To summarise, we had no punctures, but we suffered from many broken spokes and had to buy a new back wheel.

Our tandem has wheels with sturdy rims but only 36 spokes, which we knew would be a problem when we bought it. Due to our past record with breaking spokes, George packed a large number of spares, but as we had never broken a back wheel spoke, we didn't take the tools for removing the block. This worked fine for the front wheel on which we replaced the 6th spoke in Montpellier before coming home. But the back wheel suffered from another problem - each spoke is attached by a rivet to a holder in the rim. The rivets started to loosen and eventually came right off, after which they rattled up and down their spokes. The spokes with the failing rivets regularly became very loose with the result that we broke one in Brantôme and two more on the way into Périgueux, at which point the wheel became very wobbly and we were forced to buy a new wheel, which we got for 270F. We also bought the block removing tool and a big spanner in case of further trouble with back wheel spokes.

Now we're home, we have decided to treat the tandem to a new pair of 48 spoke wheels.

George fixing the first broken spoke at Chateauneuf sur Sarthe

George sorting the loose spokes on the back wheel at St. Jouin des Marnes.

George fixing front spoke number 4 on the front wheel on the way to Cahors.

George ,using the new spanner and block tool to replace a back spoke by the canal du Midi.