nova Scotia being Scotch influenced (I'm half scotch and half water myself) Quebec, well we dursn't go there right now...

Or perhaps it's the CBCs fault...

Tashi, yah, I saw too much of that stem :eek: Just rolled steel, not even a piece of pipe and not terribly long either... Did you see how the rear bars attach to the front seat? No height adjustment possible! (except by pivotting) They could have made a little bolt-on bracket just as easy I would guess?

My Torpedo selector didn't want to stop in first, until I WD40'd it and flicked it obsessively for a while. The tiny spring that flips the little stopper tab in there is rather slenderous. And the whole gadget is rivetted together - like they thought we'd never want in there.

Hey, they made me "Senior Member!" All I had to do was make 53 posts? I'm off for champagne.

You're hilarious, Fir. I bet I could listen to you all day.

T'isn't true... I can often tell where people are from and where they have lived in between... there is an Ontario by way of Winnipeg accent that is quite distinct.

Martimers are unitelligable at any speed unless you have Gaelic roots or drink enough Screech and many people have taken me for being a Maritimer with a PEI accent.

Can't stop from rolling my r's due to my grandmothers influence and being Scotch / Irish means I like to drink... and hate to pay for it.

The Swedish side keeps the Scotch and Irish in check methinks.

I'll drink to that! :cheers: