This is the view of the rear drum-brake bracket set up. To remove the wheel when changing an inner tube, first you have to un-clamp the cable from the lever arm and then remove the securing arm from the frame bracket on the chain stay! Oh yes, and you'll need a ring-spanner on the hub nuts...no quick-release here! What a faff. Imagine having to do this in the rain on a cold dark night! I later learnt that to overcome some of the hassle, people use wing-nuts on the clamps to make things easier.
Once the wheel is removed you can gain access to the brake drum and shoe assembly. This set up will be discarded and braking will be solely on the rims. The original Rigida steel rims are reputed to be worst than useless under braking in the wet and not much better in the dry! You can see they tried to improve things by adding "grooves" on the braking surface of the rims.
The original tyre is a Hutchinson 700 x 35 (28" x 1 3/8") with perished sidewalls which is a completely different size to other 700 series wheels. Imagine low profile tyre on cars with large diameter rims to match the rolling circumference of standard size rims....this is the same sort of thing! Amazingly the rear wheel complete with tyre and drum brake weighs in at nearly 3.5 kg! The front wheel complete with tyre is 2.1 kg....over 4.5 kg for a set of wheels....that's heavy!
By removing the dynamo, rear mudguard and rack, it's saved another 1.5 kg! Getting the weight down nicely!
With a visit to the Sheffield cycle jumble I managed to pick up a set of wheels for £40. They are Campagnolo Daytona hubs laced to Mavic CXP 33 rims. These are shod with tried and trusted retro-looking Michelin Dynamic Classic tyres, complete with new inner tubes and look in keeping with the classic lines of the tandem. Next on the list is to purchase a Campag 9 speed block and new chain to go with a replacement rear derailleur.