Author Topic: Landscape Tandem  (Read 7759 times)

Landscape Tandem
« on: 19 January, 2017, 09:19:54 pm »
Looking to replace a Dawes Galaxy Twin with a new tandem. Options seem to be rather limited Roberts are no longer in business and Mercian and Longstaffe have very long waiting times.
Have been looking at Landscape as an off-the-peg option, does anyone have any experience of their aluminium based frame either with aluminium or carbon forks?

Re: Landscape Tandem
« Reply #1 on: 20 January, 2017, 10:18:04 am »
We were hoping for a Roberts but placed the order just as he folded so ended up replacing our Galaxy, well n+1 anyway, with an Orbit Lightning Titanium https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=98001.0 from JD Cycles.  'Off the Peg' but with custom build options.  My belief is that Mercian and Longstaffe are not really equivalents of Orbit or Landescape being custom touring machines and also more expensive.

We considered the Landescape but as I am not a fan of aluminium and there were some detail points about the Landescape that I was not keen on.

However 321up of this parish has a Landescape and has commented as follows:
Quote
The Landescape 'Direct Lateral' frameset (Aluminium) is a little over three times the price of the Dolan frameset but is definitely worth the extra cost.  The Landescape is made to measure and the design + construction quality looks much better.  The Landescape forks have a disc mount, lowrider carrier bosses and they even fitted cantilever bosses at my request (I've fitted TRP CX9 direct pull front brakes which performed very well when tested down a number of 1:3 hills last weekend).  The Landescape forks seem more robust than the Dolan forks, but still a lot more comfortable than the steel forks on our Orbit which give a very harsh ride.  The Landescape is spaced for a 145mm rear wheel.  Our Landescape has been built much longer at the back with a conventional telescopic stokers stem.  We had a choice of colours for the Landescape.  We are looking forward to trying out the Dolan on some longer rides, if the short stokers stem compensates for it being short at the back and the 35mm offset seat posts compensate for the frame angle then it could be fast fun machine to ride - if that shorter geometry works for us then we could be tempted to apply it with a few modifications to another made to measure frame in future.  I'll do a more detailed comparison article on the three frames when I have time.

Russell

Re: Landscape Tandem
« Reply #2 on: 21 January, 2017, 04:56:44 pm »
Russell
Thanks for your reply, having had originally an Orbit with step-down frame and twin laterals made with 531c which was very flexible,was not keen to look at Orbit agiain.
However clearly they are now a different entity offering what looks like an interesting range, will certainly be giving it more thought.
Tim

Re: Landscape Tandem
« Reply #3 on: 22 January, 2017, 08:18:51 am »
+1 for JD tandems for their quality of service. We have no experience of their off the peg Orbit frames, but after 4 years now, we are still very happy with our custom built Reynolds frame. We had several issues with chainsets and hubs, and each time, Ruth was very helpful.

Re: Landscape Tandem
« Reply #4 on: 22 January, 2017, 07:58:28 pm »
There is the opportunity to try Landescape and Comotion tandems at the tandem shop at Coalbrookdale. We found the Comotion to be superior but out of our price range so considered a custom Landescape to be a realistic option (until we bought a second hand Cannondale which is lovely!

Re: Landscape Tandem
« Reply #5 on: 23 January, 2017, 07:13:36 am »
Interesting point, Alismed! On which aspect(s) did you judge the comotion to be superior?

mmmmartin

  • BPB 1/1: PBP 0/1
    • FNRttC
Re: Landscape Tandem
« Reply #6 on: 23 January, 2017, 10:29:50 am »
Over on CycleChat forums, @srw and @rvw are tandemistas and have a couple of machines, one being a basic version, the other something snazzy that comes apart and fits inna box. Might be worth contacting them, they've done some long trips with this.
Besides, it wouldn't be audacious if success were guaranteed.

Re: Landscape Tandem
« Reply #7 on: 23 January, 2017, 01:05:38 pm »
The Comotion was very stable indeed. We find that in our Cannondale too but the Comotion was the perfect fit first time whereas we have had to make adaptations to our Cannondale. On that front we got lucky with the hire model. It was very high spec which may have helped!  I think I would go for a custom build for the next machine, probably Comotion, now we know we get on with tandeming. Happy shopping!

thing1

  • aka Joth
    • TandemThings
Re: Landscape Tandem
« Reply #8 on: 24 January, 2017, 03:34:45 am »
Co-motion would be my starting place for an off the peg road tandem, but if you're paying in GBP I bet they're a pretty penny right now

Morat

  • I tried to HTFU but something went ping :(
Re: Landscape Tandem
« Reply #9 on: 24 January, 2017, 10:51:31 pm »
It's a shame you don't like Alu, the Cannondale road tandems are great. If you're worried about harshness, they can take pretty big tyres. The one I ride started off with 25mm gators and now has 32mm gators. There's still room to go bigger.
Everyone's favourite windbreak

321up

  • 59° N
Re: Landscape Tandem
« Reply #10 on: 29 January, 2017, 01:40:10 pm »
In my opinion it's less about the frame material and more about the design, quality of materials and manufacture.  Our 1986 Dawes Super Galaxy 531 frame was retired because it did not fit us well - otherwise it was still ok aside from the lack of ridgidity.  We had two aluminium Orbit frames, each lasted about a year https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=84172 - have they changed the design of the dropout yet?  We have since had a Dolan aluminium frame which has thus far been very good for a low cost frame (we use this lightly loaded), but they only do one size.  Our aluminium Landescape frame is by far the best frame we have had in terms of design, quality, performance, strength and handling.  The fitting service for the Landescape was excellent and discovered some fit issues that were not noticed by JD Tandems when we were fitted for the Orbit.  If we were buying another frame it would be a Landescape.

Re: Landscape Tandem
« Reply #11 on: 01 February, 2017, 09:37:22 pm »
It looks like the way forward is a visit to The Tandem Shop
321up, are you the Ashley that used to ride with Winchester CTC?

Re: Landscape Tandem
« Reply #12 on: 30 August, 2017, 04:10:31 pm »
Looking to replace a Dawes Galaxy Twin with a new tandem. Options seem to be rather limited Roberts are no longer in business and Mercian and Longstaffe have very long waiting times.
Have been looking at Landscape as an off-the-peg option, does anyone have any experience of their aluminium based frame either with aluminium or carbon forks?

Yes!
The Quisling Family have a Landescape set up on 26" wheels with alu forks.  Works fine for us but I haven't ridden it for a year (D'oh!).  I've just ordered a replacement gear mech' and hanger after an unfortunate mech-v-spokes incident which left me and Mrs Q carrying the tandem back from the curry house on Valentines Day in the dark.  Never let it be said I don't know how to treat a lady right  ::-)  Since then I've been re-fitting bathroom and kitchen and alas tandem rides have taken a backseat.

We bought ours from http://www.warlands-cycles.co.uk/catalogue/tandems who built it up to our spec.  I don't know about their current specifications, but our frameset can certainly be converted to run as a 700C rig if we want to go a bit more speedy.  Warlands were good folks to do business with I found.

Q