mtnbke

Okay, Sanner Cycles has a framebuilding workshop where cyclists come in and build singles. Building your own frame yourself seems like an incredible way to connect with your bicycle and the sport.

My thought here is, considering the cost of tandem frames nowadays, and the fact that most stock tandem frames are a complete compromise in terms of fit for the stoker and captain, how much demand would there be for a "Build your own custom tandem workshop"?

If it required two weekends, five days and around $1000-1200 how many of you would sign up to build your own custom tandem frame?

Thoughts? If there is enough demand, they just might do this.

specbill

Pretty interesting..........If I thought for a minute that I could build a frame as good as our original (and still our favorite) old C'dale, but only lighter by a pound or pound and a half for that little money, I would do it in a heartbeat.
HOWEVER, while I have a fair amount of mechanical aptitude, I am certain that I don't have the talent to design or weld up such a frame.....never the less, kudos to you or Sanner for the idea to offer up such an fun opportunity.

Bill J.

Chris_W

I would think that building a tandem frame requires a lot more skill and precision than building a single bike. I might consider giving it a try for a single bike, but I'd be far more wary doing so for a tandem. You'd have to work hard to convince me otherwise.

WebsterBikeMan

Even if it doesn't take more skill and precision (although I suspect it does, even if only slightly), the investment is greater. So if I spend $500 and 4-5 days and get a single frame, and the best I can say about it is I built it myself, Oh, well. But would I want to spend double that, and have something of equal or lesser quality?

TandemGeek

Sounds more like a class in how to use someone else's tooling and equipment to assemble a set of tubes vs. the amount of time someone would need to spend figuring out how to actually design the frame around a team so that it had the proper fit, tube selection - placement - shaping, and a whole bunch of other considerations to yield anything that was as good as a fully-assembled and ready to ride $1,200 KHS tandem.

Seriously, United Bicycle Institute's $2,500 two-week long course is about as basic a course as I can image for building just a single bike under the very watchful eye of a master builder, noting the UBI's frame building courses were most likely the catalyst behind the surge in hand-built bikes over the past decade... just check out their alumini list. Build about a dozen single frames that you're willing to put your wife, children, parents or best friends on, and then... maybe then you'd be ready to tackle a tandem, IF you could find a shop that had the right size jigs and alignment tables + someone who has successfully built tandems to help guide you through the design and fabrication process.

zonatandem

You'd need someone who has successfully built tandems and has the proper jigs/equipment + patience/teaching skills.
Would suggest you try designing/building a single first before tackling a tandem.
It ain't as easy as some folks think . . .

mtnbke

Bill,

As I think about trying to have a custom built (69cm/57cm) I always get frustrated when I realize nothing will be as stiff/strong as our C'dale...

Philly Tandem

If you haven't already seen it, there's a nice write-up on CrazyGuyonaBike.com from a guy who took the Sanner framebuilding class. Interesting read.

https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?...ng&context=all