I’m Half Crazy . . .
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Yeah, I’ve been away for a while. Not, ahem, away - inside, doing time, a six-to-three stretch, a bit of bird, banged up, (fitted up, I say), detained at Her Majesty’s pleasure, doing porridge, sewing mail bags, or even making little rocks out of big rocks.
No. Just away, not blogging. There are some reasons for this - mainly work, but also motivational - I have two niggling injuries that have pretty much grounded me from swimming, cycling and running. And that leaves . . . . well, eating I guess. Yep - lots of that still going on, as my waistline will testify. Bah!
But I have news.
I’ve been busy on Ebay . . . and just look what I picked up on Monday afternoon:
That’s a Pashley tandem! We’ve named her Daisy because of the song, but also because she’s buttercup yellow-ish. If that makes any sense at all.
As far as I can make out, she’s an early ’80s model (five speed, Shimano derailleur with stem-mounted non-indexing shifter), and other than a bashed cotter pin that needs replacing on one of the rear cranks, is mechanically sound. She’s in need of some TLC on the frame though - more or less a complete respray. Thankfully I know several companies who’d probably give me a loan of their powder coating plant for that (the tandem’s original colour is pretty close to the colours they use too!), and I’m hoping that Pashley will be able to supply replacement transfers.
The reason for buying a tandem? Well after the Dunwich Dynamo, VonSmallHaussen was pretty keen on taking part next year, but worried about being left behind somewhere in the wilds of Suffolk (she’s probably seen Deliverence, and jumped to entirely the wrong conclusion about Suffolk. Hardly anyone there marries their sister any more.)
Problem now solved.
In the meantime, I have a little project to keep me busy over the winter. I plan to refurb the bike . . . but then remove the rear saddle & handlebars to fit a HUGE cargo box on the back, creating my own cargo bike. Well anyway, I don’t think that’s odd.
Filed under: Dunwich Dynamo, Friends, Silly Stuff, tandem
Nice!
I am seriously considering trying to find a tandem bike to take the kids on STP next summer. We need to find one soon so we can “train” in the winter.
Very nice find, Karl.
Sorry to hear about being sidelined. But sometimes it happens for a very good reason, part of which is to get you to step back and enjoy what you have.
Brilliant - you picked it up. Was wondering when you would.
I guess there’s no excuse now for ne not training for the DD.
One final thing - is that the speed we will be going at for the DD? I Think i might be able to manage that….
This is not a fast bike - think tweed & plus-fours. So for 120 miles, I think we’d be lucky to average 12 mph, making for a long time in the saddle! So now I’m looking at Brooks saddles - each of which would cost more than I paid for the whole bike . . .
[...] So Brad’s looking for a tandem to do the STP on next year with his kids. Hmmmm . . . I’m sure there’s more than one junior member of Team Brad. Perhaps what they need is a trandem: [...]