Lovely Tony Oliver tandem for not-that-much

[Rod_Saetan]

Rare Tony Oliver Fillet Brazed Reynolds 531 Touring Tandem 26” Suntour Shimano | eBay

Fillet brazed—using Reynolds 531 Tandem tube set. Fantastic, wide tandem fork crown. Rear vertical dropouts. Suntour downtube levers. Tony Oliver Touring/Expedition Tandem. Rear Shimano Deore SLR U-Brake.

www.ebay.co.uk

 

[nastro62]

Rare Tony Oliver Fillet Brazed Reynolds 531 Touring Tandem 26” Suntour Shimano | eBay

Fillet brazed—using Reynolds 531 Tandem tube set. Fantastic, wide tandem fork crown. Rear vertical dropouts. Suntour downtube levers. Tony Oliver Touring/Expedition Tandem. Rear Shimano Deore SLR U-Brake.

www.ebay.co.uk

I bought it LOL. For £250, couldn't resist the allure of a fillet brazed tandem in a mechanically acceptable state from such a good builder. The way the tubes flow into one another is an absolute dream. I don't want to spend big money on a restoration, so will be doing the paint myself. There's still decent original enamel on it & no rust, just nasty areas that have been hand painted in a paint that doesn't match. It's not needed much work to get to a ridable state, although I've yet to get the front hub brake connected up. It seems rare to have the drag brake on the front, but I will be finding a way to control it from the captain's handlebars. Previously it was connected to a thumbshifter, but I'll be using a secondary lever located below the main cantilever front brake lever. I've sourced a suitable secondary lever as I didn't want to go for a dual cable lever (front is canti, rear is U brake so would be difficult to balance). I've bought the proper cable of brake rather than gear thickness with the proper fittings to go on the reaction arm & actuator arm. The most amusing discovery so far when checking out the tandem & going over each component was the track nuts on the front Sachs drum brake hub. Someone had tried to use 3/8" track nuts (standard rear solid axle ?) , but they would have been too sloppy, so they squashed them oval somehow !!! I went to a decent bike shop (Woodsons in Stockport) and we found that it should have been 10MM nuts. I understand that is the standard for proper front track hubs, rather than standard solid axle fronts.
The wheels don't match as there is an Araya front rim & Weinmann concave rear rim. I didn't like the 559 MTB chunky tyres, so have put on some heavy duty road style tyres. For the record, here are the Ebay listing photos for when the listing becomes inaccessible.

 

[nastro62]

The resto of the photos.

 

[DrJo]

I wondered where this went, I really wanted to bag it but it was too far from home. What a beautiful machine at an incredible price. Props due, sweet ride.

 

[nastro62]

I'm Stockport, so Sheffield wasn't too far for me. Yaris Verso is a good car for transporting stuff. As Jeremy Clarkson said "It looks like an ugly snake that's swallowed a wardrobe". That's good enough for me to like it even more.