This Lovely Tandem I had bought back at the end of February/start of March.
It is a Flying Scot tandem Continental model. This is a later one built by M Steel in Newcastle, very much in the Dave Yates style. Mid eighties I think judging by the sizing etc.
This was bought to take up the mantle of touring with Caleb as he is now getting too big for the Big Dummy Cargo bike. Like he has been saying since he was three that we needed a tandem so he can help me on the hills, this I finally agreed with after that last Orkney trip
I purchased this from Scottish tandem/Audax legend George Berwick who is getting on now and into his 80's. This didn't leave him short of a ride as he and his wife have a Dave Yates tandem, each, Jammie Dodger models as well as recumbents, tandem and solo and others.
I finally managed to get down to Fife to George and Margarets to pick it up, at the start of July when the first lockdown eased, along with a huge assortment of seats, seatposts, handlebars, brakes etc. I had a great few hours in their company sitting in their lovely garden talking bikes, drinking tea and Margaret showing me bits from their journals with all the various trips the tandem had done over the years, as well as a couple of test rides and fitting. George had said it is built by Dave Yates at M Steel the same as his two Dave Yates tandems, the jammy dodgers. He and Margaret said that this had done the least miles of the three and in their words ' had hardly done much at all' as her journals had the mileage for these three was around twenty eight thousand from memory. This could also be down to the fact that being slightly higher on the front, George was stoker with Margaret on the front. despite this I looked through many many pages and photos of this tandem touring Portugal, Spain, multiple French trips, the pyrenees as well as Ireland. One of the photos he sent me originally showed Margaret astride it atop of Mont Ventoux. I just hope we can give it as adventurous a home as it has had previously.
Had a bit of time just after picking it up to try and make a start on sorting what sort of modifications to make for Caleb to ride on the back of the tandem. Will experiment with bars and stoker stems etc but for now just transferred his bars from the Cargo bike so he felt comfortable. I was thinking I may need to fit kiddie cranks but ended up fitting some crank shorteners for his pedals and these will be fine. My cockpit is usable and fits as is so that will get changed in time. Still need to give it a good clean and tidy up, but getting there for now. The cockpit actually has a couple of mismatched levers with an STI lever on the left and a non aero lever on right. This turns out that the gear blade of the aero lever operated the second rim brake on the back. This had been disconnected, for my benefit I think
Due to the ongoing covid restrictions on travel etc we have been riding locally only, no big tours yet, just day runs etc. We have got it ticking over and will get a few more rides out of it this holiday before winter comes fully and then I will strip it down completely.
One problem we found with the crank shorteners fitted was that the bolt that holds the arm onto the crank arm through the old pedal hole is almost like a large chainring bolt and was just catching the front chain. I tried shorter bottom bracket on the front to pull the chain line over slightly but hardly made a difference. I ended up sliding the complete eccentric bottom bracket over by about 6 mm to make it work. It is hopefully temporary and will get sorted over the winter. It works fine but just there must be a better way. I also have a Phil Woods eccentric bottom bracket shell coming to replace the Hadon one that is getting a bit rough on the threads.
Today I have been changing over the brake levers to a matching pair of aero 600s and cleaning up the bar tape as needed to fit a new gear cable anyway and the mismatched pair have been really annoying me, despite working fine. I have the rest of the week off for the school holidays so hopefully the rain will ease and we will be back out.
Once the pedals were adjusted on the shorteners Caleb took to tandem riding like a natural, we never have any problems and he absolutely loves it, he loves the fact he is contributing rather than just sitting on the back.
Really looking forward to the next step in Calebs and mine two wheel adventures, and judging by the rides so far, things are looking pretty good.
Just thought it was about time I put this into the readers rides as it is definitely part of the stable now and fits right in with the others Scots.
Jamie
A couple from when we first got it. Rear drop bars changed for Calebs bars from the Big Dummy.
IMG_3393 by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
IMG_3410 by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
IMG_3397 by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
IMG_3413 by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
IMG_3412 by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
IMG_3415 by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
IMG_3422 (1) by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
IMG_3421 (1) by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
IMG_3422 (1) by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
It is a Flying Scot tandem Continental model. This is a later one built by M Steel in Newcastle, very much in the Dave Yates style. Mid eighties I think judging by the sizing etc.
This was bought to take up the mantle of touring with Caleb as he is now getting too big for the Big Dummy Cargo bike. Like he has been saying since he was three that we needed a tandem so he can help me on the hills, this I finally agreed with after that last Orkney trip
I purchased this from Scottish tandem/Audax legend George Berwick who is getting on now and into his 80's. This didn't leave him short of a ride as he and his wife have a Dave Yates tandem, each, Jammie Dodger models as well as recumbents, tandem and solo and others.
I finally managed to get down to Fife to George and Margarets to pick it up, at the start of July when the first lockdown eased, along with a huge assortment of seats, seatposts, handlebars, brakes etc. I had a great few hours in their company sitting in their lovely garden talking bikes, drinking tea and Margaret showing me bits from their journals with all the various trips the tandem had done over the years, as well as a couple of test rides and fitting. George had said it is built by Dave Yates at M Steel the same as his two Dave Yates tandems, the jammy dodgers. He and Margaret said that this had done the least miles of the three and in their words ' had hardly done much at all' as her journals had the mileage for these three was around twenty eight thousand from memory. This could also be down to the fact that being slightly higher on the front, George was stoker with Margaret on the front. despite this I looked through many many pages and photos of this tandem touring Portugal, Spain, multiple French trips, the pyrenees as well as Ireland. One of the photos he sent me originally showed Margaret astride it atop of Mont Ventoux. I just hope we can give it as adventurous a home as it has had previously.
Had a bit of time just after picking it up to try and make a start on sorting what sort of modifications to make for Caleb to ride on the back of the tandem. Will experiment with bars and stoker stems etc but for now just transferred his bars from the Cargo bike so he felt comfortable. I was thinking I may need to fit kiddie cranks but ended up fitting some crank shorteners for his pedals and these will be fine. My cockpit is usable and fits as is so that will get changed in time. Still need to give it a good clean and tidy up, but getting there for now. The cockpit actually has a couple of mismatched levers with an STI lever on the left and a non aero lever on right. This turns out that the gear blade of the aero lever operated the second rim brake on the back. This had been disconnected, for my benefit I think
Due to the ongoing covid restrictions on travel etc we have been riding locally only, no big tours yet, just day runs etc. We have got it ticking over and will get a few more rides out of it this holiday before winter comes fully and then I will strip it down completely.
One problem we found with the crank shorteners fitted was that the bolt that holds the arm onto the crank arm through the old pedal hole is almost like a large chainring bolt and was just catching the front chain. I tried shorter bottom bracket on the front to pull the chain line over slightly but hardly made a difference. I ended up sliding the complete eccentric bottom bracket over by about 6 mm to make it work. It is hopefully temporary and will get sorted over the winter. It works fine but just there must be a better way. I also have a Phil Woods eccentric bottom bracket shell coming to replace the Hadon one that is getting a bit rough on the threads.
Today I have been changing over the brake levers to a matching pair of aero 600s and cleaning up the bar tape as needed to fit a new gear cable anyway and the mismatched pair have been really annoying me, despite working fine. I have the rest of the week off for the school holidays so hopefully the rain will ease and we will be back out.
Once the pedals were adjusted on the shorteners Caleb took to tandem riding like a natural, we never have any problems and he absolutely loves it, he loves the fact he is contributing rather than just sitting on the back.
Really looking forward to the next step in Calebs and mine two wheel adventures, and judging by the rides so far, things are looking pretty good.
Just thought it was about time I put this into the readers rides as it is definitely part of the stable now and fits right in with the others Scots.
Jamie
A couple from when we first got it. Rear drop bars changed for Calebs bars from the Big Dummy.
IMG_3393 by Jamie Dyer, on FlickrIMG_3410 by Jamie Dyer, on FlickrIMG_3397 by Jamie Dyer, on FlickrIMG_3413 by Jamie Dyer, on FlickrIMG_3412 by Jamie Dyer, on FlickrIMG_3415 by Jamie Dyer, on FlickrIMG_3422 (1) by Jamie Dyer, on FlickrIMG_3421 (1) by Jamie Dyer, on FlickrIMG_3422 (1) by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
Really pleased he was so happy and seems like a good successor to our Big Dummy cargo bike for our further adventures.
