Show us your tandem 😄

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This was a lucky second hand find. It was still 3k and took a bit of soul searching, but worth every penny. The original owner may be along soon. 1st photo is enroute to Switzerland with the 8 ,year old on the back. 2nd photo is Devon CTC with the 5 year old in the back. ...and yes it is titanium!!!!

Bought that (off here?) 4 years back. Mostly gets used for getting about the "village" where we live - as daft as it sounds, it just saves 5-10mins on the school run which can be invaluable if running late. Very satisfying when rolling into school alongside the 4x4 beasts.

Original idea was to do some bike touring with the girl, she'll be 9 this year and finally feel that it could be an option this year - but no idea about what distance / time on bike she'll tolerate. Would like to ride from home but it's 10-15 miles before we hit the nice parts of the coast, so more likely a drive to cover that section and stick to the enjoyable stuff (beaches, fish and chips, ice cream, camping).

Watch this space, if it happens I'll report back.

Edit. Wow @nealc , that's how its done! Nice machine, mine was £600 and there was another for sale shortly afterwards for £300.

Breaking the rules as it’s not QUITE a tandem but this is the best I’ve got…

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We're mostly road tourers these days, though that does include gravel trails like towpaths and old railways. We have this which is 700C 3*9 flat bar, and a 3*10 700C drop bar tandem with the same frame. We also have a 3*8 flat bar tandem with 26" wheels that I really need to sell (It was "replaced" by this flat bar tandem but i've not manage to sell it yet - if anyone wants to try tandeming, I could use the garage space...)

A long teim ago we did previously have a Dawes tandem with Marzocchi Z150 forks that we rode off road - we even featured in the magazine when we did a tandem weekender up at Reeth.

Here's ours, an ebay bargain from a couple of years ago. My wife and I have been riding LEJOG in stages, LE to Edinburgh complete so far - pic is from LE. Blog here:

Here’s our new-to-us 1990 Dawes Super Galaxy on our first day out on it last November. Now that the weather’s on the up again I’m hoping we’ll get it out again soon. The brakes are terrifying so I have some upgrades in progress. It’s going to be at least a couple of years before our eldest (7) is tall enough for it.

We also have a Follow Me Tandem that we use to extend the youngest’s (5) cycling range around town. His sister moved up to a 24” wheel bike last year, which is too big for it. It makes for a proper road train when attached to our bakfiets and we put it on our non-cargo bikes too. It means we can leave the car on the drive, save time, and get the kids free exercise on days when we’d otherwise be stuck in traffic. It’s also particularly useful when we want to get somewhere quickly but can take our time riding back independently on more scenic routes.

This is the tandem version of the WeeHoo

Your 4 year old can pedal in the front seat and just coast whenever they want to, with toddler in the rear non-pedalling seat

This is ours - Raleigh Pioneer - believe they only came in on size fits most size - would say anything up from 4"4' would fit on the back as carried my 4"6' cousin on the back with the seat not fully slammed, but you'd need to be over 5"1 with a suspension post. Front I'd say 6" is the upper limit and 5"4' is the lower limit.

It's an absolute touring beast, great gear range, can carry 60kg of luggage no issue, 200mm discs with XT 2 pots front and rear can stop it on a dime (three to four times in a row, after that the heat fade is scary - had some interesting experiece of this in switchbacks in the mountains finding out it also corners well enough to drag the rear panniers on the ground without loosing grip), even great fun offroad (without luggage) and handles steep as long as your stoker doesn't get scared!

Just after building up in Toulouse airport:

On the Nice sea wall about 45 days into our 3 month trip in 2018, note the added extensions on the rear bars to raise their height a little - we added these around Arles:

We had two Trail-a-Bikes for our two, bought second hand and then given away as we couldn't sell them.... I did a couple of mini tours with the eldest, can't believe this pic is from 11 years ago - how time flies...

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They do a tandem version with a baby seat but not sure if available in the UK.

They are some lovely stories and pictures 😄

I've seen the alp kit to tandem a couple of times. It's a crazy bit of kit.

We are on our 6th 7th and 8th ones now, seems it a bit of an addiction in my household. Sold our kiddy back after the kids ourgrew it and can fit on the others (not that their now that interested). So the days we are down to the Rohloffed 29er/29plus (looks a bit rougher these days), our full sus Ventana and the fatty Ventana.

I have a tandem frame in the garage that I really need to finish building - I took it out with the wife last summer as a single speed where we decided it needed gears and now it's just been sat in the garage taking up space and collecting dust.

We had an Orbit for a few years.
Good fun when we rode it a lot and got in tune with each other but ultimately Mrsstu preferred here own bikes to this contraption.
I can't say I blame her TBH. The few times I went on the rear of it i thought it was ****ing terrifying.🤣

We were once told by a random in the carpark at Afan that It'd be impossible to ride it round the trails there.
He wasn't impressed when Mrsstu heckled him on the first climb as we passed him.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/stu-b/9234663940/in/dateposted/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/stu-b/3338659756/in/dateposted/

@bugpoweredust

Loving the Ventana.
We did look into getting a Nicolai custom full suss rig built for us but ultimately we couldn't justify the price or the time to commit to riding it.

Here's ours. 1997 custom George Longstaff. Recently repainted and well North of 70k touring miles.

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Above is our Ventana El Conquistador de Montañas. It's a relationship accelerator. Wherever your relationship is going, either closer together or further apart, riding a fullsuspension tandem off-road takes you there faster.

Our Dawes Double Edge is mostly now used to get us out on really windy days, the sort of weather that the Mrs hates riding one of her own bikes. She's small and light, so doesn't like being buffeted around. The stability of the tandem is really useful in that sort of situation.

This tandem has been running 650b for quite a few years, despite being designed for 26". Tyres are currently 47mm; 42mm the last time we used it for a longer tour.

If I could change one thing, it would be to add more bottle cages. It's already got a Thudbuster for the stoker, Hope M4 up front and SRAM BB7 on the back, giving me braking choices.

Bringing back some fun memories. 🙂

We rode tandems when we were kids/teens with mum and dad.  They've still got the pair of them.  One was a Motobecane (predecessor to MBK) and the other a short wheelbase thing from the 50s ish.

One of the other local CTC crowd/family friends had a (pre carbon aero nonsense)  TT tandem. 😎

Doubt our family ones have been ridden in 30 years.

Hi I think i brought the tandem from nbt for me and at the time fiancee, it was quickly stripped not because it was needed but its what i like doing, and has then been used for around four rides most fun one was scaring my son down our local trails.

Due to a split and now a house sale if anyone is interested i need to get rid asap and would like it to go to someone who will have some fun on it if not ebay it will be going on soon but prefer to let some one on here have it.

Anyone wants more info let me know.

This is a long time ago now… the tandem is long gone but I hope someone is enjoying it.  It was brilliant and we had some great holidays on it.  I also had a Thorn triplet before the tandem which was awesome…

That photo was taken on the highest point on the Loch Shiel to Strontian road.  Happy memories…

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uYh36DrhvQo

Would do but picture posting seems broken for me - no buttons/visual/text options at all 😕

Same for me!

I had no idea that a kiddy back tandem was a thing - where do you look for them second hand for reasonable money? I don’t think the wife would let me spend £££ but I bet my daughter would love it

Our first tandem was a Raleigh Pioneer. It was a lovely bike that my wife and I had many a good day on. Still kind of miss it if I'm honest.

My wife spotted the tandem of her dreams for sale on Ebay, so we found a buyer for our old one (a couple of guys from Glasgow), and bought this 1974/75 Pashley Tourmaster. My wife loves this bike, I loathe it. The bike looks very pretty, but it's whole reason for being...all it wants to do....is turn left. I've checked the alignment of the frame, I've checked all the tubes for cracks. I've serviced the hubs and headset, yet I cannot find any mechanical reason for it's desire to turn left. I strongly suspect that Kerry and I are simply to heavy for the spindly little tubes the frame is made from. Anyway, it now hangs from pegs on the wall of my garage as a rather lovely display piece.

We now have a Dawes Galaxy tandem and this is a picture from the one wee spin we had on it four years ago before the Covid lockdown, then my cancer diagnosis and treatment....then my lung disease diagnosis, ongoing investigation, and huge fitness issues. With all that going on, the poor thing has been sitting at the back of the garage gathering dust these past four years. However, this summer is going to be different. I'm 2 1/2 years in full remission and the docs are starting to become more convinced that although my lungs are partially trashed, they don't look like they're getting any worse. Added to that, Mrs Beagleboy is on a fitness drive while I'm getting more used to where my new limits are and I can see a whole new raft of adventures with ice cream and lashings of ginger beer on the horizon!

Beagleboy xx

This was my nursery-hauler a decade or so ago:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxtXaAEo42OmdFRCaFZqSTdVMVk/view?usp=drive_link&resourcekey=0-gCVmPiLWyfAhkH_4QBTaYQ

Replaced with a couple of Burley Piccolo trailer-bikes when they were old enough to sit up and pedal.

I had no idea that a kiddy back tandem was a thing – where do you look for them second hand for reasonable money? I don’t think the wife would let me spend £££ but I bet my daughter would love it

Keep an eye on ebay, try the classifieds on the tandem club website or the tandem club facebook page. Or, buy a regular tandem and fit kiddy cranks

As mentioned above Burley Piccolo are pretty much the best option, without actually being a tandem.

I had no idea that a kiddy back tandem was a thing – where do you look for them second hand for reasonable money?

We got ours from eBay. Cost- less than a mate spent on a pair of nice wheels. I think I over paid looking at eBay sold prices, but this one looked great.

It's a thorn one and came with double drilled cranks.

The 4 year old can reach the pedals, it looked unlikely he would be tall enough when I parked his bike next to it, but climbed on and off we went.

I've done mountain bike rides on a tandem and it's fun, provide your stoker can chill out.

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I own this 1960s Witcombe. We trundle round the city on it in summer and it brings so much joy everywhere. Except hills - 5 speed and massive cogs means it takes real work to get it to go uphill, then the leather brake blocks and chrome rims means it won't stop once you're up there. It also folds a set of 27" wheels once every five rides.

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It's even done wedding car duty a few times.

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@gowerboy did you sell that on here? From or to Surrey? See my reply, 2nd post...

Another CTC member (and previous organizer of CTC mountain bike holidays) Paul Rogers and wife Maxine has an amazing E-tandem.

https://configurator.hasebikes.com/en/bike/pino-steps

Here's 'ours' (I say ours, but we're just the current keepers of the 'dodgy tandem').  Gets used for local beer festivals, and the club fancy dress rides - as seen here at Christmas.

It's quite a head turner when we're dressed as a zombie banana and zombie gorilla for Halloween!