The Longstaff tandem

We originally bought the tandem frame in the mid 1990s, when I equipped it with some classic tandem kit. As a consequence, it has a lovely retro vibe to it. We haven't used it a great deal after moving south from Dundee at the end of 1999. After the seatpin incident at the end of our 2024 cycle tour, our Thorn touring tandem was out of commission until the snapped seat post stumpt could be extracted. At that time it was clear that the Longstaff tandem wasn't a terribly forgiving ride, so I started making some changes. But first, the initial bike set up.

The original build

Frame - the frame was custom built to measure by George Longstaff from Reynolds 531 Designer Select tubing. I believe this means the frame is built largely from 531 but with some other Reynolds tubing, and a mixture of lugs and fillet brazing. It's a direct lateral frame, and has a limited set of braze-ons - this isn't intended for loaded touring, so no pannier mounts and no braze-ons for an Arai drum brake. It also pre-dates disc brakes by a few decades. The 'drainpipe' tube is a rather nice oval cross-section. The frame is a bit battered after 3 decades of service, but still looks gorgeous in its flam kingfisher blue.

Wheels - In the early 1990s, Campagnolo had a tandem groupset, largely derived from their mountain bike groups, and I sourced several components from this. The hubs, for example, are lovely high flange hubs with superbly smooth bearings, which remain so after all this time. Both hubs are 40 spoke hubs, and the rear is 140mm OLN, threaded for a freewheel and for a drum brake. I built them up with DT Alpine 13G-14G stainless butted spokes and Mavic Module 3 CD rims. By modern standards, these are pretty narrow rims, and I was using 25mm Continental tyres.

Chainsets - I bought a Campagnolo tandem chainset with 42 tooth chainrings for the timeing chain, and triple 52-42-34 rings for the drive chainset. 

Here's a 1990 catalogue photo showing some of the parts I selected in the Tandem Road Groupset, including the hubs and the chainsets. This was back in the day when component makers had glorious printed catalogues - I think I had this one in hard copy at the time.

Having said that, while the chainsets and hubs were lovely (30 years on the bearings are still silky smooth), I don't think that the delta brakes would be a wise braking option for a tandem. By all accounts they were heavy, a pain to set up and didn't work particularly well - but they did look gorgeous.

Gears - A 7-speed Sachs 12-21 freewheel - up until the other day, this was still going strong with Campagnolo Chorus short cage rear mech and triple front mech operated by Campagnolo Record 8-speed Ergo levers. I'd originally set the tandem up with Synchro down tube levers, but these never worked particularly well, and then Ergo levers became available.

Brakes - Dia-Compe cantilever rim brakes. With two of us riding this bike, you do need a bit of care when braking as stopping distances can be rather long. I shudder to think what the braking performance would have been like with the delta brakes.

Saddles - Brooks B17, Narrow up front, Standard for the stoker. Our saddles of choice for long days on the bike.

Bars - Stoker bars are sometimes a bit hard to find, and I originally set the bike up with a set of sawn-off Cinelli drop bars. Not ideal, especially as they were too narrow.

Recent Modifications - improving comfort

Last summer, when we started riding this tandem again in the wake of the snapped seatpin on the Thorn tandem, we immediately noticed a couple of things. Firstly, it was a much quicker, responsive ride than the Thorn touring tandem. I estimated we rode 20 to 30% faster over similar routes. Secondly, it was a really rough ride, and there were some quite irritating noises that would start about an hour or so into a ride.

As far as I could tell, the widest tyres I could fit on the Module 3 CD rims would be 32mm. Still pretty narrow by today's standards, but I went ahead, choosing Continental GP5000 tyres. I've been running these at about 85psi. This made a massive improvement in absorbing minor road imperfections, and I think was the most significant change in terms of improved ride comfort.

I eventually figured out that the odd noise was from the cheap suspension seat post I had fitted years ago. I replaced it with a Cane Creek ee-Silk suspension post. I also replaced the cut off Cinelli bars with a proper pair of Satori stoker bars from JD Tandems. That gave a bit more clearance and better hand position for the stoker.

Many years ago, I'd replaced the 52 tooth chainring with a 57 tooth ring as I was occasionally using the tandem for races. That compromised shifting, particularly from the small to middle ring. I've now returned to a 52 ring. Not that locating chainrings with the correct BCD was easy.

Recent Modifications - repairs

Just after I wrote the text above, we suffered a couple of breakages. The first of these was a broken spoke on the rear wheel. That was easily sorted once I got some spokes delivered. I have no idea what happened to my collection of spare spokes over the last few years, but I didn't seem to have any. That was a shame, as the DT Alpine spokes appear to have been replaced with the newer Apline 3 spokes - 13G 15G 14G triple butted!

The second malfunction caused the chain to skip on the freewheel while on a steep climb. We decelerated very quickly and toppled over on the tarmac. Just a few scrapes, so not too bad. It turned out that the 21 cog had broken, causing the tooth spacing to widen and therefore the chain wouldn't engage properly. We limped home avoiding the worst hills. Again, easily fixed with a new freewheel and chain. Whether modern day freewheels are good enough quality for tandem use remains to be seen. The replacement freewheel has a wider ratio - 13-24 instead of 12-21, but seems to work OK.

I have debated whether to move to a more modern transmission, but really I like the whole retro vibe this bike has. So, for the time being at least, I'm sticking with this set up.