When the owner of this tandem came to us with a very sorry looking tandem and told us he had been to several High street bicycle shops, only to be turned away with 'sorry you cannot get the parts for that anymore' to 'Whats a Sturmey Archer?'
To be fair most Bike Shops these days dont have the time unless its servicing or small repairs to mostly newer steeds and they do have to fork out for extortionate rents and rates too.
On first examination of what was brought before me i knew this had to be a labour of love or it was going to cost an arm and leg, my heart totally rules my head! and the fact that my customer and his wife were absolutely wonderful people who just would put a smile on your face...
There was a discussion of what we could potentially achieve, it really looked sad with a hand painted Badly! frame, the chrome i thought had been painted black but it was just old crusty grease, which probably helped preserve it.
The chrome rims were shot as were all cables, bearings, seats, wrong bars, missing parts etc.
So there was no point in rebuilding the tandem on a dodgy flakey red oxide colour frame, so lots of cleaning, de greasing and frame prep later, we anti rust primed the frame.
All parts were painstakingly de-greased, de-rusted and protected from further corrosion.
Polishing and refitting with all new brake blocks, cables, bearings etc.
We had alloy mudguards and a better set of Chrome rims in our vintage stock, new saddles, vintage riser handlebars, new white wall 26x13/8 tyres, plated 1/8 chains, SA thumb shifter, Leather matching grips, Chrome pump, oh and after a search for vintage rear twin split levers, we ended up with a more modern alternative, which actually and more importantly improves braking considerably!
And of course a full re-paint in near the original colour, well it was originally Blue anyway, but we added our own custom touches, it was never going to be a true to original resto, more of a custom build.
Resplendant in its new Livery and parts, we are happy with the end result, we think it still retains that vintage vibe, what do you think???
