All:
I poked around at both bikes and determined the following.
The lower priced blue tandem: - Speced with 27" Wolber M58 rims, eyletted and drilled for 48 spokes and a Presta valve hole. - Suntour 6speed 4 dog freewheel (this leads me to believe it is not French , but british threaded). - OS Tandem headset. - Reach from the seatpost to the handlebars is 19" (sorry- I can't find the metric tape measure...)
The More Vintage Grey tandem: - Outfitted with 700c Weinman concave rear and Wolber M85 front rim, eyletted and drilled for 48 spokes and a Presta valve hole. - Atom 6 speed freewheel (the hub is the same on both bikes, but cannot confirm the freewheel threading without taking off the wheel. If there is sufficient interest, I will determine the threading convention. - OS tandem headset. - Reach from the seatpost to the handlebars is 19 1/2" (sorry- I can't find the metric tape measure...) - Honjo 43mm fluted and polished fenders.
Any more questions? The Grey tandem is especially a time capsule- pre index , pre oversize steel.
Tom martin Annapolis MD USA
On Wed, Aug 6, 2008 at 8:26 AM, Harvey Sachs <hmsachs@verizon.net> wrote:
> Tom Martin posted about some NOS tandems for sale, which is pretty neat.
I
> haven't seen these, and appreciate that he posted the stand-over heights,
> since they can be very important for tandem sizing. These bikes are much
> younger than the Mel Pinto tandem my buddy bought, and may be quite
> different and much better engineered. The one my buddy bought, a tremendo
us
> bargain, turned out to have unusually high bottom brackets. I assume that
> the hub brake on these is the ubiquitous Atom used on almost all French
> tandems, and would offer a couple of notes about it. (1) It may be threa
ded
> for French FW. (2) It is likely to be drilled for over-sized spokes (12 o
r
> 13 ga?), and lots of folks popped lots of spokes with these hubs. (3) The
> hubs also had the bearings pretty far inboard, and many teams had difficu
lty
> avoiding bent axles. Or, these hubs promoted a lot of Phil Wood hub sales
...
>
> Other than that, some of the tandems of the era used unusual headset size
s,
> which should not be an issue for the first decade or so with a NOS bike.
> Also, the fashion of the era tended to favor much shorter stoker (rear
> rider) front-to-back distances than is customary now. Indeed, I would exp
ect
> that many riders who fit the back seat as positioned could not ride the
> drops, because their torsos would first hit the back of the front rider.
We,
> and many others, wound up using roadster bars in back of such tandems. (
I
> think the first Cannondale tandem, in 1988, was the first "production"
> tandem in which stokers could sit as they would on a single).
>
> But, what time capsules!
>
> thanks
> harvey sachs
> mcLean virginia
> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
> Hello All:
>
> Shameless plug for a pair of Very on topic, NOS, straight out of the box,
> Mel Pinto tandems made by Follis.
> The 56x50cm tandem is priced at $2450. Speced in the french tradition wit
h
> Simplex Super LJ dérailleurs, StronglightCranks, drum brake, all fillet
> brazed Reynolds 531, double plate chromed fork crown, full braze-ons, etc
.
> More info is here:
> http://velo-orange.com/
>
> The 54x59cm Tandem is a little less at $1800. It has a Suntour drive trai
n,
> TA Tevano Cranks, drum brake, all fillet brazed Reynolds 531, double plat
e
> fork crown, full braze-ons for racks, fenders, etc.
> Additional Info:
> http://velo-orange.com/
>
> if you have additional questions, I'll be glad to answer them.
>
> And apologies in advance if you are offended by this posting.
>
> Best,
>
> Tom Martin
> Annapolis MD USA
>
--
Tom Martin
General Manager
VO Imports
1817 George ave
Annapolis MD 21401
phone: 443-949-8115
email: tom@voimports.com