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1978/79 Red Bush Tandem:

The "Red Bush" name was used by Ross Shafer prior to switching over to the Salsa name.  I can only imagine the number of hours that were spend smoothing all of the fillet work on this bike.  After all of the hours spend with the fillets, there were many more spent on details such as the unique fork crown, fillet brazed stoker stem and hand made cantilever mounts. This bike was a spec bike built in 1978 or 79 and sat at the Bicycle Center for a couple of years before it was sold. 

Here is a little info from Ross Shafer about this bike:

"I only made a couple Red Bush tandems and about 6 or 7 Salsa tandems. When I
left Santana, I thought I'd become the custom tandem king. I found I just
wasn't a nice enough guy to act as a marriage counselor with some tandem
customer couples I ended up in the middle of and decided to specifically not
do anymore custom tandems.

I don't remember much about the bike, except that it was my first tandem and
my first lug less bike.....and way harder to build than I thought it would
be. I seriously considered giving up frame building by the time I finished
it, I felt so inept."

Hand made tubular brake bosses with brazed on spring holder

Neat intersection of the extra set of stays and ovalized mid tube

Cool fork crown made from a modified traditional crown with an extra plate added.

Lots 'o brass in them there fillets

Fillet brazed stoker stem and Ideale saddle

Click on the thumbnails above for larger image.

For additional pictures, click on the links below

Side shot of the stokers Ideale saddle

Rebour stamp on the captains Ideale saddle

Rear drum brake detail shot

Red Bush down tube decal

 

 

 

Frame Fillet brazed Cro-Moly
Fork Cro-Moly blades, lathe-turned  solid billet crown
Rear Shock NA
Rims Ukai front, Sun rear 27 x 1 1/4", 48 hole
Hubs Suzue tandem hubs, 48 hole
Spokes Stainless steel 4 cross
Tires Specialized Turbo 27 x 1 1/4"
Pedals KKT Top Run
Crank Sugino AT tandem
Chain Sedis
Rear Cogs Suntour 5 speed
Bottom Bracket Sugino with front eccentric
Front Derailleur Suntour Superbe
Rear Derailleur Suntour Cyclone
Shifters Campagnolo down tube
Handlebars SR Road Champion
Stem Rear fillet brazed, front SR
Headset Campagnolo steel
Brake set Mafac Tandem cantilevers front and rear, drum rear
Brake levers Mafac levers with right side operating both canti brakes and the left operates the drum
Saddle Ideale 92 rear, 90 front
Seat Post Campagnolo
Colors Metallic copper
Size 21.5" c-t
Serial #   None found


Parts marked with as * are known to be non-original parts.  Bikes were often customized at the time of purchase or were different as shown in the catalogs so exact specifications were subject to change.