I got this pair of bikes pretty cheap, and I wanted to see if I could make a tandem from them. So far I have it assembled and I am doing the "shakedown" runs. Once I am sure that I have all the welding done the way it should then it will come apart and get a nice shiny coat of school bus yellow.
The donors
Sorry, no pics of building the frame, but you can see what I got when I was done. The top bar needed moved so I heated it and bent it (torch). The bottom bar was cut out, and flipped over. Both bars needed about a 2 inch peice of tubing welded in to stretch the two bikes apart a little. I cut the cantilevers off about 4 inches behind the front bikes seat tube, aand laid the girls bike tubing between them and welded it up. At the bottom I left a stub of the rear frame on the front bike, and laid the bottom bar on top and welded it. My brother and I are close to 450 pounds together, and we have ridden it quite a lot, and other than blowing one of the old original tires it is holding up. I welded on a tab for the tensioner, but when I finally got the half link I needed the front chain is perfect. I will leave the bracket there, but I don't need the tensioner right now.
The donors
Sorry, no pics of building the frame, but you can see what I got when I was done. The top bar needed moved so I heated it and bent it (torch). The bottom bar was cut out, and flipped over. Both bars needed about a 2 inch peice of tubing welded in to stretch the two bikes apart a little. I cut the cantilevers off about 4 inches behind the front bikes seat tube, aand laid the girls bike tubing between them and welded it up. At the bottom I left a stub of the rear frame on the front bike, and laid the bottom bar on top and welded it. My brother and I are close to 450 pounds together, and we have ridden it quite a lot, and other than blowing one of the old original tires it is holding up. I welded on a tab for the tensioner, but when I finally got the half link I needed the front chain is perfect. I will leave the bracket there, but I don't need the tensioner right now.
