Sam Lingo in Texas wrote:
>Pics of the E F Russ tandem I got from Mick Butler at:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/
Sam,
Thanks for the photos. Those are certainly some relaxed angles! It's really interesting to see the variety of approaches to constructing tandems (I'm thinking '30s through '60s, I suppose, especially). The design parameters make elegant solutions rather relative, if you see what I mean, as compared with the solo lightweights we are more commonly speaking of here.
I've got drop bars on my '70s Gitane, as you have here on the Russ--but I'm not sure how committed I am to them. Sure, I love the look of randonneur bend drop bars, swear by them in general, but with a shortish top tube up front for the captain, my usual preferences seem to go out the window. I may go to something like the Belleri bars I have now in the stoker spot--a flattish touring bend, semi-moustache style, with just a slight drop. When I see angles as relaxed as those on your Russ, I start to think of bars that will put my arms out and up, so as to have plenty of leverage, especially in light of the upper-body workout a tandem gives over the course of a few miles. As usual though, everyones mileage will vary!
I'm pretty new to tandems, but having fun with mine--a blue 650B-wheeled thing that BVVW guys (the Pergolizzi associates) in the NYC area may remember I rode to my first meeting (in the rain) about two years ago--at which time it had the stock, extremely narrow steel drop bars in front. Has alloy now, but retains the guidonette brake levers. The weather warmed up briefly once last month and I rode it solo over the Williamsburg bridge, picked up my girlfriend in Long Island City (Queens), tooled around the Brooklyn waterfront, and back to Manhattan over the 59th Street Bridge (of "Feelin' Groovy" fame). I'm finding you really appreciate low gearing and wide handlebars when you're steering a tandem...or is it just my lack of muscle mass?
Regardless, I recommend trying a tandem to anyone who is curious, or isn't already sick of the one that is gathering dust at their place--and who has an obliging, good-sport friend or helpmeet who is game. I may not get the tandem out more than once or twice a month, but the fun has already amortized the cost. The un-funny funny part is getting it down the stairs of a third-floor walk-up! I admit I cracked the taillight lens once while negotiating one of the stairwells hairpin turns. The bike has to go up on end, but not get bound up in the ceiling.
Sam, nice bike, and with all that dark hardware, I see you are ready for "the blitz", and wartime blackouts. Perhaps you need to narrow the focus of that headlamp by painting the lens down to a mere slit! Beware the doodlebug, however, as it has no eyes....
Yours in lightweight machinery that is "heavy" in many senses,
Tom Ward New York City
P.S. What was Mick's best estimate of the year of construction on the Russ (or that of others)--or is it known? If this was a thread I have joined it late--may have missed something.