Preparation

Now, how do you prepare a holiday to Iceland?
Maps? Flight tickets? Travel guides?
Yes, sure, I have done it, but this was the easy part. The main preparation started with a telephone call to Dave Yates, who - you will of course all know this - is a frame builder (bicycle frames that is). The conversation went somehow like this:
"Hallo Dave! I would like to build a bicycle!"
"Well done, it's getting time for this...."
"As I am not entirely normal, I would like to build a FOLDABLE TANDEM"
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone line, but then we agreed a meeting, I learned the basics of frame design and a week or so later Dave brought me this :
Doesn't look like a tandem? Well it took me three weeks, sore hands, a lot of nickel bronze solder and several desperate phone calls to Dave before I had produced this:
It took an other week or so for some small parts (fork, rack...) and a professional paint job (thank you Dave).
Then came the big day! The bike was assembled, only 5 days to go before we would fly to Iceland. Would the bike go in a straight line? Would it be strong enough for the Icelandic roads?
Well, it goes in a straight line, in fact you have to push it a bit in corners, but this I think, is because the bike is about 15cm longer than my old Santana tandem. 100km we went in the UK for testing, then it was folded (S&S couplings), packed, shoved in a car boot, abused by Icelandair luggage handlers and there we were Iceland!
Here some links to bicycle www sites:
  1. You want to build a bicycle? Dave is offering frame building courses. If he can show me how to build a tandem on a plank of wood, you can do it in his workshop! Try:
    www.daveyatescycles.co.uk
  2. For the interested: S&S couplings make your bike foldable. They cost a fortune but are well worth it. My tandem has 6 of it.
    www.sandsmachine.com
  3. Want to computer design your tandem on the internet?
    www.bikeforest.com/CAD/tandemCAD.html