Patrick and Béatrice's tandem
Patrick and Béatrice heard about Victoire by word of mouth, then met us at the Carnets de Voyage festival in Clermont-Ferrand. As we talked, we discovered that Julien's first tandem had once been theirs. They were looking for a custom tandem to travel on, with a sportier side too, right up to long-distance brevets. Together we designed a tandem that is both light and stiff, built largely from tubes made in France. This is Victoire No. 603.
We have built around ten tandems over the years, but this is the first one we have shown here. It won't be the last: François and Patricia's is coming very soon. Patrick and Béatrice wanted one bike for two uses: touring and Brevets de Randonneurs Mondiaux. After a bike fit for each of them, we drew a tandem able to carry luggage without losing its efficiency. The programme is already under way: they recently started a BRM in the south of France.
The project was built by Matthieu. In our workshop, one framebuilder takes a project from start to finish, so he also made the fork, both stems and the rear rack. What sets this frame apart is its tubing, made in France by Osborn, a metallurgist specialising in aerospace and car chassis, which is looking to establish itself in cycling. Its range is still small, but the quality is very high, and we were able to obtain specific GTV900 steel tubes for this tandem. The top tube is a single piece, running from the head tube to the second seat tube, and both seat tubes pass right through it. With the same diameter as the lower tube, it greatly increases lateral stiffness and removes the need for any extra triangulation. The structure stays light, and the raw material is mainly French: only the chainstays, seatstays and seat tubes are Columbus.
The frame took shape in our Beaumont workshop between late April and early June 2026. Matthieu silver-brazed every joint by torch, including where the seat tubes pass through the top tube. He then made the fork, the stems and the rear rack. Once everything was finished, the bare tandem went to Max for painting, then to Antoine for assembly.
We put a lot of work into the trail on this tandem. The head angle is very steep (74°) and the fork has a lot of offset (62 mm), which gives just 33 mm of trail with 47 mm tyres. Here we follow the principles set out by Jan Heine in The All-Road Bike Revolution. With so little trail, the front wheel hardly flops to one side at low speed: a real advantage for handling a bike with a 1.745 m wheelbase when setting off, on steep slopes or with a bag over the front wheel. Both bottom brackets sit 260 mm off the ground, 722 mm apart.
The crankset is an Appleman 2XT, made by hand in the United States, as on Michel's bike. It lets us match the cranks to each rider: 165 mm at the front, 145 mm at the rear. All three Wolf Tooth chainrings have 40 teeth. At the back, a Sram GX Eagle derailleur and a 10-52 cassette give enough range for a loaded tandem. As on Renaud's randonneuse, the Ratio kit lets cable-operated Sram Apex levers control this 12-speed derailleur.
A loaded tandem works its brakes hard: hydraulic fluid can boil and the hoses become very long. So we chose cable-operated Growtac Equal callipers, as on André's bike. The wheels combine Mavic A 1025 rims with 32 Sapim Strong spokes each, a Hope Pro 5 rear hub and a SON 28 dynamo hub at the front. The 47 mm Hutchinson Overide tyres with light sidewalls are set up tubeless on 650b wheels.
The rear rack, in silver-brazed stainless steel painted black, follows the design of the one on Jean-Louis's randonneuse. At the front, a Tubus Tara supplied by Patrick and Béatrice was repainted to match, and a Diamond Rack from our friends at Allygn carries a Gramm Diamond Bag. The front triangle holds two Gramm frame bags, one per rider. The SON hub powers a Sinewave Beacon 2 headlight, placed under the rack, and a SON tail light on the mudguard. The Pletscher double kickstand, essential on a bike this size, fixes directly to the frame.
Both stems were made in the workshop and painted with the frame. At the front, a 48 cm Ritchey Comp Corralitos bar carries a Berthoud mirror and a Spurcycle bell, above a Chris King headset. At the rear, the stem clamps to the captain's seatpost and holds a 42 cm Ritchey Venturemax bar. The stoker gets a Cane Creek Thudbuster ST suspension seatpost with 50 mm of travel, already fitted on Hervé's randonneuse.
The white of this tandem has a story behind it. While scouting for the first Concours de Machines in Ambert, Julien bought his first tandem second-hand from a shop: a white Follis, a handmade frame built in Lyon. Many years later, talking with Patrick and Béatrice, who come from Ambert, he discovered that this tandem had been theirs. No. 603 echoes it, bringing the story full circle.
Max painted the frame and fork in a pearl white developed in the workshop. The lettering, laurel sprig and seat tube inscriptions are stencilled in a metallic blue that responds well to the light, all in a gloss finish. This blue is echoed in the Growtac callipers, the Sinewave headlight and the piping on the Gramm bags. The Cyfac mudguards are bare carbon, simply lacquered. The two Berthoud Aspin saddles are black, like the Brooks Cambium Rubber bar tape. Antoine assembled everything in the workshop.
Our discussions were very constructive, with careful attention to our needs. When we first saw the tandem, our reaction was: "Wow!" It matched what we wanted and expected. After a few months of use, we adapted very quickly to our new ride: the position is comfortable for both of us, and the efficiency is pleasing.
