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. Early 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 finally managed to get down to Fife to George and Margaret Berwick to pick it up 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. George had said it is built by them 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 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 this afternoon 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 am sure if I can find some crank shorteners for his pedals he will be fine. My cockpit is usable and fits as is so that will come in time. Still need to give it a good clean and tidy up, but getting there on our first afternoon.
Really looking forward to the next step in Calebs and mine two wheel adventures.
Jamie
No comments:
Post a Comment