Our Roberts tandem weighs 42lbs with rear rack, mudgaurds pump and bottle cages. This is about as light as you can get for a touring tandem. Most will weigh a fair bit more. Your Dawes will probably weigh more. To keep it light you need to choose components carefully as well as using lighter, thinner tubing.

Try weighing it on bathroom scales by balancing it on the rear wheel or use luggage scale for weighing your suitcases.

I came from solo to tandem and basically came to the conclusion that I needed to shift my mind set.  My solo bikes weighed from 6.5kg (14.3kg) for the fancy summer bike to about 9kg (20lb) for my audax / winter bike (maybe a bit more - was never to fussed about the weight of that one).  I think of the tandem as two audax bikes.  My Orbit has an alloy frame which I'm sure helps with weight alongside stiffness.  I'm more concerned about about strength, the thought of something failing makes me happy to accept the bikes weight.

Aluminium framed tandems tend to be lighter but can feel a bit wooden (hard unforgiving ride) steel is more comfortable. Dawes cycles of all types tend to be quite heavy but very well built and comfortable. If you want lighter you can get lighter but it costs more. Basically you get what you pay for. If you want to get a feel for a range of tandems in different materials, I would recommend you go to JD Tandems in Gargrave to try some. They have a good selection in steel, very light steel ( Columbus spirit tubing)  aluminium, scandium aluminium, titanium and carbon. What suits you best will really depend upon what you want to do with it (loaded touring, light touring, day rides, fast rides, racing) and what you want it to feel like (comfortable and very stable, lighter and more responsive - but not good loaded) etc

Aluminium framed tandems tend to be lighter but can feel a bit wooden (hard unforgiving ride) steel is more comfortable. Dawes cycles of all types tend to be quite heavy but very well built and comfortable. If you want lighter you can get lighter but it costs more. Basically you get what you pay for. If you want to get a feel for a range of tandems in different materials, I would recommend you go to JD Tandems in Gargrave to try some. They have a good selection in steel, very light steel ( Columbus spirit tubing)  aluminium, scandium aluminium, titanium and carbon. What suits you best will really depend upon what you want to do with it (loaded touring, light touring, day rides, fast rides, racing) and what you want it to feel like (comfortable and very stable, lighter and more responsive - but not good loaded) etc

Thanks for the comments I specifically wanted to go on some local club rides but think it might be a job to keep up on the Dawes. I suppose the strength= weight, is needed with two onboard. I must say I find the Dawes incredibly comfortable and very forgiving and flexible in the right places. I have carbon fibre and Titanium road bikes although I haven't used them for a fair while it is just amazing how heavy the tandem seems compared to 2 road bikes. I will make the trip to JD tandems sounds well worth it.

Thanks all.

We have a Santana eSCApe tandem which is made in the US.  The frame is made of scandium alloy, which gives it great tensile strength and allows for extremely thin tubes. The weight of a medium sized frame is just 5.4lbs.   Ours has Santana's own design of couplers which allows the tandem frame to be broken down and it fits into a single case measuring 27" x 33" x 14".  The tandem has mostly carbon components, a carbon timing belt, a 10" rear disc and Spinergy 24 spoke wheels.  All up weight is under 30lbs, and packed in its Safecase for transport it's under 30kg which allows it to fly as either normal luggage or as a solo bike.  It's a great piece of kit - but comes at a price!  There's also no UK importer for them so we had to purchase from Santana in the US and have it shipped here, paying VAT and import duty on it.  It's been all over Europe with us, round all the Baltic states and is just back from a trip to Canada, so the ease of transporting it was important to us.  

We live on the edge of the peninines and spend lots of time going uphill.  Myself and Chris are 2 club level riders and keep up well on group rides.  On the flat and downhill we have good advantage, yes the uphold are slower but not significantly.  We have certainly suprised solo riders by matching them going uphill, with the occasional overtake :-)

If you are confident solo riding with a club, I'd certainly try out the tandem on a club run.

Many cyclists are focussed on trimming the weight of their machines but perhaps more significant is the weight of all the things we carry with us when cycling, even on short rides. Panniers, like the boots of cars, are havens for all that we might need, spare clothing, one tool or many, spare this or that. Some people spring the extra cash to save a bit of weight on the pedals and then fit and use a third drink carrier.

Mixed cycling (solos and tandems) with care and consideration on both sides it is possible to enjoy this form of mixed cycling but it does take extra effort to keep the group together. I have not had any recent experience of cycling solo but I would imagine that many club rides have an average speed significantly above the max assisted speed of pedelec tandems.

Michael in Norwich

I have weighed my Dawes Galaxy Twin and my Viking mtb Tandem and they both weigh around 20kg.

I did look at a 531 tandem that was for sale which was older and built by a very good frame builder but it was around 20kg as well which sort of answered my original question.

Not so easy with a Tandem to do the traditional bike weight test (a quick lift when you encounter one at a cafe stop) as it is not a regular occurrence to see one in fact we have yet to pass one on our travels.

When I first started cycling I had a heavy touring bike that was 531 tube from Edinburgh cycling it was a cracking bike and I thought very light, it was only when I turned up to a cycle club that I realised it was very heavy at around 12kg unlike most of the club riders 6-7kg carbon framed thingamijigs so I just wanted to check the dawes wasnt the same sort of beast and it appears Tandems are all around the 20kg ish mark even the older hand built ones.

Unless of course I want to spend a lot of money.

Maybe a list of Tandem weights would be a good club resource?

Our 1990's Galaxy twin with front and rear racks in 531 tubing also weighs about 20 kg.

I also think Tandem weight is not that important as long as you have some reasonably high ratio gears for those steep hills and you are not racing to the top of a hill! I consider robustness of the Tandem is much more important for safely and reliability. With an all up weight of say 160 kg (75 kg and 65 kg riders and 20 kg tandem) adding even 10 kg weight (50%) to a Tandem only increases the overall weight by 6% and that is ignoring paniers and their often weighty contents. Even then it is really aerodynamics that is your killer rather than weight especially when its windy.

I've put up a basic Physics calculator for a Touring type of 60 km tandem ride at: https://tandem-club.org.uk/files/physics/TandemRide.py which I think is roughly correct. With this for a 60km circular ride with 500m of climbing on a 20 kg Tandem you would average about 21.1 km/h with a climbing speed of 10.52 km/h (3.3% gradient). On a 30 kg Tandem you would average about 20.43 km/h with a climbing speed of 9.95 km/h, so about 3% less overall speed. If that simulation is approximately correct.

My first group ride on Sunday went very well had no problems keeping up with the local club medium group luckily it was on the flat? The only time we had to fire up the quads was at junctions when the solo riders could be quicker of the mark.

It is certainly different riding a tandem in a group of fairly quick 15mph+ solo riders. Pretty sure the faster group would be to much as even though we can cruise along at the same speed I think getting dropped at junctions etc would be to easy. It is okay putting that big effort in to catch a wheel once or twice but over 40-50 miles it would be very hard. The length of the tandem also makes it difficult to be anywhere except the back or the front of the group but it was good fun and I am glad I gave it a go.

The weight of a tandem matters quite a lot when you are not riding it - for lifting it onto a car roof, or just moving it around to park up or get it out of the way at home -  especially if you are doing either of these things alone. You tend to do this from the front, as you need to control the steering - which is one reason the weight of a Rohloff hub might be significant, being at the far end. Maybe the only reason.

We have a Orbit sapphire coupled tandem built with Reynolds 853 and Orbit Lightning Aluminium framed tandem. We cycle with a solo club and find that up to 4/5% hills we can keep up with the solos above that, we lose ground but they know we will generally catch them on the decent or flat. It does depend on the group standard though!!

As far as weight is concerned the Lightning, in its naked form, is about 15.5 kg, the sapphire is slightly heavier. We have a 11 to 42 rear cassette with 48/32 front chain wheels so it is great for climbing but we will never keep up with solos on steep long climbs. We only do day rides so don't carry panniers racks or mudguards (in the summer) but have a small tool bag and small saddle attached sack.

We have great fun cycling with solos as they know if they draft us on the flat or long shallow descents, it is like being behind a bus!(not sure my wife likes that analogy!) I wouldn't get too hung up on bike weight, as stated elsewhere, it is probably easier to lose a couple of kilo's from your waist!! At the end of the day it is about enjoyment!