Need to sell my Mel Pinto Special tandem. Capable French-made touring tandem. Low miles. Excellent condition original blue paint and decals. --Fillet brazed in France by Follis in c.1982. Low trail design. Touring braze-ons. Cantilevers plus rear hub brake. 40/48 spoke wheels. --Direct lateral frame with large ovalized boom tube. The Mel Pinto/Follis was influenced by the early direct lateral Santanas and has little in common in design with the famously over-flexy French tandems of the period. --Beefy double-plate bi-plane fork crown with fender attachment in front and rear of crown. Double eyelets on the fork. Low-rider rack mounts on side of fork. Nicely radiused rake with the curve low on the fork blades. Over-sized steerer tube with French headset that takes a 1" quill stem. --Rear rack braze-ons and rear double eyelets. Braze-ons for four water bottles. Multiple braze-ons for cable stops and hub brake cable runs and braze-on hub brake. $600 plus actual shipping.
Sized for a medium/large rider on front and small rider on the back. Top tubes slope slightly in a straight line. Front seat tube is 53cm center-to-center or 56cm center-to-top of collar and a 57cm top tube. Because of the way tandem bbs are oriented, this provides a midd-tt of standover height of 31.5"/80cm and is suitable for medium to large riders up front. At 5'11" this frame fits me comfortably with its 57cm top tube and I rode it with a 77cm seat height center of bb to top of seat surface. I'm most comfortable with a handlebar lower than the seat, and if a rider my height wanted bars level with the saddle he/she'd have to use a stem that raises the bar higher. A shorter rider would more easily have bars even with saddle height. Stoker seat tube is 47cm c-c with a standover height of 29.5"/75cm. Stoker top tube length is 60cm. This is longer than the many older tandems but not as long as a comtemporary Comotion stoker top tube in a tandem this size. Comes with two stoker stems. One is a Santana forged aluminum stoker stem in silver ano that gives a traditional stoker bar position. The other is a more adjustable stoker stem that allows you to use a regular quill stem to put the bar at any height you want--a long extension quill stem can give quite a high bar position. Wheelbase is about 68 inches. Wheel set is a very nice Wolber SuperChampion rims in 27." Front hub: Malliard tandem hub 40 spoke. Rear hub: Atom hub brake 48 spoke with freeewheel. Rear spacing between 140mm and 145mm. Continental Top Touring tires. Wheels true and clean. This particular Atom hub brake offers good stopping power. 14-32 tandem freewheel from Sheldon Brown's stock with exactly 100 miles on it. SunTour retrofriction bar end shifters. French Atax seatpost. Lyotard 36R pedals with Christophe toe clips. Other components are a mixed lot mostly off-topic. Sold without saddles.
Mitch Harris
Little Rock Canyon, Utah USA