TANDEM CONSTRUCTION OF THE YEAR.
The trade authorities predict that 1898 will be a banner year for tandem riding, and there are a number of very good reasons in support of this view, the leading one being the question of price, prices now ranging from $75 to $100 and $125 for the best makes, prices which certainly cannot be called prohibitory for a tandem, because it was only a few years ago that the makers asked $125 and $150 for the best makes of single bicycles. About sixty or more of the best known makers in the country are this season making tandems, both in diamond and combination styles. Variations in these styles consist in what they call convertible, which are tandems provided with an extra top bar so as to convert a combination tandem into a double diamond, and three of our well-known makers, the Humber, the Dayton and the Oliver, make double drop tandems which are also convertible into double diamond tandems, and the makers of the Defender confine themselves to making a double diamond frame tandem only, while the makers of the Stokes, Lyndhurst, Clipper, Winton and Featherstone make a combination tandem only, but which are all convertible into double diamond tandems.
STEARNS
CONVERTIBLE TANDEM.
Right here, however, it might be well to explain the meaning of the terms used. A diamond frame tandem is one having both sections of the frame in diamond shape, and is built for two men to ride. A combination tandem is one having the rear part of the frame diamond shape and the front part dropped, so that a lady wearing skirts can readily mount; and a convertible tandem is one arranged so that a detachable main upper tube can be placed in between the head and front seat post of a combination tandem, and the tandem thereby converted into a double diamond. All the structural details heretofore noted in the course of these articles have been carried by the makers of tandems into their tandem construction. During 1896 and 1897 the popular fad seemed to be to carry the front chain through the lower part of the frame so as to produce what they call centre driving. All the makers, however, have abandoned this device excepting the makers of the Stearns, who still use it. The majority of the makers carry both chains on one side, usually the right hand side, directly from the front sprocket to the middle sprocket axle, variations in this consisting in carrying a chain on each side. The makers of the National, however, have three chains on their tandem. They run a chain from the front sprocket direct to a supplementary sprocket on a stud and from which another chain runs to the rear axle on the left side carrying, however, as is usual in construction, the regulation chain from the middle sprocket to the rear axle on the right hand side. The makers of the Keating carry their front chain directly to the rear axle hub, and take up the slack and back lash by an idler placed midway on the frame between the front and rear sprocket. Nearly all the makes of tandems shown are what is known as double steerers, being controlled by the front and rear handlebars, a number of them using a sprocket and chain to make the connection between the two steering heads, others using a pair of parallel rods running from the fork crown to the rear steering heads. The makers of the Wolff-American use a twisted wire cable running over two small grooved wheels, and the slack of this cable, which is practically nothing, is taken up by a pair of turnbuckles. This flexible wire cable is an improvement over the stiff unyielding rods and permits making a very short turn.
Tandem bicycles have been largely experimented with from the very earliest history of the sport, the most common method being to connect front forks and front wheels of an ordinary bicycle by a horizontal bar.