bulgie
Dirt Disciple
I've always been "the tandem guy" in all the shops I worked at, except Santana I suppose because tandems were all we made, so we all were the tandem guy. I have built hundreds of tandem frames.
My 1988 Davidson is still in use. It has never had any brakes other than rim brakes, and we never wished for more. The brakes on it are uncommonly strong though, mini-rollercams from WTB. As the name implies it's like a WTB rollercam (loads better than the Suntour version), only scaled down for skinny-tire road bikes, not MTBs. They're rim-crushers.
We've been over 60 mph at least twice. Both times with perfect visibility and long straightaway, no cars or intersections. I did wonder what a tire blowout at that speed would be like. We don't do that anymore, we're not nearly as immortal as we used to be.
In the Burley Duet Classic, a 4-day 5-stage race, we were dropped by the top few teams on the first climb of the big road stage, but then caught them on the downhill by crazy riding. We were rounding a corner when we caught one of the teams that had dropped us, couldn't see around the corner so I started to slow to wait until after the corner to pass them. Laurie yelled "no, pass them NOW!" (She's very competitive!) Then we got dropped on the next climb, and caught them again on the downhill, all but maybe 4 teams, and won the bunch sprint for whatever, 5th I suppose. Sorry over 30 years ago, memory fades. We also won the bunch sprint in the crit, for 3rd because two had gotten away. Photo finish, most exciting racing I ever experienced.
Dunno if this was mentioned about the Barra yet but it's not brazed, it's welded. Unless brazed means something different to you lot (I'm a Yank). If you melt the parent metal, by my book that's welding. Monsieur Barra perfected gas-welding aluminum/aluminium, and I think he welded them all himself, never was able to teach it to anyone else, at least that was the story I heard. Grain of salt, I can't remember where I heard that. But definitely gas-welded, that part is well-documented.
Do not try to put a disk brake on that fork. I predict it will kink backward, maybe the first time the brake is applied.
Anyway an intact Barra tandem is such a rarity that it would be a crime to break it, so it should be ridden only gently. not in anger.
My 1988 Davidson is still in use. It has never had any brakes other than rim brakes, and we never wished for more. The brakes on it are uncommonly strong though, mini-rollercams from WTB. As the name implies it's like a WTB rollercam (loads better than the Suntour version), only scaled down for skinny-tire road bikes, not MTBs. They're rim-crushers.
We've been over 60 mph at least twice. Both times with perfect visibility and long straightaway, no cars or intersections. I did wonder what a tire blowout at that speed would be like. We don't do that anymore, we're not nearly as immortal as we used to be.
In the Burley Duet Classic, a 4-day 5-stage race, we were dropped by the top few teams on the first climb of the big road stage, but then caught them on the downhill by crazy riding. We were rounding a corner when we caught one of the teams that had dropped us, couldn't see around the corner so I started to slow to wait until after the corner to pass them. Laurie yelled "no, pass them NOW!" (She's very competitive!) Then we got dropped on the next climb, and caught them again on the downhill, all but maybe 4 teams, and won the bunch sprint for whatever, 5th I suppose. Sorry over 30 years ago, memory fades. We also won the bunch sprint in the crit, for 3rd because two had gotten away. Photo finish, most exciting racing I ever experienced.
Dunno if this was mentioned about the Barra yet but it's not brazed, it's welded. Unless brazed means something different to you lot (I'm a Yank). If you melt the parent metal, by my book that's welding. Monsieur Barra perfected gas-welding aluminum/aluminium, and I think he welded them all himself, never was able to teach it to anyone else, at least that was the story I heard. Grain of salt, I can't remember where I heard that. But definitely gas-welded, that part is well-documented.
Do not try to put a disk brake on that fork. I predict it will kink backward, maybe the first time the brake is applied.
Anyway an intact Barra tandem is such a rarity that it would be a crime to break it, so it should be ridden only gently. not in anger.
