The Modern Bicycle and Its Accessories

by Alex Schwalbach; Julius Wilcox

STEARNS SEPTUPLET.

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.

EVOLUTION OF THE TANDEM.

In 1868 Mrs. Grundy objected to the idea of a woman sitting astride a bicycle seat, and therefore the female rider of that period sat on one side of the saddle, as is usual in horseback riding, and pedalling with one foot. Just how she managed to handle her full skirts and a parasol, which was frequently carried, seems incomprehensible to the latter-day rider; this, indeed, is a feat that is usually only performed by one of our modern up-to-date trick riders. A number of early attempts were also made to make a successful type of tandem safety. The first one, however, to attain any success in that line is known as the Lightning, made by Hall & Phillips, and which was afterward produced by many of the English makers with modifications thereof, and at this period in the history of the sport we find that R. J. Mecredy and Gerald Stoney, in their work entitled The Art and Pastime of Cycling, say that “tandem safeties should theoretically be extremely fast, but the stresses are very great, and somehow no tandem bicycle records equal the records of single bicycles, although the tandem tricycle is faster than the single tricycle.” Since that time, however, the conditions have been reversed, and tandem and multicycle records are much better than the records of the single bicycle.