Tandem Cycling - So, Who Actually Hangs Out In The Tandem Forum?

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TandemGeek
02-27-07, 12:08 PM
Useful definitions for the purpose of this survey:

For clarification, the 'Captain' or pilot is the person who usually sits at the front of a conventional upright tandem but who could end up sitting behind the 'Stoker' if they ride a semi-recumbent tandem. The 'Stoker' is the person who usually sits at (one of) the rear saddle(s) of a tandem, triplet, quad, etc., i.e., the one in the back. For anyone who is a "switch hitter" that captains and stokes, pick the answer that "best describes" your most frequent role.

Significant Other: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Significant_other) Significant other (sig ot or SO) is a gender-blind, politically correct term to refer to a person's partner in an intimate relationship without disclosing or presuming anything about his or her marital status or sexual orientation. It is also vague enough to avoid offence from using a term that an individual might consider inappropriate (e.g. lover when she considers him a boyfriend, or girlfriend when he considers her a life partner).

Spouse: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage) In determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, or of any ruling, regulation, or interpretation of the various administrative bureaus and agencies of the United States, the word “marriage” means only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and the word “spouse” refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.

And/or (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And/or) Logical disjunction (usual symbol or) is a logical operator that results in true if either of the operands is true. Or, in other words, a phrase used to indicate that one or more of the stated cases may occur. For example, the sentence "Jim will eat cake, pie, and/or brownies" indicates that although Jim may eat any of the three listed desserts, the choices are not necessarily exclusive; Jim may eat one, two, or all three of the choices.

Note: It would appear that at least 4 respondents indicated "significant other" who are, in fact, married to their significant other. Therefore, to properly correlate the results with the original intent of the 10 possible answers, the 2nd response count should be decremented by 4 and the 3rd response count increased by 4, e.g.,

captain who rides with significant other: 26 - 4 = 22 (22/82* = 26.82%)
captain who rides with spouse and/or other family members: 49 + 4 = 53 (53/82* = 64.63%)

*Data as of 11:00pm EST, 10 March and adjusted for non-tandem owners (-4).

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I noticed that there have been two polls in two years where pretty much "anyone can play". In the first conducted back in Dec '05, there were a total of 44 respondents. In the more recent "do you ride in or out of phase", at last check there were 66 respondents. From this I could probably assume that there are about 66 "regulars" who read and sometimes post to the forum.

But, rather than simply assuming, I thought I'd give readers just one more poll where just about anyone can cast a vote and be counted. So, here now is a poll that looks to see just who's out there and how they see themselves relative to life situations and tandems.


just me
02-27-07, 12:37 PM
TandemGeek,
I hope the weather gets better in GA soon so you can ride.:)
I didn't post on the oop thread so your assumption is slightly off.

Jack

hortan
02-27-07, 01:34 PM
I had to look in my dictionary what was ment by 'spouse'. In order to further improve my English: when do you say/write 'wife' and when 'spouse' ?
I voted the third option but, so far, I have only been riding with my wife. This is because my children would rather die than be spotted at the back of a tandem !


masiman
02-27-07, 01:56 PM
I had to look in my dictionary what was ment by 'spouse'. In order to further improve my English: when do you say/write 'wife' and when 'spouse' ?
I voted the third option but, so far, I have only been riding with my wife. This is because my children would rather die than be spotted at the back of a tandem !

Maybe captain is the wife. Spouse is gender neutral, could be your wife or your husband, depending on who you are in the relationship.

I'd be interested in knowing if SO's are spouses or not, i.e. who is riding with their SO but is not married.

roadfix
02-27-07, 02:19 PM
I lurk here regularly as an ex tandem owner.
I voted none of the above.

TandemGeek
02-27-07, 02:24 PM
I've added some definitions to help those who may be unfamiliar with the "gender-neutral" and "politically correct" terms applied to partners, husbands, wifes, and other strangers, as well as the use of and/or.

As for riding, weather's getting better and we got in 100 miles this past weekend...;)

Xanti Andia
02-27-07, 03:02 PM
I voted captain riding with significant other, though my stoker is my wife of 26 years, and I do on precious rare ocasions ride with one of our four children, significant other is more sexy, and tandems are sexy, that is the nature of the beast, at least for me.

pel-o-ton
02-27-07, 03:25 PM
Started riding with a couple of visually impaired cyclists last year. Wonderful experience, I have learned a ton from them about riding tandem, and about bicycle maintenance as well. Not to mention all they have taught me about diet, spinning, climbing..... not that I am inexperienced - they are just incredible. We are planning on a muti day ride this fall on a triple. Can't wait!!

cgallagh
02-27-07, 03:58 PM
I posted as riding with significant other. The other option "captain who rides with spouse and/or other family members" does not apply as we are happily empty nesters.

zonatandem
02-27-07, 04:30 PM
My wife is also my life partner/spouse/very significant other/lover, etc . . . a woman of many talents!
Having said that, have also ridden with all 3 of our sons and a multitude of other stokers for test rides/events, male and female, ranging in ages from about 8 to 80!

Hermes
02-27-07, 04:40 PM
T'Geek: It strikes me that we need a poll of how long people have been married to the same person AND ride as a tandem team as well as other politically correct permutations there of.

Married 35 years to the same person cycling 28 years together.:)

zonatandem
02-27-07, 04:47 PM
to Lord:
Married (happily!) 52+ years; riding TWOgether for 32+ years . . .

transam
02-27-07, 04:54 PM
Posted as captain riding with significant other, who is my wife of 39 years. She is the only stoker I've ridden with and I can't imagine having a better one. She is my best friend and willingly puts up with all my faults both on and off the tandem.

Red Rider
02-27-07, 04:55 PM
T'Geek: It strikes me that we need a poll of how long people have been married to the same person AND ride as a tandem team as well as other politically correct permutations there of.

Married 25-1/2 years, stoking for 4 months. I voted "spouse..." because we're married. I see Mr. Red Rider (aka "cgallagh") thought differently. Thus our marriage remains interesting.

cornucopia72
02-27-07, 05:57 PM
Married for 29.5 years, riding for 20 years and tandeming for 12 years. Voted: "captain who rides with spouse and/or other family members" because I participate in the forum more often but we both use the same screen name: "cornucopia72" "horn of plenty" we are both pround farmers; and "72" the year we entered HS... much more than you wanted to know, to be sure. We aslo have a triple and ride it with our 25 year old daughter maybe once a month and our 16 year old daughter maybe twice a year.

ronk
02-27-07, 06:31 PM
I posted significant other because I didn't read the rest. But I too ride with my wife. She does not like riding any type of bike UNLESS it's on the tandem. I am one lucky man.

BloomingCyclist
02-27-07, 09:33 PM
I followed this forum for several months before I registered to have the ability to post and to see all of the images. I've posted very little but I read the postings almost every day. My wife and I have ridden singles together since 1973. My wife resisted the tandem for 33 years but finally agreed to try it out a year ago with some test rides in December of 2005. We bought our tandem in January of 2006 and have loved every mile of it - 4300 tandem miles in 2006.

Bloomington, IN

woog
02-28-07, 06:09 AM
I voted captain riding with spouse/family, but in reality I'm divorced and ride with my SO or son.

stapfam
02-28-07, 09:40 AM
Got the Tandem in 02 and the wife took one look at it and said never. So had to look around for someone else to ride with and it is good to have 180lb friends that are all muscle and can cycle. Found Stuart when he turned up for a sunday ride with a problem on his solo. 5 minutes later and we were out on the Dale and the only change since then is that he is now the Pilot.

So I ride with some one other than spouse.

Catherine+2
02-28-07, 01:40 PM
I'm a single parent riding with my 5-yo twins (a tandem with a trailer bike, hope to have a triple in about 2 years). My dream is to be able to look back in my active silver years and say I have ridden tandem with a single (adult <g>) partner for many seasons. What a great bunch of role models!

Catherine

PaMTBRider
02-28-07, 06:38 PM
I check this forum a couple times a week but don't usually post or respond to polls. We have been married for 18 and on the tandem for 7.

matthew_deaner
02-28-07, 07:11 PM
I'm a single parent riding with my 5-yo twins (a tandem with a trailer bike, hope to have a triple in about 2 years). My dream is to be able to look back in my active silver years and say I have ridden tandem with a single (adult <g>) partner for many seasons. What a great bunch of role models!

Catherine

Me too... I mean, I am also a single parent and I ride with my 10-year old son.
It would be good to have a significant other that was into riding tandems... I haven't found a girlfriend yet that gave a hoot about cycling...

Linda & Lew
02-28-07, 07:56 PM
We've been married 37 years....just started really getting serious with the tandem. We have always
enjoyed biking but never considered a tandem until one day I found a 70's Free Spirit. My wife and I
took a ride on it and she stated that she really, really enjoyed it. I said "if you really enjoyed
that you need to try the newer ones". She came back with a "well maybe we should look into a new
one!". Of course I jumped at that and thanks to TandemGeeks help we were able to narrow down
the bike that fit our needs. I might add that she is also my best friend and I love going on vacations
with her. She's the perfect vacation partner.
Lew