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Old 06-30-17, 01:13 PM
  #78  
Paul J
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Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Upstate South Carolina
Posts: 1,091

Bikes: 1980's Spectrum 10 sp Campagnolo Centaur, 1990 Eddy Merckx 10 sp Campagnolo Centaur, Bushnell Tandem, Co-Motion Speedster Tandem

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We love to do overnights on our tandem and did a Reading PA to Ocean City NJ a couple of weeks ago. We ran the Schuylkill River Trail to Philly and then took the PATCO rail across the Ben Franklin Bridge and beyond Camden. We stayed over night in Voorhees NJ and then rode on to Ocean City the next day. 65 Miles day one and 55 day two.

We left with a little drizzle which created my first "Bad Captain" moment. Just east of Birdsboro the trail crosses the road where a trestle originally was, so you go down to road level and then steeply back up. I missed my downshift and when I grabbed the brakes the damp rims didn't hold and we rolled back with me dropping the Stoker. If you ride tandem you may have heard of the "Proper Method" of mounting the bike which has the captain gets on and the holds the bike as the stoker gets on and then the stoker just stays clipped in. My stoke rode the bike all the way to the ground. So we are a little over 10 miles into the ride and I've dropped my stoker. Fast forward 4 miles, and we have a flat tire which of course is the rear, so off comes the rear wheel we make the change, of course the bags have to come off to get the rear wheel back in and the humidity is 100% and drizzling. On goes the rear wheel and bags but I miss that the chain has come off the chain ring and we go to start and over we go with the stoker going down with the ship. So were are less the 15 miles into our ride and the captain is worried about a mutiny. :-) My wife is the best, this now has us at 200% increase of our total record of dropped stokers for the career of tandem riding. She did give me a little grumble about calling our daughter to come pick her up but away we went with no more issues.

We stayed on the trail which takes you along the river where we crossed the tracks onto Locust and took that around Rittenhouse Square to the 15th'16th Street PATCO station. Down and around the stairs and though the handicap gate and onto the train at about 3:20PM ahead of the 3:45PM cut-off for taking the tandem onto the train. We always get looks and comment about the bike and I usually have passenger tell me I can have the bike on the train. We always bring a copy of the letter from PATCO telling us it is ok. We got off the train at the Lindenwold station and rode the short distance to our overnight accommodation at the Voorhees Hotel which looks like it was a Hampton Inn before. The nice thing about this location it is just across the street from an Olive Garden which was good for dinner.

We took off at about 8:00AM on Saturday morning just as the rain started. We had a good run using Google maps which had us on quiet back roads most of the way. We ate lunch at the McDonald's in Egg Harbor City which was an OK stop with outside seating so we could stay with the bike. As I was moving the bike around to lean it against a wall the rear rack support popped-off as the fastener bolt came out somewhere just before the lunch stop. I'm glad that it is the same size as a water bottle bolt so an easy fix. We had one little section leaving Egg Harbor City which was a little heavy traffic but cars were respectfulness and we got through that with no drama. The route then took us back roads passed the Atlantic City Airport and on into Pleasantville where we turned south on a bike path just as it started to rain again which took us all the way to Somers Point and the bridge to Ocean City. We stay on 29th so we headed south on nicely marked bike way along Bay until we moved east to Have to the house.

Our biggest complain about New Jersey are the expansion joints every 50 feet which is murder for a stoker as it is hard to warn every time. We switched out our Gatorskins in 28c for Vittoria Voyagers in 32'c which we had the flat and I wasn't very impressed with the ride. they didn't seem to hold a line very well and seemed soft when riding at the 75 recommended max. I was experimenting with a pair of wider tires and will not use these going forward but probably buy the Gatorskins in 32c.

We ride a Bushnell steel tandem using Shimano 9 speed set-up, Ultegra shifters and front derailleur, XT rear with a Race Face crank with 53/39/28 chain rings and 11/34 rear cluster. Nashbar daytripper rear panniers and our regular a small trunk bag. We use a rechargeable flashing tail light at all times and a small front LED light during the rain which is battery powered.

This is our second time doing this trip and we have found it is a great way to start vacation as it helps me more quickly disconnect and when we arrive I've totally disconnected. We are considering doing a longer route going south out of Lancaster and into Delaware to Lewes and take the ferry to Cape May and up to OC. This would probably be 3 to 4 day ride for us as heading south in Lancaster County has some crazy hills before you get to Newark DE and the flatter terrain on to the coast. Not sure on hotels are as you get closer to the beach cities in June but something to explore.
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Last edited by Paul J; 06-30-17 at 01:24 PM.
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