motochick 

Believe me, I was NOT at all excited about taking over the shifting, I was vehemently against it. I only tried it to appease him and prove how dumb it was. As usual tho, he was right. I really like it! It keeps me more engaged during the whole ride instead of just mindlessly making circles, it forces me to always be paying attention which makes the time go by quicker. We do communicate quite a bit more than we used to, which is also great. I can usually tell when to shift but sometimes I ask for him to call it out because I can't see, and sometimes he asks for shifts just like your stoker might. We grew up riding old steel bikes with down tube shifters (and still do) so I feel real comfortable with the bar ends. I must say, it works quite amazing when dealing with intersections and heavy traffic areas, even when he used brifters on our old bike. He can concentrate on braking and steering while I take care of last minute down shifts or quick up shifts to beat the light! It's not for everyone, but for us it is the way to go!

Paul J

Not wanting to be a grouch but, with this post and the several that follow are taking this thread off it's original purpose which was to collect pictures of our tandems.Maybe this conversation could move to another /new thread. That would make it easier to fine if others are interested in making this modification in the future. It wouldn't be easily searchable here. Thanks!

rmrs

Pam & I baught this '72 Gitane used when we were in high school. It carried us through a a few century rides including a couple of double century weekends. Somewhere i have a pic of Pam seated on "Tandam" on Guam the day before #1 son arrived. Now it is at his house. I get to ride with granddaughters when i visit.

Upgrades:
Plug shifters (BAD idea)
TA alloy crank set
Weinnmen concave rims
Renolds 531forks (4th set)
I'll post a pic when allowed.

Hproduguidon

Mon gitane 1970

Groasters

Our 1992 Dawes Galaxy Twin.

Acquired a couple of years ago and now fully refurbed with every bearing replaced, new saddles, new stems, new chains, new tyres and mudguards, NOS Shimano 600 levers - rides like new!

It rolls on 37c Marathon Supreme on 48-spokers with plenty of clearance to the SKS mudguards.
I modified the Arai brake lever from a bar end to a short reach V-brake lever for easier leverage by my daughters' small hands.
Nasty old welded steel stems replaced with alloy, the front 22mm quill stem being fitted into the 1-1/8 head tube via a long alloy shim - it looks so much nicer with a proper alloy quill!

dgodave

Hi Everyone.

Here's the Schwinn Twinn. When I go to garage sale I often ask if they have any bike stuff for sale I'm not seeing. This one lady said no, but you can have this old thing rusting away out back. This is what I got. New chain, cables, tires, and a few other bits and its good to go. I think the basket alone weighs as much as an average new bike.

Its a really fun bike path bike.

(Now looking at a Fisher Genesis for sale locally for some more serious tandem riding).

konakai

what can I say, I'm weak when it comes to junk like this

bazil4696

That looks like a track tandem. Very kool. More pix!!!

daywood 

Here is our mid-80's (I think) Motobecane Interclub. It's parked at Horsetail Falls, which is along the route of the 2019 Gorge Pedal, an annual organized ride in the Columbia Gorge.

At this point, there's not a lot of the bike that's original. It was in rough shape when we bought it from a community bike center, but there wasn't any major rust on the frame. The soft surfaces were all rotting and its bar-end shifters didn't speak to me. I tore it down to paint it, and I modernized what I could and refreshed the rest. I made a "frankencrank" by matching up a more modern 3X right side crank assembly from another community bike center. I retapped the pedal holes on the remaining French arms so I could use non-French pedals. With the paint stripped off, I found a fissure in the steel on one of the forks. It looked like a manufacturing defect that had been there from the beginning, but you can't unsee something like that. I found a sturdy threadless fork and a modern headset that surprisingly fit the head tube.

Since the time of this photo, I've replaced the rear wheel so I could use an 8-speed wide range cassette, and I swapped out the thumbies for RapidFire shifters. I also undid one of my earlier experiments in pursuit of stopping power: I removed the second rear caliper and the brake doubler, and I added Kool-Stop e-bike brake pads to the remaining caliper. Stops great now. I've got a set of drops with combo brake-shifters that I might try in the near future, and I came across a metalflake green paint that I may not be able to resist. We're still having fun with it and it fits us, so we don't have immediate plans to replace it with something newer. It fits into the back of my pickup for nearby rides, and we haul it around the country on the back of our travel trailer.

Chilepines

New tandem build is complete! Curtlo fillet brazed steel frame to fit a 5'6" captain and 5'10" stoker. Her name is Clementine.
Wheels are Light Bicycle WR45 on DT 240 EXP hubs. CoLab Cross fork with 15x100 thru axle. Kinect stoker seatpost. Curtlo built stoker stem.
GRX di2 derailleurs, Shimano R785 di2 levers and brakes. FSA SL-K cranks modified to 46/30 direct mount rings; and stock crank lengths switched to 170 front / 175 rear. 10-42 cassette gets us 644% range.
Quite a fun project to put this all together. Can't wait to actually ride it!

Complete bike

GRX derailleur counted with RoadLink DM easily handles 42 tooth cog.

203 rotors front and rear. Redshift Kitchen sink bars.

bboy314

Evolution of a tandem team:

antmaster5000

Love it! Always cool seeing the different variations that people go through.

JGaerlan

Here's our home built crank forward tandem. Wife has visual impairment and can only ride a tandem. With the crank forward design, we can stop without getting off the saddle. Used an independent pedal crank system so no need to tell her when we're stopping, or she or I can stop pedaling anytime. My first bike project with disks. Also used a 1x drivetrain. We call the bike Circus as I got carried away with the colors. Frame mainly built with square tubing. We store it standing up inside a small apartment as our old tandem got stolen inside the garage.

Wiel

I am glad that there are more people building their own tandem.
My second and third tandem used some "square " tubes to create a solo and a tandem bike.

Our second tandem on a trip to Italy. It could be taken apart and used as a solo bike.
My website Velofilie

meggerthree

when I get to 10 posts, I can post a picture.

robakun

LOL..me too! newbie status can not post pics!~ will do when I hit 10 posts!

robakun

Hello everyone!
First post here with a pic!!
I picked up this Tandem from Huntington Beach CA several months ago to ride around with my daughter. It is a Sterling and I understand there is a brand out there called Sterling but this one has a different looking logo so not so sure if its the same. I also got the rear drum brake so may install that later. Previous owner had it for maybe 20 years or so and said it is from the 80's. I kind of believe that since the color screams that. He said it was Barney colors... lol! Its a very well built bike with even cadence sensor wire bungs on the frame. Looking to upgrade a few things here and there so will make a new thread for some questions I have for this.


Pic when I got it, chain was stretched and skipped gears so pedals are not synced.


Pic from Palos Verdes CA where I ride around a lot with my Canyon Ultimate. On Sunday I usually take the daughter around with me for a spin.

TCW2

Just got this one recently from MTB Tandems. We're still figuring out fit and whatnot. 31.8 pounds without saddles or pedals. I put on Ritchey Paradigm pedals and WTB Volt Team Saddles, so added a couple pounds. I assume it's still barely under 34 pounds.

antmaster5000

New tandem built by Rodriguez Bikes in Seattle. The whole process took a few months from start to finish but we could not be happier. Planning on taking this overseas to Europe for our honeymoon sometime in 2023 (in addition to riding around WA as much as possible in the meantime).

lichtgrau

Very nice bike. It looks sturdy & rigid but also very flexible with the couplers. (We have to heave up our "Soulmate" as a whole unit on the rooftop of the car... let's see how long we will be able to do that... )

I'm only thinking about the brakes: I'm also still using various kinds of rim brakes on all of our solo-bikes and I'm happy with the simplicity of them. My/our tandem is the only bike we have equipped with disks. And... honestly... after more than 10.000 kilometers "testing" I wouldn't change to any other kind of brake than our hydraulic four-piston disk-brakes. Fully loaded we are moving about 180kg...
Are you satisfied with the breaking power of the "classic" Cantilever-brakes so far?

antmaster5000

So far the brakes feel real good! They are Rodriguez Patented "Big Squeeze" brakes (https://www.rodbikes.com/articles/bigsqueeze.html) and stopping has not been an issue at all. They are rather squeaky right now and I am thinking that I should sand down the pads a bit to remedy. I was actually planning on having the tandem built up with disc brakes but the Rodriguez salesman dissuaded me for two reasons: harder to pack the bike up into its luggage case with disc brakes, and disc brakes would increase the weight by a couple lbs (this may be an exaggeration). Personally I do like the simplicity of rim brakes even though I have disc brakes on my single bike. Will be interesting to see how it handles with loaded touring. We did have them put on the mounts for a rear disc brake if we are ever wanting to go that route, and they have said that they could put the mount on our fork as well, so we are keeping our options open!

ToKathy

Since I'm a Newbie, I will have to wait to show you mine.

We purchased a Brownstone (Townhouse) in the entertainment district and quickly discovered that we needed some wheels. The moment I saw it, I had flash-backs of when I was a kid riding a tandem with my girlfriend and laughing the entire time. Great memories & still a lot of fun today. It was the perfect find ... a old school classic styled tandem made for Budweiser as a promotional grand prize. Needless to say, I had to buy it from the couple who won the grand prize but never rode it.

I wish I could post a pic to show all the cool features. I don't know what company designed & built this tandem - but it fits right-in Oklahoma City's Entertainment District commonly called 'Bricktown".

We get a lot of looks. Question: Are they looking at The Tandem or the idiots that are laughing the entire time - again?

lichtgrau

...it really depends... To our experience, if we meet a "tekkie", he is instantly asking/talking about technical details of our bike like the titanium frame, the Rohloff, Bushnell Excenter, fork, seat post and so on. But if we meet someone who's interested more in the "social biotope" formed by a tandem couple, you have a completely different discussion.
I like both, since I'm interested in all sides of that nice hobby
...but most of them just look or look and smile if we past by - since there's just no time for longer discussions...

uspspro

13 years later, the Calfee is still going strong. Recently, we've been throwing the kid on the back of it, instead of 2-singles with the kid on my bike. Always a blast!

antmaster5000

Beautiful tandem. Looks fast