Fir

Well I didnt know all that stuff and I would prompt you to write it if I knew what to say...

"...that will fit my 10 and 12 year old daughters as well as my soon to be wife." At first I pictured a bike long enough for 4 people... Ok, read slower... So seat height adjusts, and top tube removes? I wish good tandems were more common. And good vintage ones. I never heard of a 3spd tandem; someone someplace must have tried it.


Hilly in New Jersey? Do they have nice bikeways there?

kingfish254

65er,
Thanks again for sharing a golden nugget with the rest of us. This old video should be the "Catch of the Day".
Cheers

Sixty Fiver

You are my muse...

Sixty Fiver

It has a rear top tube that can be removed which allows for a very wide range of rider sizes... have seen 5 year olds riding on this design and it will also seat much taller adults.

It is an older model but is a custom built frame that has never been built up... will be sending it back to add braze ons for everything from bottles and pumps to disc brakes and will run a 24 speed touring set up and it will be used for some long rides as well as rides about town.

Fir

I acquired a couple of mixte frames for the purpose of welding one to the back of a me-sized bike to make a tandem for me and the little guy. He's 3&1/2 now and getting enthusiastic about us riding together on our bikes. He needs to learn the coaster brake better though. Then the [mercenary] donor laid more bikes on me and so I have 5 or 6 mixte frames...

He's getting old enough to want to be part of the peddling business and it helps to keep warm. The bicycle industry has not yet developed a lot of high quality solutions to this transition period between swaddling the baby in many layers of fleece inside a waggon and letting him sleep en route - to full on peddling and staying warm in all weathers. There are people in our town who still follow the bizarre practice of enclosing their children in multi-tonne steel and glass high-rolling-resistance-wheel-ed containers to ferry them from place to place endangering and be-smogging the rest of us meanwhile. It can be rather off-putting.

I haven't seen a good quality and affordable tandem come available here in the last few months or so. Pretty rare birds around here. Did Raleigh ever make a tandem?

Fir

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kP1KxPjh4RM

- great movie, by the way! Both joyful and heart-wrenching (to think how much we have given up) I had found that before once, but we all watched it last night during our friday movie intermission. Here is one of my great favourites, perhaps a little off topic as no bikes are directly featured, let alone Englishe Threee Speedes, but is truly a classic every modern cyclist will likely comprehend.

https://www.nfb.ca/film/what_on_earth/

9 min 35 s -Still relevant today as in 1966. We saw it several times in elementary school; I was lucky enough to have a series of teachers who appreciated it :-)

Sixty Fiver

Raleigh was offering the Venture and Companion models for the 2009 model year but believe they have been discontinued... there was a time when tandem riding was very popular and you could have had them equipped with SA hub gearing.

After world war 2 tandem bicycles really fell out of favour and it is only since the 90's that tandems have enjoyed a renaissance and renewed popularity... the Co Motion Periscope is another family friendly tandem that will accommodate smaller children as well as your spouse and friends. As hand built model it comes with a nearly 4k price tag.

Many tandems are really bicycles built for two (there is a difference) and are not designed for serious competitive or touring use... CCM made tandems that were just this in that the seating was very upright and many were fitted out as as coaster bikes or three speeds.

Just found this 1898 Raleigh... wow.

https://www.springersmusic.co.uk/Tandem.htm

Sixty Fiver

And check this out... this is from an 1897 catalogue.

Sixty Fiver

In reading the above advert one realizes that the tandem was the fastest vehicle on earth in 1897... and a single speed to boot.

old's'cool

'
That's pretty cool.
I read somewhere, in the 70's, that there was a class of racing for quad bikes. Supposedly pretty exciting to watch. I've never seen it, so I don't know.

wahoonc

In answer to Fir, there are several options for kid packs on tandems. Burley, and Santana are a couple that come to mind and Precision makes a stoker kit just for allowing kids to ride on a tandem.

Aaron

Sixty Fiver

Aaron... that is the coolest picture.

Yours ?

Fir

Thanks for the photo wahoonc. That is a very kewl setup. I think kids much prefer to be in/on the same vehicle with mumma or papa than sealed off in a separate waggon. Thanks for the springer link 65er :-) https://www.springersmusic.co.uk/Tandem.htm Fastest vehicle on Earth! I liike it :-) I will certainly keep an eye out for one like that...

I would certainly pay £39 for a number 9 path racer in a heartbeat - only 40 lbs? amazing, My Twenty is almost that much.

choteau

Hmm, I recently saw a picture of a Phillips tandem that looked similiar to this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Or...,_MA,_1899.JPG That was a SA 3 speed Tim

wahoonc

Nope...when mine were that small I couldn't afford a tandem, poor deprived children had to ride in a 15 year Bugger behind dad's 25 year old Motobecane.

We do have a tandem at the moment, IIRC it is a 2005? Raleigh Companion. It doesn't see much use because I am seldom home.

Aaron

Fir

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Or...,_MA,_1899.JPG

That is a beaut! A loop-frame tandem, who knew? Great view for the "stoker" :-) Room for skirt and bustle. Front brake might have been a useful option. Grips can't be original? Can't figure out the bracket thing near the bottom of the steering tube.

choteau

I think the "bracket" is so both the riders could steer! So the front rider could ride hands free OR the stoker could share control of the bike.... puts a whole new spin on "back seat driving"

Sixty Fiver

Yep... a good number of vintage tandems offered rear steering and with the loop frame the lady say up front.

Fir

Didn't dawn on me at first that the front bars control the steering too. That might be confusing

I guess to put a little one on there, you could mount a seat someplace partway down the front seattube and little handlebars affixed to the loopy downtube. With such a view they would not require a DVD player. And their C of G would be low for nice stability when you are jumping on and off etc. The front seat tube wouldn't bend with that extra brace there. Wonder what the whole thing weighs. Pretty geometry. Eye catching.

I just recieved a CCM Galaxy with arched seatstays and loop frame - must be mid sixties. They had their own way of putting things together hey? Rear tire says 28 x 1&5/8 x 1&3/8. I think it might make a nice steed for Mrs Fir if it was altered to a 3 spd AW hub and given something in the way of brakes somehow. This might invoke my first lacing project... Hope it doesn't go like my first truing project...

Fir

I did find a Tandem :-) Technically I guess it's a German and Canuck 3 spd because the hub is a Sachs. Tips the scales at 25kg [55lbs]. EEk, was hoping for less... I guess it won't be too barbaric to shorten the rear ST as the frame has been butchered already. Sure funny to steer and your whole cockpit moves sideways.

[whoops, scratch "Tandem" it's a BB42:

"Many tandems are really bicycles built for two (there is a difference) and are not designed for serious competitive or touring use... CCM made tandems that were just this in that the seating was very upright and many were fitted out as as coaster bikes or three speeds." - posted 05-29-10 08:28 PM

Be interesting to compare to a proper tandem one day.]

rhm

Hey, you almost described my Counterpoint Opus II!

But hold on, weren't we talking about English three speeds?

Sixty Fiver

Nice old find... and it is a three speed.

Those CCM wheels are a Canadian 28 which is a 622 / 700c so you can run better wheels and tyres and can even use modern 700c tyres as long as you don't inflate them past 70 psi as the rims are not designed for high pressure.

That BBF2 looks like it will be a lot of fun.

Sixty Fiver

rhm - That is a very cool design... some friends have one of these and ride it all summer long.

Fir

Alas, the tyres claim to be 26x1.75; hopefully Mtn bike tyres will fit. I guess it's a bit too young a vintage for the classic 28". MIG welded frame and not as prettily as one might hope. But at least I have a tandem now.

Mind is racing with thoughts of how to use all that length. Potentially could haul more than an Xtracycle :-) It could take huge pannier baskets, or rows of them, if the rear cranks were easy to swap off and on. Alas they are one-piece [there must be a cure for that]. Will keep an eye for more vintage tandems for sure.

Sixty Fiver

Fir - Do the tyres say 1.75 or 1 3/8... odd for a CCM of this age to have modern 26 inch tyres fitted.