Aunt Roady

I'm not very familiar with vintage tandems, but I saw this on Etsy. Looks very cool and very reasonable (maybe the shipping $ to the US is an error?).

https://etsy.me/wed8qX

zonatandem

Sounds like a French tandem, but located in Belgium.
Shipping co$t . . . could be missing zeros?
Brand name?

TandemGeek

Shipping to US looks way off. This will be a fairly heavy, large package.

StephenH

Several notes:
Some of the French bikes (as in, 10-speeds) used different bearings and all that may be very hard to find in the US. And some of the US bikes of the 1930's used different chains and all than are common now. With an old foreign bike, that could be a double whammy for any kind of repairs.
With US bikes, there were tandems made in the 50's and 60's that were pretty much cheap crap when made, and haven't gotten any better, while there were other good bikes out there, and if you don't know the difference, that's not a good sign.
With US bikes, it is not at all uncommon to see bikes made in the 50's or 60's being advertised as from the 1920's or 1930's. I don't know if that is ignorance on the part of the sellers or just outright lies. Anyway, if you don't actually know when the bike was made, be aware that the description could be off on that point.
With very old bikes (as in, 1930's or older), it is not uncommon that numerous minor (and major) parts have been replaced through the years. If you anticipate any kind of collectible value, you need to be able to spot what is original and what isn't, as that has a major impact on value.

Shipping a single bike around the US will run around $100. Shipping a tandem overseas should be a BUNCH more than that. It'll also require some disassembly (normally) and if the bike is old enough, there's no guarantee that things will disassemble if they haven't tried it.

jimmuller 

Interesting bike. You should post this in the C&V forum.

zonatandem

Definitely French language headbadge.
Am from Belgium and never heard of that brand.

prathmann

The listing does say that shipping cost will vary depending on the destination and says you should ask first.

Looks interesting, but finding period-correct replacement parts would be difficult.

jimmuller 

You're from Belgium? Cool!

I ask for a very different reason, and apologize for hijacking the OP's thread. I have recently acquired a Bertin, but one made in Belgium, supposedly a '72 C-32. I understand that Andre's factory had a fire in the early 70's and so for a while, and perhaps because demand was so high, some Bertins were actually made by Andre's cousin across the river in Belgium. There is no discussion of this anywhere on the WWW. They appear to have had a few paint differences, had an English BB, and did carry a Made In Belgium sticker. Since I now have one I'm looking for any personal experience one might have with them. Thanks. Now back to the tandem...