Tandem Cycling - Well...here we go...1, 2, 3, pedal...

Well, my wife and I went to look at a used Cannondale RT3000 and well...the bike is going to be dropped off tonight! So I will be spending the next couple of days detailing it and then hopefully, riding around in the immediate neighborhood working on communication skills with my wife :love:

If all goes well, hopefully we will meet some of you out there!

Thanks for not saying, "We'll run into some of you out there......"

Hey I..that, where's "there"?

And what was the lead up to this? Do you already ride a bunch separately? Did your wife initially express interest? What gives?

Andy

There is the SF Bay Area, East Bay. I currently ride a single, mtb and roadie. Last year I bought a roadie for my wife so that we (family) could ride together. However, she hasn't been able to put the miles on that I have, so when we ride she feels bad, believing she's holding me or the group up despite me telling her that I usually sweep so I don't mind hanging back.

Well, last year when I brought up the idea of a tandem, she wasn't too keen on that. When I did a month ago, she was surprisingly agreeable to the idea. So while the idea was still warm and agreeable...what's a husband to do, but run with it right?...lol.

So hopefully, we will do well together and put some miles on as a team!

So andy...that's what gives :D

Best of luck with your adventure! And if you're ever in Utah, let's go for a ride.

Cheers!

MB1, I will try my best not to...lol

brewer45...you never know, that could occur as my in-laws live in Eden about 2 miles past the resevoir. :D

My wife and I ride out tandem all the time on weekends...but our first few outings were a little sketchy for her. Her advice is that the stoker should commit to ride at least ten times before deciding whether this is fun... the first five may be fun or may be scary... the next several rides should go much easier. We now ride about 1,500 miles a year on our tandem and she would never get rid of it! Good Luck!

Well last week we did an 18 mile ride on Wednesday night with my bike club and did pretty good. On the way back we got the tandem up to 24mph on the frontage road of 880 (Embarcadero).

This last Wednesday we did the same ride with the group and on the way out I could feel my Wife pushing the pedals with some great power. I actually had to ride brakes and ask her to soft pedal... :D So about 5 miles into the ride, I asked her where all this energy is coming from and she laughed and said they all had a piece of chocolate cake at work before the day ended.

We ended up pulling one of the singles on the way out at about 22mph (est. as I have for many reasons not put any electronics on the tandem yet) down the frontage road into a little headwind so that was fun. And on the way back we sucked the wheel of a single and upped our top speed to 28mph. :D He topped out at 30mph.

So things are going very well thus far and after a couple little more tweaks (saddles, brakes) we should be able to start going on a little more adventurous routes. But right now, it has been fun for the both of us and has given us time to talk as well as subliminally communicate for that 1-1/2 hours that we otherwise wouldn't get. In fact, she is now starting to call out 1, 2, 3, go...is this correct? Or am I just a steerer now?:rolleyes:

Another neat thing is that a couple of people on singles are now talking about tandems...so could be interesting in a year.

Thats good stuff! My wife will not ride on her own. We are on about 6 real road rides but ride it on the trainer several time a week. She seems to really enjoy the tandem. Riding a tandem seems to push everything into extremes. You go faster on level ground & much faster down hill. Much slower up hill. The up hill riding is something we need to work on.

Welcome to the world of tandems!
Been pedalin' TWOgether for 33+ years.

Welcome and just have fun! as for the hills..we've been working on them for years and they still just kick our butts, but... everything else about the ride is worth it all.

Bill J.