the mother of all contraptions... 10 seater tandem

[Dicky]

http://forums.farkin.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=51077&stc=1&d=1163239157

http://forums.farkin.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=51078&stc=1&d=1163239157




Well, it's not actually mine.

Details are scarce at the moment, but it belonged to Putney Rover Crew, based somewhere around Ryde, Sydney.
The group hasn't had a rover crew for years, but Putney's group leader reckons they've had the bike since the 1970s.





He also reckons it was used for a supported charity ride from Sydney to Melbourne.






A friend from another northern beaches crew has a thing for doing slightly crazy things for charity... his latest effort involved a Variety Club Bash car.

He heard about this thing gathering dust somewhere, and organised to pick it up.

Specs:

4 inch ish diameter steel plumbing pipe mainframe
2 inch ish crossmembers
1970s moto wheels
1970s moto fork (no idea if it works)
1970s moto bars
front drum brake
rear hydraulic disc (master cylinder is the size of half a coke can)
sprung cruiser saddles
cruiser handlebars

cottered cranksets
chainrings normally used in industrial machinery
1/2" x 3/8" (I think) chain

total weight: took 4 people to load it into the truck
total length: longer than the truck



Stay tuned for better photos (the truck owner had to go out), the rebuild plans, and then where we're going to ride it to...

[Tristan23]

ghetto.
gangsta.
group riding? i think not..

[Mojo]

haha thats pretty crazy. would way a ton. should fully pimp it. get it poweder coated bright pink or something so it stands out

[JARRY]

ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah ahahhahahahahah!

thats a classic, but i love it:D

[allstar]

i think it's going to stand out enough as is:rolleyes:

[triangular.square]

haha that is wicked and i thought a three seater was strange..love the moto tyres too..

[floody]

Tendem? :D

[A.J.]

My mates and me built a triplet last year in germany :cool:

We took old frames and weldet em together, cut gussets out of steel panels to make it stiff, sandblasted and painted it all.
At the end it was even all in a line, and you could even ride it alone, very surprising :rolleyes:

And surprisingly the rigid forks and the v-brakes did a good job too :D

The main reason why we built this monster was because we have this big festival going on every year and we wanted to show off with it :cool:
Does really pedal well and you can go quite fast with it.
Attracts a lot attention.

But the 10-seater is sick as dude!

Notice our little trailer at the back, contains 60 bottles of beer and 10 litres crushed ice to keep it all chilled :eek:

[Big_Chief]

YES! i would love to see them jump that.

[MrPlow]

Does it have any gears?? I imagine it doesn't as no chain would handle the torque of 10 men.

[Big_Chief]

Does it have any gears?? I imagine it doesn't as no chain would handle the torque of 10 men.

single speed all the way!

[toodles]

I've only had one quick spin on a tandem once. I can't imagine how fast you could get that baby.... Nice work

[trevallynbikerdude]

haha thats great!
Typical rovers, We have a crew down here in tassie - but they never get off their asses and do cool things like that!

top find!

richo

[chriscross]

judeing by the size of that fron't wheel you wouldn't want to get a flat even if the bike was full it would still be a s**t to ride

[bazza]

kinda like the one that went from townsville to port douglas hahaha. tandems are nuts.

[Dicky]

Yeah, she's singlespeed... with a freewheel or centrifugal clutch of some sort, I think. (I hope. Fixed would be a bitch.)
There's some funky transfer gear action going on in the tail end - I haven't had a good look at how it works yet.

Every crankset has two chainrings, connecting one rider to the next, rather than one dirty great long one - that'd be near impossible to tension / rely on.

The "bottom brackets" are custom made and pretty agricultural - two steel plates with cartridge bearings pressed into them serve as a BB shell, with the sprockets welded to the axle, and mounted between the plates.

External BB 1970s style...

The chains and sprockets are close to twice the width of your average 1/8" BMX chain.


She needs a lot of work - brakes are seized, every moving part is going to need rebuilding, wheels are probably out of true as well.
Could also do with a bare metal respray - there's blue paint showing through the red paint showing through the yellow...

Mission.

Good fun.

More details on Saturday arvo - I'll go attack it with the camera.

[ovadahill]

Just the rig you need for the Gong ride. Imagine that screaming down from Stanwell Tops.

[Dicky]

some more photos...

oh yeah, it's 6.3 metres, or over 20 feet long.

There is a freewheel... thankgod.
Gearing is also adjustable, via two pairs of sprockets, that allow for the same piece of chain to be used.

The cranks are offset on purpose, so there's always power to the rear wheel.

[Gekigengar]

does the brakes work???

or is ther lever there just for show?

lol you have to manurvour that thing like a bus... take a uuubbeer wide line..

hahahaha

[hayd]

haha thats pretty crazy. would way a ton. should fully pimp it. get it poweder coated bright pink or something so it stands out

i dont think u need to paint it for that thing to stand out

[bmgal666]

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: Great find Richard!!

Hmm Fix And ill Come Ride!

[Kasplat]

Thats just plain out right kool! any one remember, NWD film where the dudes riding the tandem with a blow up doll, and doing endos and stuff???

[ash_on_mtb]

I raise you this bike we found in Canada, when typically our car broke down in the middle of the prairies... Apparently they tried for the world record but failed for a reason I can't recall...

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5623/1984/320/DCP_1307.jpg

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5623/1984/320/DCP_1306.jpg

[A.J.]

How sick is that? :eek: Crazy canadians ;)

[Dicky]

That thing is nuts... looks like a pedal powered crop harvester.

They're cheating though, it's got training wheels :p
Edit: that's my guess as to why they missed out on the world record.

p.s. Pics don't work for me for some reason...

[floody]

Dicky,
if its any help, I'm tipping the wheels, brakes and forks are mid-late 60's British or Honda, maybe off something like a Norton commando or Honda CB450. But nothing like 100%, just the feeling I get from the twin leading shoe drums and the master cylinder design.

[letthiswork1]

Tendem? :D



Ur a genious :P hehehe...

that bike is pretty crazy... imagine the co ordination 2 ride it haha

[Dicky]

According to the group leader, you need to be able to do 40 pushups comfortably to pilot the thing.

Guess I have some work to do...


Floody, thanks for the input - I had a quick look on Google and the earlier Hondas do look fairly similar.
(I couldn't bear the thought of someone chopping a Norton up.)
Should make sourcing spares a little easier. Cheers...

[Adrian]

According to the group leader, you need to be able to do 40 pushups comfortably to pilot the thing.

Just chuck Johnny on the front...

[kyleman]

thats soo cool :)

[jamit]

I hear tones of the Goodies Theme tune coming.

53347


Nice find.

[haveheart]

haha thats pretty crazy. would way a ton. should fully pimp it. get it poweder coated bright pink or something so it stands out

you dont need a brigh pink for that to stand out!

[Dicky]

Backburner for this one.

Project leader is working in the US for the next few months, and we're still trying to find somewhere we can store / work on / test ride it, on the budget of a fairly far-fetched charity idea (i.e. zilch.)

[THE CHENZ]

.............TO THE PUB! seems to scream in my head!:D
PUB CRAWL WEAPONS or what?:eek:

[Breaka]

insane gravedig here. May aswell add to it.

I would love the be the man one the front of that pup. I mean, you could kill 9 of your bastardised mates in one go.

As it's been mentioned before, but imagine rocking up to the local on that thing :p

[donthucktoflat]

sorry for the gravedig but just wondering if there are any updates on it dicky?


why would you buy a 10 seater? you dont have 4 friends let alone 9 :p



gooooodiiieeeessss... goody goody yum yum....

[sxereturn]

Come on man, keep us updated!

[Rik]

Dicky, we know you're the wheelie king... you know what I'm going to say next ;)

[Dicky]

Semi-update...

The lack of space to work on the thing has been the major problem, closely followed by organising Aussiemoot.

We've been meeting in an old Scout hall for most of this year, while the new one is being built. This new hall is only a few weeks away, and with it, a half decent chance to wheel her into the old one.

Rik, I'll start with a two seater and work my way up.

[Jordan!]

Yes.
I can't agree with that bike more.
So all I can say is..
Yes.

[Tomas]

The arrival of a hideously expesive tandem at work makes me want to

Bump

this thread.

[GeoffRidesBikes]

You mean tendem, right?

[my_bike]

This bike could go do a nice Ride-by.
One driver, the rest pedal and shoot.

[do-a-flip]

This bike could go do a nice Ride-by.
One driver, the rest pedal and shoot.
wouldnt want to to be the last person on the bike when it goes through an intersection:p
coool is what i say...
useless 500th post

[Ozchuck]

did this baby get finished, or....?

[Dicky]

More or less on the backburner for now, we're having trouble finding somewhere to store / work on it.