Tandem Cycling - cost of touring with tandem

Hi,

I've been reading the forum here for a bit, including some of the older posts about the costs of shipping tandem bikes. Our family has rented tandem bikes and really enjoyed using them. One thing that is preventing me from diving into researching which tandem will be best for us is the potential cost of transporting these bikes. I can envision enjoying two tandems for the next several years, since my kids are 14 and 11 and they've enjoyed riding with us. For nearby and in-state tours, car top carriers are a acceptable, one-time cost solution to the transport problem. But what do you do when you live in Colorado and want to go on a tandem tour in New England or along the Pacific Coast? Do you make the drive, ship the bikes (to and from), rent locally, or something else? Is this one of those "if you have to ask, you can't afford it" questions?

Thanks!

It is not just a tandem problem. What with all the added fees for luggage the same applies to all long distance travel with bicycles.

Ground shipping isn't bad but forget about UPS or FedEx, you need to ship with a common carrier for resonable rates. The airlines really suck now but an S&S coupled tandem should just be charged the new standard luggage rate (check with your carrier for the cost of each piece before you get to the airport).

BTW you just can't count on airlines to give you a straight answer on how much they are going to charge if your case is oversize.

It all depends on time and $$ available.
We've been tandeming for 33+ years and have hauled our tandem by car and by plane. We have ridden in 30-some states and numerous tandem rallies in US/Canada.
If it was within 500 miles or so, we'd drive; if time was a bit short and the distance far, we'd fly us and tandem.
We are retired so time is not an issue and we drive hauling our tandem inside our Honda Accord station wagon. Just finished a 2,000 mile round trip from Tucson to northern Utah; we were gone for 3 full months.
Years ago flying a tandem was easier/cheaper than it is now.
Between time and travel costs you'll have to weight the pros/cons.
Yes, tandem can also be shipped by common carrier, but the risks are the same as with the airlines. Will it be where it's supposed to be when you arrive and what condition will it be in?
Have had rear wheel damaged once traveling by air; fortunately we had blocked in a couple extra days at our destination. Have had tandem box pretty well torn up on another air adventure.
Airlines did eventually pay for wheel repair, but it took a while.
Finding a good rental tandem (or any tandem at all) can also be an issue and proper fit/adjustment. Always nicer to have your own tandem(s) to ride!
Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

I’ve looked at the bike rental option on several occasions and have never seen it being cheaper than bringing your own bike. This being said, all of my rental queries have been for 5 or more days. You might have reasonable success renting a single bike (for less than 5 days) cheaper than bringing your own bike. I have yet to find a tandem rental that would work out cheaper than transporting my S&S coupled tandem. I have paid air line fees for excess baggage, overweight, and bicycle surcharge; it has always worked out cheaper than renting a suitable bike. I have used DHL, UPS, and USPS to send bikes across the USA, and to foreign APO addresses. To date I have had very good success with all these services. That being said, I have never sent a full sized (no couplers) tandem. Yes, you read a few posts on the bike forms about all the drama and bad service from shipping bikes; however, people generally don’t post when their bike is successfully shipped to / from a travel destination, so what % of bikes are really damaged during shipment. Look at all the LBS that receive 1000s of bikes every year via shipping companies.
Before you drop a lot of dime on a coupled tandem, you need to look at the shipping / transport cost verse the cost of coupling the frame. At one or two trips a year, you might find S&S is not a financially viable option. When looking at all the travel costs involved with moving a tandem it doesn’t take more than a few trips a year before the S&S will pay off so long as you hold onto the bike for more than 5 years. Personally, I would never buy another tandem that wasn’t S&S coupled. I like the convenience of easily transporting the bike in the trunk of a car, or storing in a small place. This one issue has made the difference in the frame selection for my next tandem purchase. I would have liked a Paketa Magnesium frame, but you can’t couple this frame; so I'm now looking at other frame sets.
Best of luck with your decision!

I/we have two tandems, one coupled and one not, that my wife and I like to ride with our two youngest, 7 & 9.

As indicated in the prior posts, travelling with two tandems is a pain and can be more expensive. On the other hand, keeping track of four bikes is not cheap and easy either. Couplers help a lot and if you are planning on more than a few trips you will more than make up for the cost in excess baggage fees and aggravation. On the other hand, if you are staying in the USA you can ship the bike, coupled or not via UPS, or similar, and avoid the logistical problems of getting it to/from the airport to your final destination – as long as you have a place to ship to and a place to store the box. Depending on the airline and your ticket class, this may or may not be cheaper – it can be a lot easier – but not always. With international travel it seems to be best to bring the bike with you on the plane so it goes through customs with you, otherwise you may end up without a bike when you want to ride. Our coupled tandem was purchased with international travel in mind.

Is all this expense and aggravation worth it? Absolutely! Touring with the kids on a tandem is a blast! We did a little tour this year from Ventura, to San Diego, stopping at kid friendly places along the way. I am not sure what we will be doing next year with the kids, but a New England tour is a strong possibility – as soon as I figure out how to get the Burley trailer on the plane along with both tandems and all the junk for four people…

But what do you do when you live in Colorado and want to go on a tandem tour in New England or along the Pacific Coast?

Just for context, it's probably no more costly or more difficult than it would be if you tried to do the same thing with four cyclists and four bikes vs. four cyclists and two tandems.

However, the mere fact someone might consider doing such a tour on tandems that they may not otherwise even consider as something to tackle on single bikes speaks volumes about the tandem as a catalyst for new family adventures.

Anyway, I think everyone has covered the other bases and, frankly, when there's a will there's a way. If and when you actually decide to make a journey, a question to list like this will yield more specific suggestions once you can provide more specific details on your travel plans.

S&S equipped tandems are definitely the way to go if anyone plans to do a trip per year or so. They are expensive; however, you can usually find a few for sale second hand for about 1/3 to 1/2 of what they sell for new by a careful world-wide search of craigslist (e.g., site:craigslist.org tandem bicycle couplers) and checking the tandem-specific classifieds at www.tandemmag.com/classified. However, not having an S&S equippped tandem was never a barrier to travel for the hundreds of folks who headed off to Europe with their tandems before couplers were introduced in the mid-90's, many of whom had foldable Tandem Tuesdays or take-apart Bike Friday Tandems. Heck, you can still find the occasional Montague folding tandem. However, the innovative bicycle designs were the exception and not the rule for international travel as most folks simply boxed up their full-size tandems and paid their surcharge for oversized luggage.

Mentioning the innovative Montague Tri Frame (folding) tandem . . . there is a good article in current issue of Recumbent & Tandem Rider Magazine on someone re-doing a Montague tandem. The updating/upgrading must of cost more than the original bike, including Rohloff hub, custom fork, racks, etc.
Have friends who did travel to Europe with their Montague . . . We never owned a folding or S&S tandem and that never stopped us from traveling.
Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

We are heading off to Italy with out Bike Friday Tandem Twosday. It breaks down and goes into 2 siutcases. It may not be the best tandem around, but until I find a used coupled co-motion I can afford, it will work well.
Check back at the end of October for updates.

We've ridden several of the Bike Friday tandems. If you don't look down at those 20" wheels, it rolls along just like a 26" or 700c twicer!
Enjoy Italy TWOgether!
Ciao!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

Plenty of choices for Tandems that pack into suitcases. Our last trip on Southwest Airlines was 2 Adults and 1 Child with Tandem and Hase Trets trike/trailer. 5 suitcases - 2 hard cases for our S&S Santana tandem, 1 soft bag for the Trets, 1 soft bag for the bike gear and 1 soft bag for clothes for the three of us. No baggage costs.

Surprisingly easy as Skycap at the curb took control of the bags at checkin. I tipped generously.

Thank you all for the insightful replies. It is nice to hear that shipping is still a workable way to send bikes. I guess it will just be something that we have to work into the vacation budget. I doubt we'd be doing this often enough (at least while the kids are still living at home) to justify a coupled tandem, but it's something to keep in mind if we decide to do this more often once the kids leave home. And those Bike Fridays sound like they're worth checking out!

reversegear: I'm especially interested in hearing more details about your family travels. I'm guessing that your kids are still young enough to enjoy their travels with Mom and Dad. We did a guided river canoe trip this summer that was specifically listed as a Family Trip and the thing that made it so great for my 14 and 11 year old kids was the similar-aged friends they made. I'm pretty sure that a family tandem bike tour is something we could pull off on our own, but I suspect that meeting new friends, as we'd do on an organized tour, would just add to everyone's enjoyment.

Thanks again, everyone!

Our 7 and 9 year old are our youngest. We also have three more (all boys) that range from 17 to 22.

From my experience, you may be able get one or two years more of travel with your 14 year old, but that is probably pushing it. You are on target with the friend thing. With the older boys I was able to have some wonderful experiences with them backpacking in the Sierra’s with the Boy Scouts. The boys outnumber the adults by a wide margin and they seem to accept the fact that they need you along – sometimes. Strangely, probably the best trip was when the only other adult got taken out by helicopter due to chest pains (long story – he was fine – except for two broken ribs – no heart attack, but we did not know that until we got to the top of Mount Whitney and cell reception… three days later) and I was alone with four boys from 15 to 17 and one of my sons. After a day or two I became the fly on the wall – very interesting and the most precious time that I have been able to spend with that son, before or since.

The thing to keep in mind is that YOU need to stay in sufficient shape to keep up with these kids - it is a take no prisoners kind of deal. They (most of the time) will be polite enough to not say it, but they definitely do not want you around if you can not keep up with their friends. You are a necessary evil until you can not keep up, and then you are unnecessary, because you can not provide them with what they want. You then become a drag. The parent in average shape or out of shape – does not get to go with them. That is a real shame as the shared experience at that age is so difficult to come by, and while trying to not get too sappy, the shared experiences in the Sierra’s with my boys are ones that I cherish the most.

My wife and I finished Paris Brest Paris on a tandem (1240 kilometers in 90 hours or 770 miles in 3.75 days) on time last year despite our crank arm falling off at 2:00 am in the French countryside after 1,000 kilometers. I have also completed the Gold Rush (1200 kilometers in less than 90 hours – actually 82 and change – but who is counting) and a number of double centuries and brevets from 200 to 1000 kilometers. I would like to think that I am in reasonable shape, but compared to teenagers who are on the High School Cross Country or Swim team, I am pathetic. I learned on these trips that it is official – I am old.

Stay in shape, and spend time with you spouse on the tandem.

Riding on the tandem is typically “our time” for my wife and I. For that we have a recently purchased custom Steve Rex with couplers. This keeps us in fair shape and also is nice to be reminded once in a while why we got married in the first place. It is also our social adult time as well – which is very necessary less you life become all about the kids and work all the time which can get you headed for divorce court in my opinion.

We also have a Santana Sovereign without couplers, which we have a stoker kit on at this time. This was our “old” bike that we purchased used before we were sure we wanted to ride tandem. We ended up riding Paris Brest Paris on this bike.

Before we bought the Steve Rex I did a lot of research into a Bike Friday tandem. All I can say is that the people I spoke to were very pleased with them. One person that we rode a fleche (a 24 hour team ride that you must all stay together) with a couple of years ago finished Paris Brest Paris on a Bike Friday and he also has a Bike Friday tandem. He obviously rides a lot and highly recommended the Bike Friday. The only reason we did not get a Bike Friday is that we were very frustrated with the limitations of the Santana and their proprietary equipment and decided to get another bike for our ultra rides that was easier to travel with. Fit is something that is very important to an ultra rider and when you are stuck with only what Santana sells rather than what you need it is extremely frustrating. I personally will NEVER purchase another Santana for that reason. It is not a bad bike, and if you can find one cheap, fine, but make sure it fits you first as you will be limited later – just my two cents.

My strategy with the bikes and kids, which works for me – your results may vary, is to have one nice travel bike that WE use along with another that we can use to travel together as a family.

Our younger kids have done most of the coast from San Francisco to San Diego over the years with either singles and a trailer or on the tandem. I have also ridden with the older boys on the single bikes from Los Angeles to San Diego, around Santa Barbara and through Death Valley. It can be done. You just have to be flexible and creative with your planning. Research where you are going to avoid the danger zones / times!

Keep in mind that after about 18 they don’t want to travel with you anymore and frankly, you probably don’t want to travel with them. It is great to see them for holidays and for dinner once in a while, say hello to their girlfriends but I much prefer a weekend away with my wife than a weekend with a smelly 20 year old. The fact that I still want to spend time with my wife after all that we have gone through I believe speaks volumes about the tandem and spending time having fun together. Remember, in seven years, if you’re lucky, your 11 year old will be going off to college, and then it’s just the two of you – what then?

Have tandem, will travel…

Is all this expense and aggravation worth it? Absolutely! Touring with the kids on a tandem is a blast! We did a little tour this year from Ventura, to San Diego, stopping at kid friendly places along the way. I am not sure what we will be doing next year with the kids, but a New England tour is a strong possibility – as soon as I figure out how to get the Burley trailer on the plane along with both tandems and all the junk for four people…

I agree that's it's all worth it!! Yes - it's a pain in the patootie, but worth it in the end. We are now touring with one tandem and two singles - one kid is on a single this trip. Transporting the tandem up to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska was a nightmare - a complete, total nightmare. We ended up taking it on the plane with us, but it cost a fortune. Most of our problem was because of where we were going, but if you are goign to a major city, it's a lot easier. good luck!!

Plenty of choices for Tandems that pack into suitcases. Our last trip on Southwest Airlines was 2 Adults and 1 Child with Tandem and Hase Trets trike/trailer. 5 suitcases - 2 hard cases for our S&S Santana tandem, 1 soft bag for the Trets, 1 soft bag for the bike gear and 1 soft bag for clothes for the three of us. No baggage costs.

Surprisingly easy as Skycap at the curb took control of the bags at checkin. I tipped generously.

How long ago?