Wednesday, June 17, 2015

[jules' pics] Lovely James

awww, i'n't 'ee sweeet?


James
In photos on the internets, James makes most things look smaller than they are, because he is larger than you think, but maybe the little hill behind James was once a big mountain, before the glaciers scraped most of it away. It is fun to ride by bicycle as the track starts at a gentle slope and gets gradually steeper and steeper almost all the way up. 


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Posted By Blogger to jules' pics at 6/17/2015 04:21:00 PM

6 comments:

The Old Man is back said...

That's a very nice tandem MTB - is it a one-off?

James Annan said...

Yes, it was a custom design based on the Calfee Tetra Tetra tandem frame - but with S&S couplers for travelling, standard MTB wheels and suspension fork. The aim was also to have drop handlebars and rigid fork for road touring but for various reasons that didn't work out so well so we keep it in the off-road configuration. We bought it originally to take part in the first Trans Rockies stage race in Canada. Calfee now include MTB tandems in their stock range.

The Old Man is back said...

Regretfully I'm not in the market for one, being a person short of a tandem... But have been back in bike training recently, lost a couple of stone and getting arthur caygill to sort out my old s-works into a slightly new, more friendly, configuration. Good shop, look them up...
Someone on a tandem recently told me how much these things cost. all I can say is; you have to really want one!

James Annan said...

Well, they often aren't really very far from the cost of two bicycles of similar quality, so as long as you get decent use out of them, not such an extravagance. This one was though!

jules said...

>Someone on a tandem recently told me how much these things cost. all I can say is; you have to really want one!

Three. You have to have at least three.

And they are very good value.

Red Rum, ElConq and Garth (in pic) were born in 1994, 1999 and 2002 respectively, yet somehow they work as well as they ever did, and they've all been well used in their own ways. Must be because of the skilful but somewhat unwilling mechanic (the tall one, shown in the pic). We commuted on Rum for 20 years, until we stopped commuting - and this summer he's been reborn again with some time trialling! The others haven't done as many miles, but mountain miles are a lot tougher on bicycles...

The Old Man is back said...

Well, I've had to bite the bullet and get the N+1 bike. A physiotherapist told me my calfs were aching because my mechanics were wrong and I had no 'float' in the pedal system, so a few shillings later, a nice, well specified British Audax-Style road bike with not many pounds. Time to hit the road up Swaledale!