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    Food Living Outside Play Technology Workshop

    Complete Tandem Bike Buildby B4SEC4MPon November 18, 2010

    Table of Contents

    Complete Tandem Bike Build .....................................................................................................

    Intro: Complete Tandem Bike Build .............................................................................................

    Step 1: TIME ..............................................................................................................

    Step 2: Two Identical Bikes ...................................................................................................

    Step 3: Cleaning & Disassembly ...............................................................................................

    Step 4: Design Phase: I ......................................................................................................

    Step 5: Design Phase: II .....................................................................................................

    Step 6: Sandblasting & Future Paint ............................................................................................

    Step 7: Fabrication - Frame Welding ............................................................................................

    Step 8: Fabrication - Drive Train ...............................................................................................

    Step 9: Fabrication - Chain guard ..............................................................................................

    Step 10: Painting ........................................................................................................... 1

    Step 11: Reassembly & Summary .............................................................................................. 1

    Related Instructables ........................................................................................................ 1

    Advertisements ............................................................................................................... 1

    Comments ................................................................................................................ 1

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    Author:B4SEC4MP

    I like to try my hand at a little bit of everything and think there's nothing cooler than learning a new skill.

    Intro: Complete Tandem Bike BuildThis is a true tandem bike build. From two bikes to one. No shortcuts.

    If this is what you've been looking for... here are my tips, tricks, mistakes and advice.

    If this doesn't seem like your cup of tea... consider it anyway! This project is a great opportunity to get creative, learn some great skills and have a blast all at the sametime!

    So get out your bike wrenches and roll out that welder because it's time to get dirty.

    Step 1:TIMEBe realistic in your calculation of how quickly you think you can knock this project out. While this wasn't my only priority in the summer of 2010, I did work on it quiteextensively and it still took me the better part of the summer. This was my first project of such high complexity so if you have welding experience or have completedsimilar projects, you might move along faster than I did.

    The point is... give yourself ample time if you are planning on having an unveiling party for your tandem. That's a great idea! The second point is... you should throw anunveiling party and invite your friends over for a ride!!!

    Step 2:Two Identical BikesSpend the extra time and find two identical bikes (or at least the frames) however, building a tandem with mismatching bikes will also work. Building with identical bikewill make many parts of the build faster and easier. The lines and flow of the bike will also look more natural.

    I'm still kicking myself for not taking a good "before" picture of both bikes. Do yourself a favor and take lots of pictures.

    http://member/B4SEC4MP/http://member/B4SEC4MP/
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    Step 3:Cleaning & DisassemblyTo help me remember exactly how to reassemble all of the accessories, I took some pictures of how the bikes were setup. This especially helped me reassemble theheadlight and internal three speed hub.

    This build included two identical cruiser bikes from the late 1960's. They were neglected for several years and in rough shape so I stripped both of the bikes downcompletely and cleaned every part. You'll be handling the parts a lot so I recommend doing this step now. A bunch of rags, a tall can of degreaser and a nice sunny dawill help move this process along.

    I used two cardboard boxes to store all of the small parts f rom each bike separately. Storing the parts from each bike separately probably wasn't necessary but it's a gidea to find a safe place to store all of the parts until assembly.

    *For simplicity, I only uploaded a few of the many photos I took.

    Step 4:Design Phase: IOkay, now the bikes are disassembled, clean and the small parts stored in a safe place. Here's a big step. This is where you put your plan together as to how your goto take two bikes and make them one.

    Try to come up with at least three different designs. Sketch them out on paper and then get a second opinion. By having a few different designs to compare, the flaws weaknesses of each design will most likely be revealed by the others.

    There is a lot to consider during this step. In no specific order:-Overall length-Front seat to rear handlebar distance-Front head tube angle

    -Rear seat tube angle-Points of contact-Additional support / bracing-Stress points-Drive train

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    Step 5:Design Phase: III'll go through each element of the design phase as listed in the last step and describe what I was thinking, how I came up with my design, and why I made certaindecisions.

    I loved the curves of the f rames and wanted to incorporate that into the final product. I wanted the tandem to look like it was two different bikes, but also blend smoothOften, the rear ends of tandems are filled with diagonal support bracing and don't resemble a standard looking bike. I really wanted to avoid that so I tried to come up wdesigns that involved as little cutting as possible.

    Overall length:I was mostly concerned with the front seat and rear handlebar spacing. I figured that I would end up pretty close to a typical tandem length.

    Front seat to rear handlebar distance: I came up with two designs that had different lengths. This allowed me to see that matching the rear head tube with the frontseat tube was a bad idea. I felt that would have brought the rider in rear too close to the rider in front making it uncomfortable. There was also a potential clearanceproblem with the front seat and the rear handlebars. The stem on the bike sets the handlebars forward of the head tube and the seat reaches out behind the seat tubedidn't want to make the bike exceedingly long so I unbolted the stem and turn the handlebars around so that the stem faced backwards. This reduced the leg room for

    rear rider, but provided clearance for the rear handlebars.

    Front head tube angle & Rear seat tube angle:If you're not careful in your design, these might change drastically from their original positions and make riding/steereither really sloppy or too tight. If forced into one or the other, my intuition would say that it would be better to decrease the head tube angle and open up the steeringrather than vice versa.

    Since these bikes were cruisers they already had relatively low angles that would work great on a tandem so I designed the tandem to keep the angles for both virtualthe same. To do this, I bought some L brackets and used two long bolts and some 2x6s to make two axle stands. This simulated the front bike standing at its naturalposition: both axles an equal distance off of the ground. This wasn't possible before because the bottom bracket actually sits slightly lower than the axles and without taxle stands the bike acts like a li ttle seesaw.

    For the rear bike, I just used two 2x4s to support the dropouts. This made the rear sit slightly lower and would result in slightly raising the bottom brackets once thewheels were put back on. In hind sight, because the tandem is so long compared to that difference, it didn't change the bottom bracket height by much at all. Please reto the first picture for a better visual.

    I decided to leave the fork and headset assembly on the rear bike intact and weld the forks to the seat stays of the front bike. Once I had the bikes on supports I was ato line them up and get a good feel for where I should cut the forks.

    Stress points:The dynamic forces of two people r iding a tandem creates an immense amount of stress on a frame. It's highly recommended to determine where thegreatest stresses are to ensure your frame is strong enough to support these loads. One way to calculate a rough estimate of the forces on the frame is to draw asimplified free body diagram. Doing this would allow you to approximate the forces acting at each node (read: joint).

    To really bring out your inner engineer you could use a CAD software package to model the frame. Creating a CAD model of your tandem frame would allow you tothoroughly analyze every section of the frame and make a confident determination of the frames strength. Unfortunately I don't currently have access to such software

    Additional support / bracing:One of my initial designs involved leaving the front frame intact and welding the cut ends of the rear fork to the dropouts of the front fraand the bottom bracket of the rear frame. However after comparing that design to my design utilizing a length of steel pipe spanning both bottom brackets it was clear the latter would be much stronger and look better. I decided to use schedule 80 pipe for its strength.

    Drive train:This consideration has its own step later on.

    Chain tensioner:This also has its own step.

    Image Notes1. Axle stand raising up the f ront end.2. Axle stand raising up the back end.3. The bottom bracket is no longer resting on the plywood allowing the bike to restin its natural position (as though it had wheels resting on the road).4. The rear dropouts are just resting on the 2x4s.

    Image Notes1. It's a little easier to see the difference in height between the bottom bracketand the dropouts.2. Front seat to rear handlebar distance

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    Image Notes1. As you can see, there isn't much of a height difference between resting on theaxle stands and simply resting on the 2x4s.

    Step 6:Sandblasting & Future PaintSince you'll be giving these two bikes new life, you might as well give them a new paint job to go with it!

    I really liked the original metallic gold color so I thought it would be cool to pay tribute to the bikes' history and match the original color, accents and logos. For futurereference, I took several detailed pictures of the paint color and black accents on the forks and chain guards before they were sandblasted. I had a local shop blast myframes, forks, and chain guards.

    To protect the headsets and the chrome crowns on the forks, I wrapped them in three layers of duck tape before bringing them in to get sandblasted. Had I not done ththeir finish and appearance would have been ruined.

    *Painting has it's own step with more details near the end.

    Image Notes1. Reference picture for paint job

    Image Notes1. Reference picture for paint job

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    Image Notes1. Reference picture for paint job

    Image Notes1. After sandblasting

    Step 7:Fabrication - Frame WeldingAt this point, you are ready to weld the bikes together. I went over to my neighbor's work shop for this step. His knowledge of welding and metal fabrication really helpme do things right the first time.

    We set the two bikes up in the jig and to be completely sure everything was square we took a long straight piece of scrap steel and clamped it to each bottom bracket.Doing this ensured that once the cranks and chains were on, they would be parallel and inline with each other.

    Then we welded the rear forks to the front seat stays. In between was a thin steel piece that I cut to size to obtain more welding surface. The location of this union wasalmost exactly where the old rear brake mount was. Only after this first weld did we proceed to cut the rear end off of the front bike. If we would have cut the bike upbefore welding, it might have warped due to the excessive heat introduced by the welding.

    Next we measured and cut a sturdy piece of schedule 80 pipe to span the bottom brackets. I t took a fair amount of grinding and refitting to get it just right. Once we wehappy with its fit, we welded it into place. My neighbor actually came up with the brilliant design to use the chain stays and their natural bends to join the seat stays anthe bottom bracket support. The two chain stays were welded together resembling a "Y" and were large enough to slide right over the seat stays which added to thestrength and allowed us to adjust the height before we welded it to the bottom bracket span.

    Once we finished welding the frames together, I ground down the welds and used some metal filler paste to smooth it all out. Reminder: it's a good idea to ensureeverything is square before each weld to avoid a misalignment.

    Image Notes1. This is almost the exact location of the old brake mounting bracket.

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    Image Notes1. Lining up the frames square

    Image Notes1. Bottom bracket span mock up2. The "Y" we welded together from the chain stays3. This is where we got the "Y" from4. Approximate location of rear brake mount. *see rear bike5. Rear brake mount

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    Image Notes1. Here's a close up of the chain stays that slid over the seat stays.

    Image Notes1. Frame fabrication is COMPLETE!!!2. Bottom bracket span

    Step 8:Fabrication - Drive TrainDon't over look this step. This step is as crucial as the frame build itself. There are two different styles of drive trains: a same-side drive or a cross-over drive train. I didlot of research online and looked for the pros and cons of each. A simple internet search will give you an ample amount of articles to read on this subject.

    I decided to build a same-side drive train. I thought that this setup would be easier since I already had the two identical cranks original to the bikes and a spare sprockring. Whatever type of drive t rain you decide to build, it is key to have two sprockets of the same size. Without them, the two riders will be pedaling out of sync.

    When the bikes were manufactured, the front sprocket was designed to line up with the freewheel in back. Now with a same-side drive on a tandem, we are using thefront sprocket for the timing chain and a second sprocket to drive the freewheel. This creates an issue of misalignment. Action must be taken to keep the chains fromrubbing or binding up.

    To add a sprocket ring to the one-piece cranks I measured out the minimum amount of space that I thought I would need for the two chains to clear. I tried using nuts abolts to join them, but that made it too bulky. My neighbor and I found some thin steel pieces that would space it out right so we welded the sprockets and spacerstogether. Then I went at the welds with a dremel grinder to clean them up.

    The spacing between the two sprockets was not quite enough and now the two chains rub a bit where they cross paths. It's not enough to cause them to bind though. settled for tearing apart the rear wheel (with an internal three speed) to try to move it over on the axle. That turned out to be a huge headache and way more than Ibargained for. In retrospect, I should have allowed for more space between the sprockets. Another idea is to inspect a tandem at a local bike shop and measure thedistances between its sprockets, provided it has a same-side drive.

    Something else that you will want to consider is adding some spacers to the sprocket side of the cranks. I added one large washer to push the sprockets away from thframe and might need to add one more to prevent the chains from rubbing. Doing this will help to align the drive-chain.

    You will probably find that the general consensus for either drive train calls for a chain tensioner on the timing chain (between the front and rear identical sprockets). I a bit skeptical of this at first and was hoping to rely on just having the correct number of links to keep it tight. Now that my tandem is complete I can tell you that a chaitensioner is not absolutely necessary, but it is a very good idea to have one. In my anxiousness to complete my tandem and actually ride i t before the end of summer, opted to go without for now and add a tensioner later.

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    Step 9:Fabrication - Chain guardHaving a chain guard isn't essential, but it does serve a purpose and I think that it adds character to the bike so I decided to make one. This wil l be much easier if youhave two identical bikes. The original guards attached at the drop out and around the down tube so I installed the rear guard as normal and attached the front guard tothe down tube.

    With the guards installed, I was able to take some measurements and made a rough plan for joining them using a piece of thin sheet steel. First, I determined therequired width of the piece (including the bend radius) and cut it. Using a 2x4 as a radius guide, I bent the filler piece at the location I marked to coincide with the origin

    guards. Then I used a 4 inch angle grinder to cut a slot in the rear guard to allow the filler piece to slide in behind it. As it turned out, I also needed to cut a slot in the fipiece to fit around the custom Y section described in Step 7.

    Since the three guard pieces were to be welded together, I allowed more than an inch of overlap at each end of the filler piece. The filler piece was designed to slide inbehind the two original guards so that the welds joining them would be hidden from view.

    The guards had embossed accents on them so I tried to extend the accent from the front guard to the filler piece, using two layered strips of sheet metal. I drilled offseholes in the bottom two layers allowing them all to be welded together. A common metal filler paste was used to smooth out the transitions. There is some minorseparation between the layers of sheet metal and I m guessing that its due to the heat from welding.

    This step proved to be quite difficult and the faults are revealed upon close inspection but I think it looks okay from a distance. If I were to try this again, I think I wouldweld the edges of the accent piece together and grind it down to the desired shape and width. I would also find a thinner piece of steel to make fabrication easier.

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    Step 10:PaintingPainting can be quite a beast, especially on a large project like this. Instead of having it painted professionally, I opted to paint the bike myself with standard spray painThere are already several Instructables describing how to paint a bike. Each one is a little different and brings different aspects to light. Ill summarize most of it for youhere and add what I learned from my experience.

    Theres a lot of prep work that should be done before you ever pick up a spray can. First you need a well ventilated location. A good system to hang your bike is alsovery beneficial. You want to hang your bike in a way that will allow you to paint every surface without ever touching it. My rig consisted of a rope slung over the roof tru

    tied to a 2x4 with two holes drilled in the middle on each end. I took some strong wire and fished it through the front head tube, out the bottom of the forks and bent thewire so it wouldnt slide out. I did the same thing inside the rear seat tube and bent the wire inside the bottom bracket. Then I took the loose ends of the wire, strung ththrough the holes in the 2x4 and wrapped it around twice to make sure it wouldnt slide out.

    The next task is to thoroughly clean the bike. I used some fine grit (wet/dry) sandpaper to clean off the rust that was starting to form after sandblasting. Then I sprayedwhole thing down with an air compressor to get the dust and debris off. Following that is the taping of sections not to be painted. I taped off the bottom brackets, theheadsets and fork crowns with blue painters tape.

    After all that was done, I sprayed on one coat of primer and let it dry per the directions. Then of course, the primary color. I gave it two coats, but I applied them in verythin, smooth layers. There should be no paint pooling or dripping. After the primary color was on and dry, I started prepping for the decals and accents. *Some peopleinsist on a light sanding in-between coats with the belief that it helps the new coat adhere to the last. I dont disagree, I just didnt do that on this project.

    To create the decals I used the pictures I had taken before the parts were sandblasted, used Photoshop to sharpen them up and print them out on paper. It took me atries to get the sizing just right, but once that was done I began cutting the paper images out with a utility knife. Then I laid blue painters tape lightly on a piece ofplywood and used the cutouts to trace the designs onto the tape to create stencils. Once the image was on the tape, I cut them out with a utility knife, put the stencils itheir respective places on the tandem and then fi rmly pressed them down. That was followed by taping off the rest of the immediate area to protect from over spray.During this step, having a steady hand and a lot of patients is crucial.

    The next step was to paint the decals and I did this with the same technique as I did with the prior coats. Once the black decal paint was dry, I uncovered everything avery carefully peeled off the blue painters tape that was used for the stencils. As the tape came off, some of the black paint came off with it. In the end, all the decalshad at least some paint peel off. I think the problem was that I applied the black paint a little too heavy and it adhered to the tape. My decals were fairly detailed and haseveral sharp points which seemed to pull off the most paint. I think if you apply a few extremely light coats and let them dry completely in-between applications, decawill work. However, the problem could also be due to the type of tape that I used.

    Finally, it came time for the clear coat and I applied 3 solid coats and as always, I abided by the directions dry times. That concluded the painting portion of the projecThe next step was REASSEMBLY!!!

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    Image Notes1. Blue painter's tap around the chrome fork crown.

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    Image Notes1. Some peeling here2. Some peeling here on the "S" and the shield boarder.

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    Step 11:Reassembly & SummaryAt this point of the project, I really wanted to ride the bike so I was thrilled to start the reassembly and it went well. To help preserve the paint job, I used strips of an oldtire tube to wrap around the frame and fork where the chain guard, kickstand and light generator mount. This worked quite well.

    I took it for a few rides and it rode well! Ive actually never ridden another tandem so I dont have any baseline to compare to. I learned a great deal from this project anam extremely proud of the end result. Ill be riding and enjoying this bike for many years to come. I hope this Instructable motivates and aids you in a tandem build ofyour own.

    Dont forget to throw an unveiling party for your creation!

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    Comments

    18 comments Add Comment

    demxod8says: May 9, 2011. 1:34 PM REPWith a quick glance at that final picture, I would have never suspecting that the tandem was a one time 2 different bikes. Very nice. I also like the way you

    split the braking responsibilities so that the driver controls the front brake and the passenger controls the rear - an easy solution to what I suspect was anarea of contention.

    B4SEC4MPsays: May 10, 2011. 8:46 PM REPThat's a good point. Because I used all of the original parts (including the brakes and cables) that just kinda how it worked out and then afterwards Irealized that it was a benefit that both riders had the option to brake.

    clockworkdoorbellsays: Jan 3, 2012. 3:11 AM REPLovely job, impressive.I wonder at the wisdom of sharing the braking - consider this: you both see a hazard, for example a car pulling out, one of you decides to acceleratout of trouble whilst the other decides that braking is the thing to do...

    wschrubasays: Jan 21, 2012. 4:45 PM REPThis is actually how many tandems handle braking duties. Usually the person in front handles the control of the bike, and the person in backpedals for their life.

    clockworkdoorbellsays: Jan 21, 2012. 11:32 PM REPYes, I'm in the middle of rebuilding an old tandem. It has three brakes: the two usual rim brakes, plus a rear hub brake that is controlled by athumb lever that can be locked on to act as a 'drag' brake for descending. I put all the controls on the front handlebars.Photos here.https://picasaweb.google.com/110336619050074124965/Tandem

    ru777Dmitry777says: Jan 21, 2012. 11:05 PM REP?????????? ??????! ? ?? ? ????????????? ?????????? ??????????? ?? ????? ??????????!? ?? ????? ????? ???? ???????? ????? ???? ???????????!http://dmitrypetlekha.ru/

    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Gael%20-%20Tim/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=relatedhttp://www.instructables.com/id/Diy-tandem/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=relatedhttp://www.instructables.com/id/Diy-tandem/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=related
  • 8/11/2019 Complete Tandem Bike Build

    15/15

    wschrubasays: Jan 21, 2012. 4:52 PM REPThe final product looks phenomenal, I'd love to hop on for a ride. If those rear hubs still worked (They look like 3 speeds, if I 'm not mistaken) or you couldcobble together one working one from them, they would provide some extra help going up steep hills (provided the hub survived the stress of two peoplepedaling).

    As for the decals, I've had my best success masking anything in general by pulling the masking off very soon after painting (the tr ick being to remove themask while the paint is still wet, but after it has set). That way, you can consistently get clean lines. With dark colors, this can definitely be tricky, balancingthe cleanliness of the mask and thoroughly coating the other color.

    Again, great job, looks fun to ride on a lazy day.

    aduysays: May 15, 2011. 11:34 AM REPjust add two jack shafts and motors and youll be all done

    Dutch56says: May 12, 2011. 12:58 PM REPGreat instructible. The wife has been wanting a tandem bike and I choke everytime I see the $1,000 + price tags of tandem bikes in the bike shops. My sonhas a nice shop and all the tools needed to do this.

    vincent7520says: May 8, 2011. 2:02 PM REPI am not fond of bicycles, not to speak of tandem bikes, but I must say I find your project very well done AND beautiful !!!As a matter of fact this is what caught my eye at first : I find it so nicely designed that I feel you should know BRAVO !!!!

    B4SEC4MPsays: May 10, 2011. 8:20 PM REPThank you very much. The goal was to inspire!

    marcintoshsays: May 8, 2011. 7:24 AM REPThanks so much. I've always wanted to do this.

    One hint on the degreaser, I've found that waterless hand cleaner made for cleaning your greasy hands will also strip the grease off nearly anything. I'vecleaned 40 year old bell housings back to nearly new using it. On the tough parts I'll use a round parts cleaner brush but that's about it. The nice part is thyou can easily contain the sludge that comes off and that makes it easier to dispose of properly.

    Start by chiseling off the really built up crud and once it gets down to a reasonable thickness ( like how dirty your hands get working on an old car or truck)then apply the degreaser. Using the brush, work it into the crud and then you can either wipe the part clean or you could even wash it off with water.Extra Bonus? Smells about a quarter as bad as using solvents. No serious solvents to remove the original paint either. It's usually less expensive andwhen done you can use the left over cleaner on your hands instead of having a can sitting around waiting to leak.

    Thanks again for the smarts.

    B4SEC4MPsays: May 10, 2011. 8:16 PM REPI'll definitely have to try that out. Thanks for the tip.

    cjbikenutsays: Jan 3, 2011. 9:44 AM REPA very nicely done project and a good instructable. Anyone attempting to build their own tandem should check out Sheldon Brown's website. He createdseveral of these one junk bike plus one junk bike equals a tandem projects and wrote about his efforts and included tips & links for homebuilders.

    B4SEC4MPsays: May 10, 2011. 8:15 PM REPAbsolutely. That's a great resource for just about everything dealing with bikes.

    stuntedcreativitysays: May 8, 2011. 11:42 AM REPThis is exactly what a good instructable should include... Nice intro, clear explanations, great pics and produces something outrageously awesome at the end it!!

    This has made me feel happy :-)

    Ricardo Furiososays: May 8, 2011. 8:40 AM REPNice bike. Jealous.

    brdstf40says: May 6, 2011. 4:01 AM REPGreat Instructable and a beautiful bike!

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