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Homebuilding a Tandem
Some other Homebuilts
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by Sheldon "You Can Build One Of Those!" Brown
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Carl Robinson, North Carolina

"Here is a picture of our tandem we built with the help of your article. We used two old mountain bike frames with 4130 main tubes. I also used the top tube from a Raleigh rod brake roadster for the bottom tube."

Robinson tandem

"The right side drive works very well. I originally used an old but new condition Shimano GT300 long cage derailer, but it did not shift very easily. I replaced it with an RSX and together with the HG 90 cassette and the non-indexed suntour barends shifting is very good. My son Dylan and I have put about 300 miles on it so far and are planning to take the tandem on Bike Virginia in June."

Robinson tandem

This is the same drive setup suggested by John Allen in his Tandem Drive Train article. Robinson tandem

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Matt O'Keefe, Massachusetts

In real life, Matt works for Seven Cycles, and threw this cruiser together just for fun.

O'keefe tandem

This is a fine example of the "phantom chainring" solution to the chain tensioner problem.

O'keefe tandem Spoke Divider

Here's a triplet I saw at the Larz Anderson Museum bike show in August, 1998.

Unfortunately, I've misplaced the name and address of the builder, who, if memory serves, was from New Hampshire. homebuilt triplet

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John Allen

has a Web page about his homebuilt:

Homebuilt tandem

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David Ben-Jamin

has a Web page about his homebuilt:

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Guy Bouchard, Québec

I built this tandem with help from my wife's father. I designed, filed and make it straight. He brazed everything together. I know how to braze but i am not as good at it as him.

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We took 2 mid-level cromoly MTB frames. The front one is a 22 inch, and the rear is 20 inch. Using Sheldon's method, we put the bottom brackets at the same height (more or less 1/4 inch). Instead of using chainstay (I used them to made a BOB-copy-trailer) we braze a 1.5 inch steel boom tube. The bike is really rigid almost like a real tandem.

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I ride it with my wife and all seems to be ok. The handling is special since head angle is 71 degree. Most tandem have 73 degree head angle with lot of fork rake. My home made tandem is more sensitive than a regular one but nothing I can't live with.

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Here are the full specs (May change anytime for better or worse!):

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Back to Homebuilding a Tandem Part 1

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A Danish guy named Klaus has an article about his homebuilt Tandem

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More Articles About Tandems

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More Articles About Family Cycling

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Articles by Sheldon Brown and Others


Reports of the demise of this Web site are greatly exaggerated! We at sheldonbrown.com thank Harris Cyclery for its support over the years. Harris Cyclery has closed, but we keep going. Keep visiting the site for new and updated articles, and news about possible new affilations.

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