Introductions - Newbie Hello from the Channel Islands

Hello,

This is the "Dave" half of the team. Having retired recently, the need to lose some pounds has created some lifestyle changes, and one of the best is a return to the push bike. (I still have many more pounds to loose!). I have a Claude Butler Urban 200 which is getting a little tired and is a bit too small for me, so I recently bought a Ridgeback Element 23" frame and I love it! :)

I am still at the stage of needing to give the sit bones a rest after a few miles but I have a very pretty 12 mile ride round the north coast of Guernsey that is keeping me happy. It even finishes with a 3/4 mile gentle hill so I feel I am getting a half decent (for me) work-out. With kids and a grandchild in Ontario, we spend our summers (and usually Christmas) there.

My wife Sally has not ridden since childhood (a coaster of some description is all we know about the machine). So our thoughts are turning to tandeming. Neither of us have a clue or any experience but we have located (on the net) a dedicated tandem shop about an hour from where we live in Ontario so when we get there in May, that will be one of our first ports of call. For the time being, I am spending countess happy hours reading everything I can from the various tandem manufacturers websites, and it was through one of them that I stumbled upon this forum. So now I have loads more reading to be done!

So that is it - I hope some day soon to become Canada's newest (and certainly rather senior) tandem team and I look forward to seeing you in the tandem section of the forums.

Cheers! It feels great to be back on 2 wheels.

Dave

Welcome Dave! Glad all is going well on the push bikes. :)

Good luck with the bike shopping. Ah, the anticipation of a new bike. :D

Hi Dave (and Sal :) )! Are you still in the real planning stages for the tandem, or have you managed to narrow down your choices at all? I take it that the tandem is going to stay in Canada and not travel back and forth to Guernsey?


Welcome to BF!

East Hill

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t162/dminorwa/pinkstar.jpg

Hi Msincredible and East Hill,

Many thanks for the welcome notes. Firstly, I have just downloaded the Ispell spell checker (my own spelling leaves quite a lot to be desired :) ) and I lost this post in the process. So if a similar post to this also appears, please accept my apologies. My computer techniques are known far and wide as among the clunkiest possible!

To answer the great tandem question, (and perhaps this does not belong in this thread but I am sure the moderator/administrator will set me right), we are both such newbies that until we have test ridden a couple of machines, our thoughts are all theoretical and may well be wide of the mark. But this is the present state of the research.

1.

Ooops, it happened again! Obviously something I am doing and shouldn't be. So,

1. Sally and I are of quite different strengths/endurance - at least at present.
2. We have a young granddaughter who lives very near us in Canada who may get in to this.
3. Being complete newbies, we have no preconceived notions of what tandeming should be like.

All this, at least on a theoretical level, seems to point us towards the DaVinci ICS set up. But obviously we shall also test ride a conventional tandem or two as well.

I have to say that the threads in the tandem section have been very helpful indeed, but anyone with further thoughts - please dive in. We can use all the help and advise out there!

I hope the test rides will yield a clear direction for us - this should happen next month when we get to Ontario, and yes, the tandem will mostly live in Ontario. Mind you . . . . . we are off to Spain today for a week. And a tandem there would be great. So maybe an S&S equipped one? Who knows? Even the dreaming and imagining is great fun!

D

...and perhaps this does not belong in this thread but I am sure the moderator/administrator will set me right...


The Official BikeForums Greeter and moderator of the Introductions forum (me :) ) says, "No problem".

This is, after all, your introduction to us, so we like to know this stuff!

East Hill