57commuter

I’ve been reading through the comments and the links on these threads – lots of useful advice here – many thanks to the posters.

Our situation is that I ride a lot – wife not so much but loves it. We think a tandem might be the best way to even out our strengths and weaknesses when we cycle together. Kids are older – not cool to be seen with mum and dad – and we are planning a cycling holiday (not fully loaded – light touring) in Europe for our 25th wedding anniversary 3 years from now. (I’m 5’10” and 90 kg – Kathy is 5’1” and 50 kg)

Love to hear your comments on the following ideas;

- Santana or similar (steel) folding frame;

- For 26 inch wheels – I think Sheldon Brown makes a pretty good case for these on a tandem but we both currently ride bikes with 700c rims so we don’t have strong views either way;

- Dropouts for rohloff hub with single chain ring;

- Braze ons for hydraulic disc brakes front and rear;

I plan to buy the frame and then progressively add the bits myself as a project over the next 18 months. I’m reasonably handy but have no specialist bike tools so complex jobs like wheel construction would be outsourced to my LBS!

Any and all comments welcome!

Cheers,

Greg

galen_52657

why go through all that modification and assembly? why not just buy a tandem with couplings off the shelf, new or used? That way, you could be riding together for the next year and a half.....

zonatandem

Santana does not make a 'folding' frame, but they do make an S&S (frame 'uncouples' and fits into suitcase) frame. Other manufacturers also make frames with S&S fittings. From the sounds of your English you are from/in the UK? Why not buy a frame made there? Save on import duties.
Unless you are quite handy and have the proper tools, this project could cost you more in time/effort/tools than buying a tandem (new or used) outright.
While Rohloff's internal 14-speed gear system is popular in Europe, there are very few in the US. Seems to be an almost foolproof system but quite pricey. Read there were only a couple failures in over 1,000 hubs produced. If problems occur, most bike shop will not know how to handle that complex internal system compared to a derailleured system.
700c vs 26 inch wheels? In the US majority of road tandems use the 700c. Realize in Europe that may not be the case. If you are not planning to do much off-road/dirt road riding the 700c would be a good choice.
Have ridden tandems with both types of wheels and for on-road, highly prefer 700c wheels. Have toured quite a bit (light load: 22 lbs and credit card and we're gone!) and even managed to do some dirt road riding when there was no other choice. Including 8 miles of rutted dirt road with winding mountain curves . . . not fun, but do-able.
Before you make up your mind, would suggest that the 2-of-you try out riding a tandem first . . . there must be tandems for rent/hire in your area somewhere, before commiting yourselves to an expensive 18 month project.
However, if you're up to the challenge to do it yourself, more power to you.
Welcome to the tandem world, wherever you are!
Pedal on TWOgether!
RTudy and Kay/zonatandem/USA

mrfish

If you want to use the Rohloff hub system (which btw I think is a great idea for anything other than road racing), you should get a frame with special dropouts, otherwise you will need to strap a rather ugly torque arm to the frame. The Rohloff website clarifies the options.

If you are then looking at framebuilders, any good framebuilder should be able to build an appropriate custom frame. If this all sounds very expensive, just google St John Street Cycles - their range of Thorn tandems is very popular for UK and European customers, and sounds like exactly what you are looking for at a reasonable price.

Finally, if you are thinking about building your own first tandem, I would see if you can base your first tandem bike on an off-the-shelf model (probably with derailleur gears though), as large suppliers' discounts normally mean you get a basic bike for the same price as a frame alone. This was my personal route, and involved buying last year's Trek T2000 with a good discount, which does 90% of what I want, for less than the price of a top-end custom frame. If you have lots of money, or very clear ideas on what you want already, maybe this isn't such an issue ;-)

Hope that helps.

Andrew

ElRey

I agree with some of the others: why assemble what you assume is going to work without teh benefit of any experience? Get something, anything, and ride. Ride alot. Figure out what you really want from there... The differences betwen 26" and 700 wheels would be inconsequential, unless you're talking about off-road. If road-only, it's not significant, so don't limit your frame choices. S&S COuplers do work nicely.

57commuter

Thanks for all that. We are in Australia where having ridden 5000k over the last couple of years I've seen 3 or 4 tandems. There just doesn't seem to be that many around. I know putting it together will cost me more but there's a bit of a hobby factor in there as well. I think it's a good suggestion to hire one, I'll have a bit of a look around and see what I can find.

Brian

Over here, you can get a Cannondale or a Raleigh. That's all I've seen. We had ours custom made. Given the terrible pricing structure here, it is actually cheaper to fly to the US, pick up your bike, and bring it home. Even with duties and GST, you'll still save.

Old Hammer Boy

Expariate, I'd suggest you go here when you get to Utah. https://www.bbtc.net/index.htm We have a number of good tandem teams, more every year, and hope you'll join us. But beware, we're roadies...

Brian

Hmmm. Not sure if I should thank you or not. The gesture was nice, but roadies? We once did a charity ride where we were boxed in by roadies at the start. A bit like driving a school bus in a Mini parade.