Another Back to Back

I found out about this unique back to back through my friend Martin on YouTube. This tandem was built by Jan Friedl (on the captain's seat) and Jirka Hebeda, both from Czech Republic.


Jirka provided the following information about the bike:

The design and frame were mostly done by my friend who is piloting it in that picture (with the rest of his family on board). The basic idea is this: a cross between racing and touring configuration easily converted between the two.

The frame was designed to be simple yet effective and tolerant to manufacturing imperfections. Front geometry is done so that the head tube and main frame tube are perpendicular - for easy building.

The rear end is designed to be stiff under load of baggage. The ride is rather harder as a result of the sporty configuration, but still quite ok. It is reasonably fast and we did beat Martin's tandem in that 24 hour race :-). The wheelbase is 2300mm (about 7.5 feet) and front wheel trail 70mm. Seats are movable in large range via several holes in the main frame and clamp on the seat stays. Pedals are mounted by a bracket onto the main tube and can be adjusted finely to the millimeter.

What's intriguing about this bike is it's apparent simplicity. I can't see any curved tubing, only angles. If Jan and Jirka are willing to share the plans, I'd like to try to build one of these.

Bad Breaks (Part 2)

Regular readers of this blog know that I broke my right femur in a fall from my Seavo tandem a little over one year ago. My stoker, Liz, was uninjured. She also saved my life by dragging me off of the metro railroad tracks, moments before a metro train came around the corner. I have recovered fully.

In an incredible coincidence, Liz fell down a hill and onto some concrete three weeks ago and broke her right femur. Now we both have broken right femurs. Her break was within an inch of the location of mine. Unfortunately, it is too high to save her hip joint so, unlike me, she's getting a total hip replacement instead of a rod and screws like me. One of the benefits of the hip replacement is that she can be full weight bearing from Day 1. I couldn't put weight on my leg for 6 weeks.

She has been anxious to get back on the tandem so we will try a short test ride this afternoon.

Fog Ride

Contrasted to last week's cold rain ride, we had a crowd in Fulshear this past Saturday. First of all, my friends from Austin, Phillip and Frances, brought their new Seavo down for a run with us. It's a beautiful build from Hostle Shoppe. In addition, Marty, his friend Harry, Ben, Steve, Danny, Debbie and Pat also showed up. We've had some pretty thin ranks so far this year, but as the weather improves that seems to be changing.

The fog in Fulshear on Saturday morning was as think as I've ever seen it. We decided to stay off the main roads until the sun made an appearance.

Once the fog was gone we headed up to Fulshear with a nice tailwind and then back south to the parking lot into the wind. This gave me a chance to really let the Oregon loose. Like most low racers, this bike loves a headwind. I was able to easily drop the entire group, including Harry on his DF. I love this bike!

Thanks to Deb for the pictures.

Cold and Wet

Whether we would ride at all this past Saturday morning was in question. The forecast was 50% rain (I try to stay away from wet roads since I broke my femur on one last year) and temps in the low 40s. Nevertheless, it was not raining when I got up at 5 and the weather radar looked good so I met the group out in Fulshear. Jim rode with me and Debbie and Pat and Robert met us at the parking lot in Fulshear.

This was the first real road test for my new Barcroft Oregon. Bill Cook shipped the bike almost ready to ride. All I had to do was attach the handelbars and tighten up the headset and I was ready to roll. Right off the bat I found that the handlebars were too narrow for me. I wrote Bill and he shipped me a set of Volae bars that arrived a couple of days later. I've had the bike about 2 weeks now. I logged 40 miles in the park during the past week to get the seat dialed in, but this was the first real road test. I have no complaints. I thought that maybe the 451 x 1.2" wheels might make for a rough ride, but I hardly noticed the bumps. The bike is very smooth and quiet. I'm still building muscles to pedal on this particular bike, but I can see already that it's going to be really fast. Headwinds are no problem.

The skies threatened rain all morning and there were a few rain drops around mile 11, but we ignored them.

We had an extended break at the half way point because Robert had a flat. While watching him repair it Debbie remarked,"I've never had a flat since I've been riding out here." We all froze and then patiently explained to her that saying such a thing was very bad ju-ju. Naturally she had a blow out about 30 minutes later.

Fortunately, Jim and I had pulled ahead so we were blissfully unaware that everyone else had stopped to help Debbie change her tire. We called back for them at the next break point and learned of the blow out. As we were only 11 miles from the parking lot and the rain was picking up a little, Jim and decided the best thing we could do was push on to the truck in case we needed to come back and pick anyone up.

As we pulled into Fulshear, the rain looked like it might get serious so we pushed on toward the parking lot with numb hands and feet. The skies really opened up just as we got the bikes loaded back in my truck, with everyone else still 10 miles behind us out on the road. We doubled back in the truck for Robert, Debbie and Pat and, in spite of the cold rain that was now falling in earnest, no one wanted a ride to the lot. I learned later that Debbie had used the hand dryer at the Shell Station break point to warm her hands and feet. Jim and I turned on our heated seats and headed home for lunch and a nap.

Thanks to Debbie and Pat for the pictures.

The Amazing Bikes of Axel Ewen (Part 1)

Several weeks ago I posted a picture of this bike and asked about the storage bag. First I got a reply from Craig and Vicky with pictures and info on their tandem trike. This weekend I received an interesting letter from Axel Ewen who actually built this Flevo back to back:

The "Flevo"B2B with the yellow bags on your page is made by me. I made the bags too. There is a zipper under a water resistant flap .There is enough space for camping gear for 2 people. If we use it for traveling, we put a daypack or, better yet, a sleeping bag on top of the yellow bag.

The steel frame parts are made by chrom moly. Some friends tried to copy my idea to configure the rear chain without pulleys, but it didn´t work, because of the a small difference in the stock Flevo rear wheel mount. (Axel is right. I never noticed it before but if you look at the original picture I posted of his Flevo you will see that the rear chain reverses without pulleys!)

I am not realy happy with this bike. There is a lot of conversation nessesary, because of the independant cadence.

The suspension can only catch the half of the bumps, so it needs 26"wheels, to give more comfort. For people like me with short legs, a frame on 20" wheels gives better ground control and feels much stiffer and safer.

Axel has sent me information on his other amazing bikes and I will be posting them here soon.

Back to Back Trike

In an earlier post I pondered whether there were any good suppliers for racks or panniers for the Flevo back to back. I received an email from Craig and Vicky from California suggesting that I try Radical for custom panniers. They attached pictures of their rig with the Radical custom bags on board. I will follow up with Radical since the bags look well made and are a perfect fit for the trike. I was more taken, however, with the back to back trike itself. I've only seen one tandem trike before and never a back to back set up.

I asked Craig about the history behind the bike. I'll let him tell the rest of the story:

We used to ride folding bikes (lived afloat a good portion of our lives and they seemed a sensible solution to space requirements) but we shifted to recumbent bikes in 1997 or so. Gradually fell in with the trike world starting in 2000 and got our first recumbent tandem trike a couple of years later. We enjoyed the tandem aspect but that particular machine was too heavy and too slow, so after a year, we sold it. When the fellows at ICE in Falmouth, GB developed their B2B, it was a custom job for a pair of serious randoneers who had already logged 35,000 miles of riding. That pair’s requirements for a lighter, more aero machine nicely synched with our thoughts and when the resulting machine was shown at one of the European bike shows, it re-kindled our interest in having a tandem. We questioned whether Vicky would find the stoker’s position enjoyable, so we arranged for some cheap seats on a flight to London and then took the train to Falmouth to try the prototype. As it happened, we were seated facing aft during much of the train trip and Vicky found herself getting queasy!

That did not seem like a good harbinger for this machine. However, once she was riding – out in the open – there was no problem and she quickly became quite enthusiastic about having one built up for us. We have had it almost 4 years now and have particularly enjoyed touring with it in such locales as Mendocino, Death Valley, Central Oregon and British Columbia. It *just* fits in our Honda Odyssey van, rear wheel forward between the front seats and the captain’s crank boom removed.

the ICE folk have ceased building custom machines in lieu of their very successful production trikes and bikes. I have seen a photo of another Greenspeed-clone B2B trike in the NY area, however AFAIK, the total in existence of trike B2Bs is only 3.

Thanks for the tip and the history Craig and Vicky! It's great to hear from other back to back tandem couples, no matter how many wheels are involved. We hope to meet you out on the road someday.

Uwe Anderseck's Back to Back Tandem

I found Uwe's back to back tandem on YouTube and wrote his son Martin asking about the design and construction of this interesting back to back. You can see videos of taken from the bike on YouTube by searching for "Flevomartin."

He wrote me back and said:

The tandem in the video is a homebuilt one by my father (who filmed btw. while I was on the captain's seat). You can see it on my webpage http://radseiten.die-andersecks.de/lieger.php (Rücken-an-Rücken-Tandem).

We had the building instructions of the Flevo-BTB here but eventually it had some disadvantages for us:

-big wheels are less stable-the suspension in the middle doesn't bring the wished effect anyway, therefore we chose mesh seats and wide tyres

-the Flevo-BTB is not very stiff when doing fast changes of left and right corners. It bends somewhat in the middle. Our tandem doesn't do that so extremely.

-once built you cannot modify so much at the Flevo-BTB, no easy luggage carrier in the middle and that stuff. Therefore the simple steel tube (50x50x1.5mm btw.).

The BTB concept isn't very popular because recumbent cyclists are "strange" people. And for a tandem you need two of them cycling together regularly. Our tandem was mainly thought for my parents but of course it's much fun to go on it with two strong cyclists. I've done a 24h race together with a friend of mine which was really great fun.


This is the second person with a Flevo BTB who reports that the frame has too much flex in turns. Dustin Anderson reported that the Flevo he bought used had this problem but that it was caused by the fact that many of the small rivets in the aluminum skin on his bike had backed out or failed. He replaced all the rivets but I don't have any ride reports from him so I'm not sure I fixed the problem. I've never experienced the problem on my Flevo, but I bought mine with very low mileage.

I do have to agree with Martin that the smaller wheel size makes the bike much handier to start and maneuver.