The Companion
If you know anything about the Carrier, then you’ll have a pretty good idea about the Companion: this is a Carrier made for two. This is a primo, casual tandem for on or off road touring, chilled out day ride explorations, B-road cruises and coupled up trips, or just spinning into town.
£5000
Includes frame, fork, 2 x stems, Bushnell EBB, front porteur rack with removable lowriders and rear rack.
Designed for town or tour
Each Companion is custom sized for each team, with my preference for an upright position with drops or upright bars - so tall headtubes, reach numbers appropriate for bar choice and relatively low BBs for stability. I use a size specific mix of Reynolds 631, prioritising stability when loaded.
Lateral tubes
The Companion has two extra downtubes to keep the bike really triangulated. This means that even loaded up, it doesn't have any unnerving flex, and it's nice and strong. Many tandems miss these out, but I think they really help to make the team feel confident in the bike.
Reinforcements, everywhere
Durability of my bikes is super important to me, and I know it is for my customers. To that end, I make sure that the Companion has reinforcements at every place of potential weakness. The seat tube slots terminate with copper rinforcements, the captain's seat tube is sleeved for the lateral downtubes, the headtube has extra thick turned rings for extra loading on the fork. There is a brace for the IS disk mount to transfer the load of big tandem brakes into the chainstays. The Captain's seat tube has two binder bosses to cope with the leverage of the stoker bars. The dynamo wire entry ports are heavily reinforced with turned stainless parts. Built for the long haul.
Custom stems
As with all my bikes, I provide handmade stems. These match the style of the bike to keep the elegance high, and mean that the bars can be perfectly positioned for each rider. Stoker stems can be either straight or curved for maximum height if required.
A stable ride
The geometry has been relaxed compared to the Carrier, to account for the extra instability of the weight of two humans high up on the bike. The last thing a tandem team needs is feeling like the bike isn't fully reigned in and under control. The Companion feels neutral and easy to ride. For any given sizes, I generally keep the chainstays and boom tube quite long to create more space for the stoker, and centralise the riders within the wheels.The long chainstays mean the wheel isn't directly under the stoker, for more comfort on bumpier terrain.
Stainless pin steering lock
I've developed a few different designs for steering locks over my years making bikes. A steering lock is a really nice little quality of life detail on a heavily loaded bike, expecially with a front load. It locks out the front wheel so that when parked up, it cannot flop around and roll over. Especially with the length and weight of a heavily loaded tandem, this really helps whether its propped against a tree or dry stone wall, or in a bike rack at the supermarket. The stainless pin can be clipped to your keys when not in use, and you can even put a small shackle padlock through as a minimal security option somewhere low risk, but where you still might want a lock.
Custom racks
Touring on a tandem always brings up a storage space issue: half as many wheels to hang luggae over as two riders would have on lonely bikes! The Carrier rackset up front helps mitigate this. with a big load platform up top for a Carrier Bag and lowriders below for even extra large "rear" panniers, there's plenty of room in combination with the custom rear rack. I also work closely with my friends at Wizard Works if you want custom framebags to fit for even more room.
Integrated dynamo lighting
I'm a firm believer in having dynamo lights that you don't even need to think about, wires neatly secured. The light wires are internal in the front and rear racks, and run externally down the frame secured with the rear brake hose.
Effortless mudguard mounting
Designed from the off with Gilles Berthoud’s incredible stainless mudguards in mind, the Companion clears big 60mm mudguards even with really big tyres. The curved bridges are positioned so the mudguards bolt on perfectly with no hassle to clear up to a 2.25" tyre.
Super clean cable routing
Obviosuly there's a lot of length in a tandem, so clean cable routing is really important. All the cables on the Companion run neatly down the non-drive side of the lateral tubes, meaning the cables are going in a nice straight line to the rear of the bike. Added to the headtube is a copper anti cable rub strip.
Tandems are just fun
Beyond all this techy stuff, tandems have a unique energy to them. You can go really fast, because there's two of you pedalling. But at the same time, they're perfect for relaxed fun riding that Clandestine is all about: you can easily talk to each other, pass snacks and water back and forth, and no one has to worry about being dropped on a climb or in a headwind. Tandems are real joy machines, for the team itself, and often for any folk you bump into on the road!
Specifications
- Custom sized to each rider
- 650B x 48-56mm w. mudguards
- 650B x 2.4” w.o. mudguards
- 110x15mm, 148x12mm through axles
- 68mm BSA BB and Bushnell EBB
- EC34 headtube
- 31.6mm seatposts
- IS disk mounts
£5000
Includes frame, fork, 2 x stems, Bushnell EBB, front porteur rack with removable lowriders, and rear rack.