I didn't think the Evans tandem (http://tinyurl.com/uh85) looked late 1950s either--but I thought it looked earlier rather than later. I sometimes find it difficult to guess the age of tandems but this one has a head clip and, I think, Chater Lea seat stay ends both of which would appear to place it a decade earlier. Not knowing a lot about tandems, it's possible that head clips were used well into the 1950s long after most solo builders had stopped using them.
The paint is amazingly glossy for it to be an original finish on a 1950s bike. I wish the old bikes I find had paint as good as this. I wonder if the Mafac canti bosses have been added at some stage and the bike refinished. If the Williams chainset is original, it would be nice to know the date code on the chain ring.
Like Ed Kasper below, this is in no way questioning the bike or the seller. Whoever ends up with this one is getting a lovely machine.
Bruce
Dundee
Scotland
> From: Wolfman231@aol.com
>
> What a beautiful tandem. And not disparaging this bike or the seller in the
> least...it doesn't LOOK late 1950s to me. The paint and decals are sooo
> nice...and so many of the parts updated...both admitted in the listing and
> not...Crane derailleur, drilled Mafac lever, Campagnolo Superleggera pedals. What
> about the bike do those more experienced clue into to conclusively date the bike?
>
> Thanks in advance for the education,
>
> Ed Kasper
> Detroit
> (Who hates anything older than I am looking better than I do...)
>
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