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Jack Taylor tandems
I’m in the process of slowly restoring a Jack Taylor tandem. The usual high quality offering, but mine is rather tired. It is similar (but not as pretty as) machine illustrated on
http://classiccycleus.com/home/1970-jack-taylor-tandem/
There is one aspect I can’t quite fathom. This is that both the front and rear racks don’t seem to be anchored to the frame in the conventional manner. They follow the usual fixing pattern with the legs bolted to eyes on the fork ends, but the top part of the rack has no horizontal bracketry connecting it to the main body of the frame. What holds the rack in-situ is the mudguard. These substantial steel luggage holders are attached via two 2BA / M5 bolts to the Lefol thin gauge aluminium mudguard, which in turn has two similar screws bolting it to the frame under the brake and chainstay bridge.
I had thought my machine was alone in this curious way of indirect mounting, but the prettier machine on the link is exactly the same, so this was how the Taylor brothers intended the racks to be presented.
Am I alone in thinking this is a pretty crazy idea?
We had a Jack Taylor tandem some years ago (probably 30!) which I modified over time but, when we first got it, it had quite substantial aluminium mudguards on 650B wheels (which I changed to 700c partly because of the difficulty of acquiring tyres) and IIRC the rear carrier relied on the mudguard which, like you I didn't like.
Eventually I fitted lugs for low riders at the front and I think had lugs for the rear carrier fitted on chain stays (either that or clamps). We didn't cycle camp seriously on the tandem; our serious tours in the mountains were always on singles.
Geoff Sleath