kingfish254

Picked up this neat little folding tandem bike today. Will fix it up for my wife and I to ride around on.

David Newton

Great project Kingfish. Two kickstands!

kingfish254

Additional photos

Original Bell











Rear Drum brake


Front drum brake and the most dilapotaded tire I have ever seen.


Headbadge, bad tire, original generator and light

mkeller234

Oh my gosh, that thing is too funny.

tugrul

Where's the photo of it folded up?

rhm

I'm really enjoying all the April Fools Day posts but, oh man, you've got 'em all beat with this one!

kingfish254

You mean to tell me that you don't like our little clown bike?

rhm

On the contrary, I love it! Most April Fools jokes are jokes in the telling. That is, the joke is a lie. Your joke, however, is perfectly real (or your photoshop skills are truly prodigious). No, I believe the bike really exists. And I believe it really folds. No, it's no joke.

And I should point out, I commute on a bike with 16" wheels, so there's no prejudice there. 16" wheels are incredibly tough even with 16 or 20 spokes, and you have 36, steel rims, and --golly-- are those heavy gauge spokes? Those wheels will be indestructible. If not, well, I hope you have a very small spoke wrench! Your frame has an incredibly strong rear rack, integral to the frame, that would doubtless hold hundreds of pounds of cargo; but you can't put panniers on it, or anything wider than the rack itself, or you'll have heelstrike issues. So it's useless for carrying anything bulkier than bullion. The frame folds, but I don't see QR's on seat posts or handlebar stems; and anyway, folding it makes for only a minor reduction in frame size. And tandem frames are notoriously flimsy... and U-frames are notoriously flimsy, especially the folding mechanism.... And finally, it looks like the factory recognized the flimsiness issue and responded by retrofitting a removable double keel tube. That should reassure anyone!

I would be proud to own this bike, and I congratulate you on the acquisition. It's just that... all that said... I can't help suspecting that someone, somewhere between the marketing department, the design department, and the manufacturing department in the Graciella Industries complex, had an April's Fools Day type sense of humor.

kingfish254

I just want to look as cool as these Italian couples with their Grazi Tandems. How do you like the saddlebags?

kingfish254

And if you think this frame is stretching the engineering boundaries, take a look at the triplet that they sold as well.

Mos6502

Something tells me that frame is probably pretty noodly when you get moving.... Also given the spoke count and wheel size, I wonder if they just lifted those wheels from a moped.

kingfish254

We will see once I get a tire on it (hopefully this weekend).

Here is the Grazi moped of the time. I looks more like a minibike.

rhm

A worthy goal! Please update the thread with the appropriate photos when the time comes!

kingfish254

I don't think that the handlebars are correct, but I kind of like the ape hangers on it. It has the correct hand grips and bell though.

I found a couple of good Italian sites for the Grazi's. You just have to use Google ot translate them.

https://thrillergraziella.wordpress.com/about/

https://miticagraziella.wordpress.com/

kingfish254

Just went on the maiden voyage of the Grazi tandem. The rear tire holds air and I was able to put a used tire and new tube up front. All of the cables are shot so no brakes yet. But once I had a rolling chasis I just had to ride it. The chains were and the rest of the mechnicals worked well. Like any small wheel bike it takes a little while to adjust to how nimble steering can be. The next thing I had to do was get my wife to not lean back and forth trying to look around me. Everytime she did I could feel it torque the bike and affect the steering (at least until I got used to it). We rode for about 30 minutes down the lanes only. This was partly due to no brakes, but also my wife didn't want too many people seeing us until it was prettier. Neither of us have ridden a tandem before and it was quite fun.

I still have a lot of work to do on this old bike, but it good to know that it will mostly be cosmetic and lubing. Breaking it down and painting it will be the biggest job. Still haven't decided on the color combo yet. I was even able to get this heavy hoss on my Wrenchforce workstand.

hartleymartin

An insanely fun little bicycle I should imagine. Small wheel bicycles are fun, tandems are fun. Small-wheeled tandems much be an absolute riot!

The triplet version is surely designed as a family vehicle - Father, Mother, Eldest child and youngest on a rear carrier (or one of the parents and all the kids on the back).

redg35

Most if mine is original with the exception of the pedals, grips and the rear seat. No bell on mine but I put a horn.

I think there was some modification with the rear crank / bottom bracket. Do you have an close-up shots of your cranks and BB's.

I will take some shots of my bike when I get it out of the shed. At the moment the shed is snowed in.

Mark

redg35

The bars look a bit wider then the ones on mine but hard to tell. I would guess they may very well be origional

ridey b

What happened to the final picture after .
I have been waiting to see as inspiration for my own graziella tandem project