The Tandem: from the Mental Institution to us

The tandem was first bought by the mental institution "De Voscuyl" in Oegstgeest, The Netherlands. It was bought for the nurses to give the experience of riding a bike to the patients, the nurse on the front with the controls and the patient on the back hopefully enjoying themselves. Having de-rusted the bike, it seems like the bike was kept in a shed or garage for a long time without much use. Then five days before their cycle trip from the Netherlands to London, Maarten and Tom bought the tandem. Here are photos of their trip and then us buying it off them:

Go Away Rust!

After a trip to Halfords for a de-rusting kit and metal polish. We slowly took the rusty parts off the bike and made them all shiney, which really is a satisfying task!

On order; a bike cover so all our de-rusting does not go to waste, and some new pedals as the current ones have no grip on your shoes.

We have the Tandem!

We have the tandem! £70 from two dutch guys who had cycled it all the way from Amsterdam to London in four days. They had acquired it from a mental institution where nurses would give rides to the patients. We got it back to oxford, via the oxford tube, and took a closer look. It is made by the most famous dutch bike company: Gazelle and we believe it is from around thirty years old. It has a few bits of rust and some repairs to be made but we plan to restore it back to it's original condition.

Bursary!

We have been awarded the Richard Buckley Memorial Travelling Trust Award. We are going to use the £500 to buy a tandem and cycle around our neighbouring countries to develop our sketching skills, visit places for our final year of architecture and make a short film to exhibit with our work and promote cycling. Here is our proposal for what we are about to do: