This is an idea from sheldonbrown.com.
When The Hub bicycle co-op had to move here in Bellingham, they left a gigantic knot of frames behind at their old digs. Before the building got wrecking-balled, I was able to go in and pick a couple of things out, leading to what you see here.
I used a hacksaw and file to slice the head tube of the rear bike and remove the seat stays from the forward one, smoothing out the resulting surfaces best I could. I also clipped off a few cable fixtures and moved them around to set up better cable routing for the finished product. Then I stuck the two together, along with the fixtures, with vice grips, and took the whole thing to the welding shop. You should probably fillet-braze something like this, but I haven't died yet...
The "ghost chainring" has now been replaced with a tensioner of sorts. You may be able to tell that I hacked and filed the head tube so I could fit the superior fork and headset from the rear frame. The rear U-brake also had to be rigged with a sheet steel plate to provide spring tension (not a safety issue- it is fails the brakes will just rub a bit.)
Mockup...
After some getting used to, it is actually totally serviceable and fun to ride. It's crammed for the person in back, so you need to mostly like each other, but it at least turns tight and accepts regular-length cables. I don't have any experience with what a tandem bike is meant to feel like, but I don't think it's hard to pilot at all. After rides involving many miles of gravel, dirt and steep inclines it doesn't seem to have broken anything. Emulate at your own bodily peril.
When The Hub bicycle co-op had to move here in Bellingham, they left a gigantic knot of frames behind at their old digs. Before the building got wrecking-balled, I was able to go in and pick a couple of things out, leading to what you see here.
I used a hacksaw and file to slice the head tube of the rear bike and remove the seat stays from the forward one, smoothing out the resulting surfaces best I could. I also clipped off a few cable fixtures and moved them around to set up better cable routing for the finished product. Then I stuck the two together, along with the fixtures, with vice grips, and took the whole thing to the welding shop. You should probably fillet-braze something like this, but I haven't died yet...
The "ghost chainring" has now been replaced with a tensioner of sorts. You may be able to tell that I hacked and filed the head tube so I could fit the superior fork and headset from the rear frame. The rear U-brake also had to be rigged with a sheet steel plate to provide spring tension (not a safety issue- it is fails the brakes will just rub a bit.)
Mockup...
After some getting used to, it is actually totally serviceable and fun to ride. It's crammed for the person in back, so you need to mostly like each other, but it at least turns tight and accepts regular-length cables. I don't have any experience with what a tandem bike is meant to feel like, but I don't think it's hard to pilot at all. After rides involving many miles of gravel, dirt and steep inclines it doesn't seem to have broken anything. Emulate at your own bodily peril.
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