How about a Tandem!?!

[Mark B]

Last night, my daughter and I went out on our road tandem (DF tandem). It's a high end bike and I used to think it was pretty comfortable.

First off, I was all over the road. I've become so used to the upper body involvement of the Cruzbike that I had difficulty keeping my upper body out of it on the tandem. Secondly, after about five miles, my butt started complaining. LOUDLY! By the end of the ride, my daughter and I were teasing each other about how much more comfortable our Cruzbike seats would be just then.

So I get to thinking.... Tom Traylor made a back to back FWD MBB tandem.... I know John has kicked it around a little. Is there a tandem in at least the napkin drawing design stage? That would be so cool!

Mark

 

[JonB]

Mark B wrote: Last night, my daughter and I went out on our road tandem (DF tandem). It's a high end bike and I used to think it was pretty comfortable.

First off, I was all over the road. I've become so used to the upper body involvement of the Cruzbike that I had difficulty keeping my upper body out of it on the tandem. Secondly, after about five miles, my butt started complaining. LOUDLY! By the end of the ride, my daughter and I were teasing each other about how much more comfortable our Cruzbike seats would be just then.

So I get to thinking.... Tom Traylor made a back to back FWD MBB tandem.... I know John has kicked it around a little. Is there a tandem in at least the napkin drawing design stage? That would be so cool!

It does not have to be back 2 back.

 

[Mark B]

JonB wrote:
It does not have to be back 2 back.

No, of course it doesn't. Bill Patterson built one with a traditional seating arrangement with a lower bottom bracket for the stoker and I believe 20" wheels.

Mark

 

[currystomper]

These guys nearly got it half right!!

http://hasebikes.com/150-1-tandem-pino-tour.html

 

[Doug Burton]

The Bill Patterson design would work well, with 20 inch wheels it wouldn't be the monster my R82 Vision is (over 9' long).

I've looked at converting a standard tandem using a conversion kit and two seats, with the stoker driving through the captain's old bottom bracket, but the tandem frames I've looked at won't accommodate beyond a child's x-seam (rear section of the frame is too short.)

John and I have talked about a conventional recumbent tandem but using MBB/FWD, but don't think we have enough latent demand to recover the design and tooling cost.

Very open to design ideas/wants/comments, however. And especially if you find an existing frame that can be tandemized with a conversion kit.

Best,

Doug

 

[John Tolhurst]

To build a bike such as Professor Patterson's WIMMS (With My Main Squeeze) you would need:

1) sofrider V1 or freeride V1. If a sofrider, the fork neck would have to be shortened
2) pair of rear 406 wheels with disk rotors
3) disk brake adapter to allow calliper on rear wheel
4) freerider bars set for the front rider
5) longer slider to extend the x-seam range of the front rider

then you would need
6) bent seat post and crank forward seat for rear rider
7) an L shape fabricated to hold the front recumbent style cruzbike seat, probably from 28.6 x 1.6 chromo so it can take a stem for the stokers bars, supported as a cap on the fork crown and by a short fork to the front fork v-brake bosses.
8) big semi circular stoker's bars, positioned to offset the captain's stern and pointing up and forward so the captain kind of of sits between them.

8) components

The front rider might use a seat made of two cruzbike seat pans, or a second crank forward seat, it would depend on the ergonomics found.

I think that might work, or I might have overlooked something.

 

[Doc Reyman]

currystomper wrote: These guys nearly got it half right!!

http://hasebikes.com/150-1-tandem-pino-tour.html

Additional mixed tandems of the same design, but not MBB-FWD

http://www.bilenky.com/viewpoint_main_page.html

http://home.earthlink.net/~veloise/cpoint.htm

http://home.earthlink.net/~veloise/CPOINT2.HTM

Are there any links to Patterson's tandem?

Larry

P.S. CBSV-091 has 45 miles in 3 rides since March 1st, averaging near 16mph, max speed 31 mph and one "slide out" wreck---We're certainly not very far from the ground when we fall! Cornering is not sure or fast here in the beginning.

 

[Mark B]

Here's a homebuilt:

Mark

 

[Mark B]

Bump.

Rode the road tandem again this past Saturday with SWMBO. We had fun, but both of us had pretty bruised butts by the time it was over. My youngest daughter asked to go back out Saturday evening and who can refuse your kids? I knew I was in trouble as soon as my butt hit the seat. Sure, it numbed up ok after a few minutes, but later that evening, it was horrible.

SWMBO thought it would be a good idea to go back out last night (Tuesday) for a tandem spin. I had changed saddles out to my old tried and true Brooks saddle that had been oiled up and sealed in a Ziplock for the last few years. Initially, the Brooks was much better as it is broken in to my butt. However, the damage done by the previous saddle was not completely healed. We cut our ride short and as I was hanging the brute back up, SWMBO said, "Maybe we should look at a recumbent."

Yes, maybe we should. I was elated at the suggestion, but there really aren't any recumbent tandems that knock my socks off. RANS has the only two that are worth considering, IMHO and I've never ridden a RANS I felt real good on. The other issue is my lacking $7000 to lay out for a bike I may or may not like. Dana has a Greenspeed trike tandem at Bent UP, but I don't even want to try it. I bet SWMBO would like it; I have no doubt about that. I just cannot imagine trying to lug that beast around.

Maybe I'll have to go the Atomic Zombie route.

Mark

 

[Doug Burton]

Hi Mark,

I, too, would love an MBB/FWD tandem. The vision I have is just too darn long to be practical, though it's probably one of the better-riding recumbent tandems ever built. Cost me $3300 bucks used by the time I had it shipped from San Francisco (I was determined to get my son into riding, and was willing to pay what I thought of as a small investment for the possibility of having a riding buddy.)

I've even given passing thought to cutting off the boom and fitting it with a conversion kit, but even I can't get past the feeling of sacrilege on that one!

I think a Barcroft Columbia with no front boom would be a perfect CruzTandem.

We've also looked at building a Bill Patterson tandem, but it's a bit back on the project list right now. It would use a SRV1 frame, a bent seatpost to put the captain in a crank-forward position, and the stoker would basically sit on the handlebars like we did with our Schwinn Stingrays when we were kids. The front end dynamics are a little quirky, but nothing that can't be engineered out. And the captain and stoker can actually carry on a conversation...

When I get on the vision these days, I have the same wobbles as you do - really miss that upper body input! Wonder how I ever got along before Cruzbikes...

Best,

Doug

 

[Mark B]

Doug,

I could live with a Vision tandem, but I would probably do away with the IPS system. That just seems wrong. The whole point of tandeming is getting in sync with your partner.

I had an opportunity to buy a Vision rolling frameset on e-bay a number of years ago. It had been freshly powder coated and was real nice. I had all the necessary parts to put her together and was actually the high bidder, but it was still below the minimum. I pleaded with the woman to sell the bike to me, promising to take real good care of it. She thought they could get more and by the time she wrote me back asking if I was still interested, I had moved on and done something else. I sorta wish I had held out and bought it, but like you said, those bikes are just waaaaaay long. But, I think what I moved onto was Cruzbikes….

I’ve given thought to selling off my Santana, throwing a few bucks with it and search for a used Screamer. I researched what tandems are selling for now and it’s a little disheartening; a pretty soft market. That’s not likely to happen, I guess, but you never know. If I can find the right person looking for a nice road tandem, I could be in like Flynn.

I have a friend at work that is a welder. I may download the Atomic Zombie plans and homebrew a recumbent tandem, if I can bribe him with sufficient amounts of beer. I’ve gotten so used to my short chain, I just can’t get my mind around all that stupid chain for a RWD recumbent. :|

Mark

 

[John Tolhurst]

A cruzbike tandem is the ultimate IPS (independent pedaling system). I say if you are both puffing up the same hill, thats in sync enough for me.

 

[Mark B]

John Tolhurst wrote: A cruzbike tandem is the ultimate IPS (independent pedaling system). I say if you are both puffing up the same hill, thats in sync enough for me.

True, as long as you can be assured that the stoker is stoking and not just loafing. I guess that's where a really loud freewheel would come in handy on the back. :twisted:

Mark

 

[wpatters]

Here is a tandem that one of my students built several years ago. I think it would be a quick job with a Cruzbike front end. You would just have to modify a handlebar to include a seat for you sweety.

Bill

 

[JonB]

wpatters wrote: Here is a tandem that one of my students built several years ago. I think it would be a quick job with a Cruzbike front end. You would just have to modify a handlebar to include a seat for you sweety.

I've seen something like that for kids in Velo Vision.

 

[RogerSarrasin]

Compact Tandem with Cruzbike

Hi, I just had a deal for a tandem last week. I'm used to Cruzbikes and had the idea to fix a half back bike frame to the V2/k. The front rider is the normal Cruzbike posture but the back rider is something like half recumbent rider (ex: olders LWB bents). The back rider crankset would be placed under the front driver seat as available holes permits on the V2/k. With a few calculation it seems it would be a compact (and confortable) tandem. Plenty of technical challenges here. Anyone seen this kind of tandem somewhere before ?

 

[ccf]

I'm thinking about converting our Sofrider into a tandem, and found this old thread. What does the Tribe think about replacing the aft end of the Sofrider with the aft end of a Rans Stratus (from the bottom bracket of the Stratus back)?

 

[ccf]

Looking into this some more, I think it would be much simpler to use the Sofrider to convert a standard tandem. I found this by @Charles.Plager on another forum:

https://www.bikeforums.net/folding-bikes/1096847-2wd-folding-recumbent-tandem.html

It appears to be a Fito FZ2 7-Speed Folding tandem. Those tandems aren't easy to find today, but Vintage Schwinn Twinns like the ones here are still readily available on Craigslist:

https://bikehistory.org/bikes/twinn/

Could a Vintage Schwinn Twinn be converted like Charles converted the Fito FZ2?

 

[Gromit]

Here's Charles Plager's Cruzbike forum thread about his Cruzbike Tandem.
https://forum.cruzbike.com/threads/oops-i-did-it-again-introducing-the-folding-cruzitandem.11516/

Charles had bought some Cruzbike conversion kits before they were all sold out rather than starting with a Sofrider.

 

[Charles.Plager]

Looking into this some more, I think it would be much simpler to use the Sofrider to convert a standard tandem. I found this by @Charles.Plager on another forum:

https://www.bikeforums.net/folding-bikes/1096847-2wd-folding-recumbent-tandem.html

It appears to be a Fito FZ2 7-Speed Folding tandem. Those tandems aren't easy to find today, but Vintage Schwinn Twinns like the ones here are still readily available on Craigslist:

https://bikehistory.org/bikes/twinn/

Could a Vintage Schwinn Twinn be converted like Charles converted the Fito FZ2?

Yes, I think it could be done, but might not be perfect. Getting something that's a little less steep (and not too high) might work better.

Bike Friday would be the ultimate:

Something like the
Afar 20" 24 Speed Dual Derailleur System Drive Family Foldable Tandem Bicycle
would work well, too: