Kevin,
I am most impressed or should that be distressed, by the industrial set up that you had down at Thorns..Wow that really represents some investment ; I had always thought that you were brought up in the length of string and rack-of-the-eye school of frame-building.
Never having used industrial jigs for building I find it very difficult to understand how you managed to bronze-weld up both sides of the joints on the frame tubes, without taking the frame out of the jig and brazing it free, thereby heating up all joints twice....Or am I missing something ?
I haven't built many tandems frames from scratch. so have tended to build them like solos ie braze up a main triangle and then file up and polish the welds..then add the next triangle and file and polish...but always with a file and emery strops...no power tools at all.
I think that tandem-riding is on the increase in the Uk..possibly thanks to the new types of MTB tandems currently available..and at the cost of the drop in popularity of traditional tandems - think Jack Taylor etc etc. One shop midway up the road from Woodrups to my place in Settle, Johns Cycles in Ilkley, run by Jon Hargreaves, has been selling tandems, recently at the rate of over twenty a month.
I noticed also, in the Loire valley area of France this summer, that there were noticeably more tandems on the road than in previous years.This trend could be similar to the one that convinced so many French couples to take up the sport all those decades ago...or possibly its just that the thought of yet another package holiday and hours of drinking cocktails , in the sun, poolside with hundreds of other 'holiday-makers' is starting to lose its appeal
The last tandem frame that I built was a custom one for a couple of twins in Lowestoft Wheelers - their order was typical of many I received for time-trials frames - 'We want something stiff..and fast..Oh by the way it has to be a double 21"..before we forget and drive back home"
Shots of the finished frame can be seen at:
http://www.flickr.com/
I doubt whether this frame will ever end up touring the lanes around the vineyards of the Loire..oe even the Yorkshire Dales.
Norris Lockley
Settle UK