I've already told you a little about our tandem bike. How Em and I put it together together, and it was at our wedding. We just celebrated our 24th anniversary, so the tandem went together 25 years ago. For the first 5 years, before kids, we rode it a lot. I maintained it, for sure, but I've never done a full tear-down in that time. It's no lightweight, but we've dragged it to Vermont, Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, North Carolina and of course Maryland, Virginia and DC. Some long drives with it bolted to the roof of the car. Some of them rainy. And lots of sweat.

Last year, with the kids grown and the pandemic and all we started riding it again. Not a lot, but probably more than the last 10 years combined. We still love being together on it, but we don't fit on it like we used to, and the heavy-duty but old drivetrain and brakes just aren't up to current standards and can be a little frustrating. So I decided to bring it up to date, with as little $ spent as possible.

It'll get a new fork, new wheels that I'm building, disc brakes front and rear, new cockpits, and a modern 10-speed drivetrain, though probably not new. With all that, I'm hoping it'll last us another 25 years, which I expect will be all we'll need.

To do all that work on a bicycle, however, first there is some disassembly required. And bikes of this age that have been ridden this much and worked on this little can sometimes not want to disassemble, especially if they were built in haste by a less than careful or skilled mechanic.

Luckily, I was the mechanic, assisted by Emily. And there in the basement of the house I lived in on Farragut St in DC, with Bob

Patten

getting to know

Lois Wessel

upstairs, I'm pretty sure I must have worked ultra carefully to impress my future wife. Because after 25 years, the bike came apart wonderfully, excepting the rear bottom bracket. Penetrating oil is doing its thing now, I'll get the rear bb out too.

Then I'll need to hunt down some more parts, build the wheels, clean and polish the frame and rust-protect the inside of it before I get to put all the modern stuff on it. Spring is coming! I'll keep you posted. 

 Here we are actually RIDING the tandem in June 2020.

 

In the first picture,

Emily North

and I are midway through the Seagull Century. We'd been married 8 months, almost to the day. Known each other less than 2 years. I was working for Trek Bicycle but I was too cheap to actually buy a tandem bike. Instead, possibly with some inside help from

Lester Binegar

, I found a bare frame in the Trek factory and picked all the parts from the closeout/discount parts list Trek had. Em and I built the beast together, in the basement of the place I was living in DC. Voila, less expensive tandem. Second picture shows it at our wedding, right at the front of the sanctuary. We even had waterbottles printed with a drawing of us riding it that everyone at our wedding got, third picture. Want a really good test of a young relationship? Ride 100 miles together on a tandem bicycle. Still have this bike, still ride it, still married!