Well the York Rally is over for another year and another very pleasant weekend it was.It was nice to see Ruth & Co on the JD stand with a good selection of tandems.I think the £10,500 Santana will have to wait a while though.
The journey back home today was a bit of a moist affair to say the least,at one point we had to dismount and wade ankle deep through a flooded section of road.Our feet were soaked by then anyway so it was immaterial.By the way,waterproof socks have their limitations.
Liz The Stoker was a trooper through all this,nare a grumble or a moan and considering it never stopped pouring down for 35 miles/three and a half hours, that is something to marvel at.
The Landescape stood up to the onslaught with only a couple of minor problems so all in all good weekend all round.
The Landescape stood up to the onslaught with only a couple of minor problems so all in all good weekend all round.
Ian
I’m surprised that the weather would cause it any problems at all, would you care to expand on this. We just spent an even wetter weekend in Bishop’s Castle and had no probs with the bike. The mud on the campsite was another matter entirely…
The Flightdeck computer refused to work on the return journey which I at first put down to it getting wet but it turned out it won’t work with the B & M headlight on ( see another thread on this topic ).
Secondly the gear change wasn’t all it could be at the rear,but I have adjusted it now and all is well.Couldn’t be bothered to see to it in the pouring rain.
Just read your other post about the flight deck and realised that might be the problem, tough luck that one. As for the gear change, I can understand not wanting to mess with that in the pouring rain
Bought a Landescape in 2005 after seeing them at York and talking to Pete Bird about the design. Tested one at JD’s and also tried a Santana which had good and bad points, the Landescape comes up as one of the best value bikes we’ve seen / ridden, we’re still glad we bought one.
We only had a quick trip to York this year, drove up for a couple of hours of retail therapy and a chance to chat to a few people, we’ve camped the last couple of years and we’ll be trying to camp again next year if we can find the time.
We found it to be a bit stiffer climbing but more ‘twitchy’ descending than the Landescape and we felt that the Landescape steered better especially on bumpy bits. Front and rear discs weren’t available and we’d already decided on that braking solution, it would have taken quite alot to make us change our minds. The versatility of the Landescape (disc or v brakes, wheel sizes, adjustability of both front and rear stem positioning) were just much more appealing than a slightly stiffer climbing frame. I’ve also seen comments from someone who felt the Landescape had bad frame flex and I disagree, it’s stiff enough for us with our camping gear and trailer, we’ve never felt any sign of flex although I did think that the Santana felt even stiffer as I said earlier.
I had been thinking that sometime in the future we may treat ourselves to a Santana,but having riden the Landescape I don’t think we shall bother.I can’t really see what else it would give us.
I had a look at the Santana Beyond at York,the £10 500 carbon and titanium job.On picking it up I was surprised that it was as heavy as it was.Lighter than the Landescape obviously but not as light as I imagined.
Whilst the Beyond would be nice, I think I might be chasing a Trice recumbent if I ever have £10500 to spend on a tandem, I’ll also have £6000 left over to have a pretty good holiday with . More realistically, the next tandem we buy will most likely be something with couplings to enable us to take it on holiday easily.
. More realistically, the next tandem we buy will most likely be something with couplings to enable us to take it on holiday easily.