Tandems, who knew?
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I made another trip to Portland, Oregon recently and stumbled into a new shop called West End Bikes. Nice place, load of great stuff, great atmosphere, and then I saw a titanium and carbon tandem. Wait what?!
I went up and asked one of the sales guys for more info; I just really didn’t get exactly why such a thing would exist. Turns out there’s tandem racing! Mountain, road, velodrome…I was blown away. It’s hard enough to race in the first place, adding the complex interaction between two riders on a tandem; all I know is there is no way in hell I would be able to do it. I imagine a TOTAL melt down complete with yelling and screaming at my partner. What do you say Elisa??
But hey the bikes look amazing!
This mountain bike was fully titanium, single speed with a belt drive. So amazing!
I’m totally in! Let’s do it. We can lose our minds and still be friends, I know it!
I can’t speak for racing but my husband and I have a tandem and I can tell you that the stoker (the person on the back) has no control (can’t steer, can’t change gears, can’t brake). Because of that, as the stoker, I decided I was just going to pedal back there and not make any decisions whatsoever. In fact, when he makes a maneuver with which I disagree, and people are watching, I hold up my hands in the air and say, “I have no authority here whatsoever”. (I got that line from “A Few Good Men”.) It actually works and he always makes sure I know when a bump is coming so I can brace myself and he drives the tandem quite differently from when we are on two separate bikes.
You missed your chance with the intergalactic tandem cyclocross championships this past cross season.
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Tandem bicycles can go much faster than single person bicycles, so there’s always been tandem racing. Not my cup of tea as I really like the independence of an individual bike, but rest assured that tandems are speed demons.
Tandems are cool I’ve ridden them alot, sit at the back so the guy up front can do some serious peddling!!
It has long been said, “No matter what direction your relationship is going, it will get there faster on a tandem.”
As in my last cycle ride with my ahem, ex-wife, was on our tandem. I still ride and she does not.