Double drilled cranks for a child

[MikeLR]

Have you tried Longstaff Cycles,they made me a pair of crank shortners with two sets of pedal holes.

[Bensons]

Thanks Drossall - very cheap but my husband doesn't think that they will work with the cranks.

Were they expensive Mike?

We wouldn't want to go down the drilling route just from a structural point of view really - and the fact that it should be relatively short term ... unless our daughter stops growing like a weed.

Thanks everyone for chipping in - very grateful, we had never ever considered a tandem before last week so this is all very new to us!

[fivegoforth]

For a tandem the cheapest easiest way is the old blocked pedals job.
It's worked for us on our last tour (first with our tandem and triplet). Just taken a pic of our (on tour fix) but it has lasted about 200miles so far.




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[Bensons]

Five - thank you, you have brightened up my morning on what is going to be a very long day - what fun your lucky kids have .

Wood is an option then! The bike is due for delivery today but my husband (who provides the manual labour around here) is not here until Monday so set up will have to wait until then.

I wonder if we could do wood on one side of the pedal only as the plan is for me to use the stoker for a bit too while my bike is off for a respray.

[Bensons]

I think I have had an idea - free and doesn't involve any work really.

We have got numerous sets of spare pedals lying around. We could remove the threads and just zip tie an old set onto the pedals on the tandem. Make sure my daughter is on the right side - maybe by using my old toe clips when she rides on the side she needs them on.

A possibility anyway.

[drossall]

Pedals weighted one side will always be upside down

[RickH]

These are cheap.

Yes but note that they are limited to cranks "up to 17mm width", which more or less equates to steel cranks (the not particularly fat alloy cranks - Campag Comp Triple - on the bike that is to hand are 30mm).

Rick.

[fivegoforth]

If you do only weight one side I'm sure you will be surprised at how quickly your daughter will work out how to turn the pedals to suit her side. As most of us have in the past when using toe-clips/cages.
If you put blocks on both sides all you need to do is lift the seat a little bit more for yourself as the crank legnth won't change with blocks as it will with shorteners or double drilled cranks.

Only downside I've had is on the rare occasion is contact with the ground due to the lower side but that could also be slightly attributed to the length of the triplet too.

Hope you find a solution that works for you all.

[rjb]

Pedals weighted one side will always be upside down

If you use a bungee cord you can keep the weighted pedals upright.

[Bensons]

Thank you everyone, we can only try - if we end up having to buy crank shorteners so be it, but we will do our best not to!

[Bensons]

We have now tried a couple of things and have resorted to wood a la Five Go Forth.

I made a couple of straps out of nylon webbing and sewed a bit of corset boning in the middle to give them form - works really well. Our daughter got the hang of flipping the pedal and getting her foot through the strap really quickly - will do until she doesn't need them. The stitching quickly wore away on the outside edge when she took a few goes to get her foot in but they are fine.

I might produce a more refined version with wide double velcro if I need to make any more for whatever reason.

We love it, managed 25 miles this morning for breakfast which we would never have done with her in tow before.

[fivegoforth]

Great news, glad it's working. Have fun out there

[Milfred Cubicle]

I have a pair of Santana crank shorteners for sale. Bulletproof, as recommended by J.D Tandems. Feel free to p.m. me if interested.

[Bensons]

Thank you Milfred but we have got some.

We found that because she isn't used to the speed (and they get going a bit) and because she has only got ordinary pedals she was struggling to keep her feet on the pedals at times. We have got spare toe clips but they are all too big for her and made her worry a bit which is not the plan.

So we took them off and decided that if it was good enough for Five Go Forth it was good enough for us! We will rethink it before our trip to France in the Spring if we have to.