Tandem Cycling - Weekend Reading Material from The Bulletin Board

February 14th Update (7,992)

As always, these are just summaries. The actual entries with linked websites, objects, video's etc... can be found here:

Blog: http://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: http://www.thetandemlink.com

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Tour de Cure: If not us, please sponsor someone this year!

Feel like making a difference and helping a few of the 24-million Americans who are living with Diabetes? Click and donate to our team On behalf of nearly 24 million Americans with diabetes and their families and friends, we are counting on you to help our team make a difference! The funds we raise will support [...] Read more…

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7th Annual Cycling for Sight Tour with the Blind Stokers Club

Geez-o-Pete, too bad we’re not in SoCal, as this looks like a great event! Make a big difference in the way WE ALL see the world. Join the 7th Annual Cycling for Sight Tour with the Blind Stokers Club along the beautiful Southern California coastline on July 15th – 17th, 2011. The tour celebrates cycling and [...] Read more…

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N.A.R.C. 2011 Jersey… Ahhh, that’s more like it.

As mentioned last week, we decided to re-join the North Atlanta Riding Club for 2011 after laying out for 2010. One of the perquisite’s of N.A.R.C membership is the club jersey which, for some reason, gets redesigned each year even though most of the sponsors remain unchanged. This has made for some years where the [...] Read more…

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Stoker Speak… The 9 Words Women Use

With apologies to tandem teams that have same-sex pilots and stokers, or teams where the woman is the pilot and her stoker(s) is a male or children, someone threw out this “oldie but goodie” on a motorcycle discussion forum I frequent and I couldn’t help to realize how spot-on this is for many of [...] Read more…

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Rodney Moseman’s Sand Flea…

Back on January 30th you may recall that I wrote about a fat-tire twofer made by Belgium framebuilder Sandman and in that entry I mentioned Rodney Moseman’s “Sand Flea” tandem designed and built back in the late 90′s that was similar in concept and execution to Dan Hanebrink’s Extreme bikes with their 20″ x 8″ ATV extreme tires. Well, [...] Read more…

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Hey, hey… we’re riding again this weekend!

Woohoo, two nice weekends in a row with temps at or above 50F ! Thankfully, last weekend’s rides did have a lasting impact on my recovery from bronchitis beyond a slight increase in light coughing on Monday, but that could have just as likely been from the return of damp and cold weather during the [...] Read more…

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Tandem Club Locator & Link List Update

I’m just about done doing my annual Tandem Club listing and links updates, so if any of our readers think a club is missing or perhaps one I have listed has folded, please let us know. For those who may not know about it, for the past decade or so I’ve maintained a couple of [...] Read more…

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NorthWest Tandem Racing… for those in the region & looking to race

Our friend and fellow Tandem Geek Henry Abel has started to fill the event calendar at his NorthWest Tandem Racing website with upcoming road events in the Pacific Northwest. For the folks who live and ride in the PNW and who are looking for competitive events, you’ll want to check out the NWTR event calendar, [...] Read more…

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The Outspoken Cyclist: My Favorite Interviews…

Back in November I posted an entry that introduced readers to a new weekly public radio program called the Outspoken Cyclist hosted by long-time friend Diane Lees of HubBub Custom Bicycles in Cleveland, Ohio. It airs every Saturday evening at 5:30 on WJCU and you can download shows after the fact from either the WJCU [...]

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1898 Children’s Tandem, Very Cool….

With a grateful and sincere Thank You to Peter K. for sending it my way & for allowing me to share it with my readers here at The TandemGeek’s Blog, here is a scanned-image of a photo that depicts Peter’s great-grandmother and her brother on a very small but clearly functional tandem bicycle taken in Copenhagen [...] Read more…

February 20th Update (8,123)

As always, these are just summaries. The actual entries with linked websites, objects, video's etc... can be found here:

Blog: http://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: http://www.thetandemlink.com

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Too True… (Bloggishnish)

It’s taken about 100 years to create the current mess, so don’t go there… but this editorial cartoon really does capture a common view that I hear more and more often these days… from politicians to the uber-rich to the working stiff and the folks on the public dole in one form or another, noting [...] Read more…

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Rodney Moseman: Build Your Own Tandem, Circa 1981

In last week’s entry on Rodney Moseman’s Sand Flea I mentioned there would be a few more blog entries forthcoming based on some information Rodney shared with me. This next one is amazing for a number of reasons: 1st – because Rodney shared a 5-part, 31 page article he wrote back in 1980 that described [...] Read more…

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Southern Tandem Rallies Filled or Filling-Up…

As usual, the Georgia Tandem Rally was filled-up quickly this year with some 110 teams now confirmed for the gala in Macon this May. We’re fortunate in that as one of the six GTR Originals who have attended all 13 GTRs we get a leg up on the general registration process along with several other [...] Read more…

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A Few More Updates at TheTandemLink.com

Our friend Kevin V. from the Dallas Area Tandem EnthusiastS (DATES) let us know the DATES have updated their logo… so at least one reader was paying attention to last week’s request for club updates! I also rolled-forward the 90-day rally look-ahead on the Home page and I was taken aback by just how many [...] Read more…

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Worth the wait? Time will tell…. (Bloggishnish)

Back in January 2009 I replaced my ’98 Honda CBR1100xx with my ’03 BMW R1100S Boxer Cup Replika and became smitten with the BMW. Compared to my CBR1100, it didn’t have as much spirit but it did have a lot of soul and an old-school feel that captured my imagination every time I swung a [...] Read more…

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No Co-Motion Classic Tandem Race for 2011

With a tip of the hat to our friend Henry at NorthWest Tandem Racing.com who called this to our attetion, from the Co-Motion Website comes the following announcement… Today (February 9th) we’re announcing that the race will not be held in 2011. While we’re saddened that we did not succeed in bringing more tandem racers [...] Read more…

February 27th Update (8,245)


As always, these are just summaries. The actual entries with linked websites, objects, video's etc... can be found here:

Blog: http://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: http://www.thetandemlink.com

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What’s on Tap for Next Week…

Well, I’m out of altitude and airspeed and have some work to do before calling it a night. So, on tap over the next few weeks will be: A review of Hubbub’s new mirror … (Nice!) A write-up on Rodney Moseman’s Travel Tandem… A virtual tour of our home bike shop… Some drive train beta [...] Read more…

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Our Event Calendar…

As mentioned a while back, it was shaping up to be a busy year. We’ve had a few events that we wanted to attend fall off our calendar — Tandem East Open House or Alabama Tandem Weekend and the Santana Chattanooga Rally — while another one that we didn’t think we could make in mid-March [...] Read more…

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Tandems & Spring Maintenance

In addition to all of those pesky household chores that must be attended to each Spring, it’s also time to attend to that Spring bike maintenance stuff. Regardless of whether you ride through the winter or not, Spring is a good time to mark your calendar for a heavy-duty dose of preventative maintenance for your [...] Read more…

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Beautiful Spring weather… and those darn chores that come with it! (Bloggishnish)

It’s truly a double-edge sword, these early Spring-like days. Yesterday and today were both beautiful, with temps quickly rising from the 30′s to the 70′s on Saturday and being mostly in the upper 60′s and low 70′s today. These are the kind of days when all you would like to do is hop on the [...] Read more…

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Phil Wood Offer’s New Shell For Rohloff Users…

As mentioned and shown in the NAHBS entry, Phil Wood has developed an aftermarket shell for the Rohloff internally geared hub. I believe they first made mention of the new product on their Facebook page back on Feb 16th, in parallel with an updated to their Blog. Aside from adding a lot of bling [...] Read more…

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Gates Carbon Sync Drive… When to Replace?

This was the question that a contributor to the tandem sub-forum at BikeForums.org posed last week. In addition to being an early adopter, this particular tandem team logs lots of miles each year and with nearly 10,000 miles on the belt experienced some minor ratcheting on a recent ride. You may recall from my earlier [...] Read more…

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NAHBS 2011… Tandems

With a tip of the hat to our friend Ritterview (Bill V.) from BikeForums.net, there were several very interesting tandems on display at this year’s North American Handmade Bicycle Show in Austin, Texas. Bill has created a Flickr album where he has consolidate a number of photos that he has discovered on various web-based photo [...] Read more…

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Shell & Ferrari F1 Video Montage… Amazing!

Ok, here’s another one for the tandem enthusiasts who are also afflicted with an appreciation for motorsports… Hint: Expand the video to full screen; it’s a high-res version… and crank the volume to hear those wonderful prancing ponies as these classic F1 machines take a lap around the great cities of the world. Read more…

March 6th Update (8,326)

As always, these are just summaries. The actual entries with linked websites, objects, video's etc... can be found here:

Blog: http://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: http://www.thetandemlink.com

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2011 Tour De Cure… We're Asking For Your Help!

Dear Readers, On May 16 we will band together with over 50,000 cyclists around the United Stated to raise awareness and money for the American Diabetes Association during the 2011 Tour de Cure. The goal is simple: STOP DIABETES. To do this we’re asking for your help. By making a donation on our behalf, you [...] Read more…

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The Moseman Tandem Trilogy: Part III – The Travel Tandem

In Part I of the Moseman Tandem Trilogy we introduced you to Rodney’s Sand Flea. In Part II of the Moseman Tandem Trilogy we introduced you to Rodney’s fully-lugged tandem & 5-part tutorial on how to build a tandem. In Part III of the Moseman Tandem Trilogy we now introduce you to Rodney’s compact travel [...] Read more…

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Gates Sync Drive Replacement: Initial Follow-Up

Back on Feb 27th I posted an item based on a BikeForums discussion where a team that was an early adopter of the Gates Carbon Sync Drive was looking to hear from anyone who knew what to look for to determine when a belt needed to be replaced. Nobody really had a good answer for [...] Read more…

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Jtek Shiftmate Straight = Campy Ergo + SRAM

It’s true it’s true… A few months back I got it into my head that I’d really like to see how a SRAM X9 or XO rear derailleur might work mated to my Campy Ergo shifters. Our Record long-cage rear derailleur has always worked with up to an 11x32t cassette, but struggles a bit in [...] Read more…

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Chains & Tires & Tubes, Oh My!

I think it’s almost time for me to start-up my own Tandem Studio if only to allow me to retire 10-years earlier. I figure between some marginal income from sales and getting my own stuff at cost I’d come out ahead of the game! Well, as noted in last week’s spring cleaning article, I found [...] Read more…

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Rear View Mirrors & My Hubbub Mirror Review

In Defense of Mirrors. Do I remember why I decided to try a mirror? Yes. I ran out of good excuses for not giving one a try. But, aren’t cyclists who wear rear view mirrors bike dorks? Yes, they are. But, here’s a little secret your non-cycling friends may or may not have shared with [...] Read more…

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New Jersey’s Dirty D.O.G.S. Plan For Summer Fun!

Teambreeze (aka, Brenda & Larry Isherwood) from New Jersey’s tandem club, Doubles Of the Garden State (DOGS) recently dropped us a couple of notes and also posted some announcements on a couple of off-road tandem events for June and July. The first one is scheduled for June 17-19 at the Allegrippis Trails at Lake Raystown [...] Read more…

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Dwan Shepard Does 20 Questions With Bike News Asia

You may recall an item from our blog a few weeks back where Co-Motion Cycles announced an end to their 9-year run with the Co-Motion Classic tandem stage race in Eugene, Oregon. However, at the tail end of that announcement they included a teaser that a new, non-racing event was in the works and details [...] Read more…

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The mirror review is much appreciated. I had switched to an eyeglass-mounted mirror which has better optical quality than the helmet-mounted Cayeye, but I just don't find this sort of mount convenient. I don't have any qualms looking dork-like on the tandem, but stopping for lunch and leaving sunglasses/mirror in place is beyond dork.

March 13th Update (8,435)


As always, these are just summaries. The actual entries with linked websites, objects, video's etc... can be found here:

Blog: http://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: http://www.thetandemlink.com

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SRAM X.0 + Jtek Shiftmate Straight (2nd Follow-Up)

Nice… really nice. This is a follow-on entry to my first follow-on entry regarding the swap-out of our Campy Record Long Cage rear derailleur with a Jtek SRAM X.0 + Shiftmate Straight 5S adapter. Wowzer! What a pleasant surprise! While we’ve always enjoyed what I’ve characterized as good shifting with various combinations of our hybrid [...] Read more…

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It’s not about the tandem…

From outward appearances this may sound like pure hypocrisy, but it ain’t about the tandem! It’s about the tandeming experience. If having a certain brand, model, type, material, color, or specific gravity improves your tandeming experience, all the better. However, it’s not a zero-sum game, where for one person’s tandem to be better, someone else’s [...] Read more…

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Dammit! Distracted Driver Mows Down Tandem Team in Illinois…

The headline from The News Gazette in East Central Illinios… Map reading may have distracted driver in car-bike crash I’m reminded of just about every other ‘distracted driver hits cyclist report’ that’s become almost ubiquitous over the past few years. In particular, I’m reminded of the case involving Gregory and Alexandra Bruehler who were mowed-down near [...] Read more…

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SRAM X.0 Conversion With Shiftmate Straight 5S (Follow-Up)

I mentioned in one of my entries on Saturday that I planned to swap out the Campy Record long-cage derailleur on our Calfee for a SRAM X.0 model with a Jtek Shiftmate Straight 5S adapter once all of the bits and pieces arrived on Tuesday. Well, it’s Tuesday and the swap-out is now complete. If the SRAM X.0 [...] Read more…

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No, It’s Not Your Imagination… Sometimes Things Change

I mentioned this back on July 6th, but it bears repeating. I need to extend a sincere apology to my subscribers and anyone else who happens upon my blog entries shortly after they’re first published. I’ve never been very disciplined at proofreading my own copy, and my blog entries are no exception. I tend to [...] Read more…

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eMotion Rollers… An Overdue Follow-Up

It’s been a bit over 6 weeks since I took delivery of my InsideRide eMotion Rollers, so it’s probably time to do some kind of update to my last entry, “Good First Impression“. As I mentioned in a number of blog entries, I was hit with the crud throughout January and didn’t get fully past [...] Read more…

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Bina Bilenky & The San Diego Custom Bicycle Show

Wow, Steven Bilenky’s daughter Bina Bilenky has been a busy gal again… OK, busier than usual as she always seems to be busy. Guess the acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree, as her dad Stephen Bilenky has always had at least four or five irons in the fire at a time! Here’s the scoop: [...] Read more…

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Idiot’s Guide To Mounting & Removing A Hubbub Mirror…

Why? Why not…. It took about 3 minutes to film and upload and if a picture’s worth 1,000 words, an 11-second long You Tube video has to be worth 10,000 words, i.e., the equivalent of one of my classic Tandem@Hobbes postings back in the day. Oh yeah, and because I was the idiot who couldn’t figure [...] Read more…

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1st Anniversary of ‘The TandemGeek’s Blog’

I missed it! The one-year anniversary of my blog was back on February 28th. Yes, I know it appears to have been launched on January 1st, 2010. However, that’s because I back-dated most of the initial blog entries which were, in fact, TandemLink.com Bulletin Board entries from January and February. I simply moved those entries [...] Read more…

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Precision Tandem’s March Madness Sale On Now!

We heard from our friend Mark Johnson at Precision Tandems in Shawnee, Kansas over the weekend. In addition to tweaking his home page, he also passed along word that they’ve kicked off their March Madness Sale and have a bunch of good stuff on closeout. You can find some of the marked-down items listed on [...] Read more…

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Nice focus piece on lug work at NAHBS…

I’ve mentioned the blog Red Kit Prayer in the past as being one of my regular reads. Excellent writing by a great collection of industry folks who know what they’re writing about and how to write. Patrick Brady (aka, Padraig) filed a couple reports on this year’s North American Handmade Bicycle Show in Austin, but [...] Read more…

March 20th Update (8,620)

As always, these are just summaries. The actual entries with linked websites, objects, video's etc... can be found here:

Blog: http://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: http://www.thetandemlink.com

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March PEACHES Ride: Rutledge, Georgia

No, this won’t be as long as my Saint Augustine weekend write-up… but it ain’t all that short either. Not sure why that is… as in why I’m suddenly recalling a bit too much detail. Cest la vie.

Although the weather was a little gloomy and cool today, about 13 tandem teams — including Team [...] Read more…

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Saint Augustine Weekend… A Great Time

This is a longish entry, on par with some of the travelogues you’ll find in TCA’s DoubleTalk and crazyguyonabike.com, so you’ve been warned.

A small group of long-time friends whom we’ve come to know while attending tandem rallies throughout the southeast gathered for a 3-day weekend of socializing and tandem riding near Saint Augustine, Florida [...] Read more…

March 27th Update (8,712)

As always, these are just summaries. The actual entries with linked websites, objects, video's etc... can be found here:

Blog: http://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: http://www.thetandemlink.com

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Dr. Gabe Mirkin: Straight Talk On Fitness, Exercise & Nutrition

Buried in a posting on February 12 about my favorite interviews from “The Outspoken Cyclist” was the January 15th interview of Dr. Gabe Mirkin. If you’ve always felt overwhelmed by some of the overly complex discussions, articles, or books on fitness, exercise and nutrition or been sold a bill of good that the path to [...] Read more…

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The Virtual Garage Tour…

I’ve posted a number of photos from inside our garage over the years for a variety of reasons, and more recently I’ve had a couple of folks ask some questions about just what all I’ve had stashed in my “parts boxes” and the various bins they’ve seen in photos. Some other folks have been curious [...] Read more…

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Canadian Tandem Rally in May, eh?

What: 2011 Canadian Tandem Rally Where: St. Jacobs, Ontario, Canada When: May 27-30 2011 I haven’t updated TheTandemLink.com’s rally schedule just yet (that would require going upstairs to my antique, 2001 vintage Apple G3 tower), but David & Brenda Vandevelde have sent notes out to those of us who keep rally calendars and to the [...] Read more…

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Gates Sync Drive Wear & Tear: Update

Back on Feb 27th I posted an item based on a BikeForums discussion where a team that was an early adopter of the Gates Carbon Sync Drive was looking to hear from anyone who knew what to look for to determine when a belt needed to be replaced. I posted a follow-up to that entry on March [...] Read more…

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Dave Porter’s Spirit Tandem

Long-time readers may recall Dave Porter was kind enough to share some information regarding his Pino Morroni tandem jigs that I included in my Pino Morroni retrospective back on June 13, 2010. Dave continues to use the Morroni tandem jigs building custom tandems down in Albuquerque, New Mexico under his own brand, Porter Custom Bicycles. [...] Read more…

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Park TS-2 Rebuild

I’m almost ashamed to show you a picture of what my beloved Park TS-2 Professional Truing Stand looked like before it got some TLC tonight. I bought this stand nearly 20 years ago and it spent most of its life mounted to my old cycling work bench out in the garage where it wasn’t given the respect [...] Read more…

April 3rd Update (8,779)


As always, these are just summaries. The actual entries with linked websites, objects, video's etc... can be found here:

Blog: http://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: http://www.thetandemlink.com

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Our 50th Tandem Rally… Coming This May!

At least I think it’s the 50th. I’m not sure I’ve got all of the previous Alabama Tandem Weekend’s properly documented, but it’s definitely in the ballpark. Therefore, one of the two rallies we’re presently planning to attend in May will be the 50th. If my count is correct, then it would be the 2nd [...]
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Alabama Tandem Weekend: The 2011 Rally That Got Away…

We’d planned to attend the second Alabama Tandem Weekend (ATW) hosted by Steve & Wendy Baxter, but work commitments on Friday somewhat put an end to that plan. The older I get the less time I like to spend behind the wheel, so when we make a road trip somewhere I really like to make [...]
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Just Not Riding Enough… Life Keeps Getting in the Way.

During my phone call / interview with Diane Lees on Thursday she asked how many miles a year Debbie and I ride our tandem and there were a couple interesting aspects to that question. The first was, Diane assumed mileage would be something I keep close track of… and she was surprised when I confessed [...]
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Shelby GT350 “Barn Find” (Bloggishnish)

Ok, time for a little distraction from tandem cycling… In addition to getting a daily feed on what’s going on in the world of tandem cycling, I also get daily feeds from Jalopnik.com. If you’re a car-guy… a real car guy, not one of those uber-wealthy people who collect cars like art and in the [...]
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San Diego’s 7th Annual Cycling for Sight, July 15-17

Our friend Sue Buckley — whom you may recall from our October 2010 blog entry on Club Vibes based in Knoxville, TN — dropped us a note to see if we might be interested in heading out to the West Coast in July for the 7th Annual Cycling For Sight event. While our tandem rally dance card [...]
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A Tandem Cycling Primer… For The Intrigued Or Curious.

The following is a lightly edited re-print of an article I wrote for the Southern Bicycle League’s monthly magazine, Freewheelin‘. This is probably the most recent thing I’ve written targeted at the broader cycling community so I thought I’d publish it here in the event folks who aren’t already fully bought into the tandem cycling [...]
Read more…

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Oh Snap!!!!

Talk about an unlucky break, you may recall I made mention of loaning our ’98 Erickson to some friends during my on-line video tour of our garage. Well, OK… so only the 38 of you who actually accessed that video may have known about that. To make a long story short, one of the teams [...]
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The Final TandemGeek’s Blog Entry

Having fulfilled my life-long goal of being a public radio program guest, I feel I have finally achieved something my parents can be proud of and tell their friends. It is with great reluctance that I retire as an on-line writer, but with well over 2,500 postings to Tandem@Hobbes since 1997, an amazing 6,391 postings [...]
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TG Does The O.C.

Let me decode this a bit: Yours truly was invited to be a guest on Diane Lee’s public radio show, “The Outspoken Cyclist” which airs Saturday afternoons on WJCU in Cleveland, Ohio. Yeah, yeah… I know. What on Earth was Diane thinking! Of all the really neat folks in the world of tandem cycling, [...]
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April 11th Update (8,879)

As always, these are just summaries. The actual entries with linked websites, objects, video's etc... can be found here:

Blog: http://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: http://www.thetandemlink.com

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Oh Snap!!! (Update #1)

As a follow-up to my entry entitled “Oh Snap” from last week, we’ve gotten a few more in-process photos of our friend’s Erickson tandem’s rear triangle going under the torch at Yellow Jersey up in Madison, Wisconsin. So, let me cut to the chase: here they are. And if that weren’t enough, here are [...] Read more…

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2011 Sebring Tandem Rally, by Kathy Foster

Woo hoo! We have our first bona fide guest contributor!!! Kathy Foster, publicity chair for the Florida Panthers was kind enough to share her write up of the 2011 Sebring Tandem Weekend held on April 1st through 3rd. A popular tandem rally, AWOL for two years in Sebring, Florida, has bounced back with a new [...] Read more…

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Early Readers: Sorry about that….

For regular readers or those who’ve come to expect my weekly summary and who may have peeked-in to see what I’ve been writing about this past week, my apologies for the “first edition” versions of last evening’s blog entries, please accept my apologies. I knew I was in a unsually foul mood while I was [...] Read more…

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Bicycle Quarterly: Always a Great Read…

Know your audience, and know the audience of the media that you consume… Good words to live by. Clearly, if you’re reading this right now you should be a tandem enthusiast. I say should because it’s posted to a blog targeted at tandem enthusiasts and written by a tandem enthusiast who looks at the cycling [...] Read more…

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2×10 Drive Trains for Tandems… My Thoughts.

There’s been a lot of buzz lately about 2×10 drive trains for tandems. Personally, with some exceptions, I’m still compelled to lump this in with some of the other things I classify as tandem cycling fads and fashion statements that come along under the guise of being great technological innovations. Some of the impetus for this renewed [...] Read more…

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iPad “Sprockets” Application… Oh Please.

I guess there really is an “app” for just about anything, even things that make absolutely no sense and serve no real purpose… I’ll spare you the mental anguish I suffered in learning more about this “innovation” by not imbedding the You Tube video discussed on Tandem@Hobbes. However, I will give you a link to the [...] Read more…

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Commercial Tandem Cycling Tours… The Last Big Push

Oh, if we’d only hit the lottery… Actually, we do play every once in a while because as insane as the odds are against you, somebody’s got to win! And, if we should ever win, I’ve actually got it all planned out! After putting our affairs in order and taking care of the family by [...] Read more…

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The Wal-Mart of Bike Shops Has Come To Our Fair City…

For the 20 years that I have lived in Georgia we’ve been fortunate enough to have a really good local bike shop here in Marietta, Georgia: Free Flite Bicycles. The store was first opened in 1978, 13-years before I arrived in Georgia in January of 1991, but it turns out that back-in-the-day Free Flite was [...] Read more…

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Francisco Moser & Vic Haines To Attempt New Tandem Hour Record?

OK, this one’s a bit interesting for a number of reasons. First & foremost, let me thank my friend Alex Nutt from MTBTandems.com for forwarding me an Email he received out of the blue from Vic Haines, a fairly well-known time-trial and tandem time-trial specialist from the UK. While Alex is still not sure how [...] Read more…

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Lane County’s Bicycle History… Co-Motion & Burley

I stumbled across two oral history interviews that were part of a project funded under the Teaching American History grant awarded to the Lane Education Service District. This particular project included 10 different videos and oral histories and two in particular caught my attention. The first was an interview of Dwan Shepard of Co-Motion Cycles in [...] Read more…

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When it’s about tandems, it’s we… not me. Us, not I.

OK, I finally listened to this week’s Outspoken Cyclist via pod-cast… Yikes and my hat’s off to Greg P. for the amazing job he did of editing the original discussion I had with Diane. Not that this comes as a surprise to anyone, but that was the first recorded interview I’d ever given. Moreover, having now listened [...] Read more…

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A Tandem Cycling Primer… For The Intrigued Or Curious.

The following is a lightly edited re-print of an article I wrote for the Southern Bicycle League’s monthly magazine, Freewheelin‘. This is probably the most recent thing I’ve written targeted at the broader cycling community so I thought I’d publish it here in the event folks who aren’t already fully bought into the tandem cycling [...] Read more…

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April 17th Update (9,027)

As always, these are just summaries. The actual entries with linked websites, objects, video's etc... can be found here:

Blog: http://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: http://www.thetandemlink.com

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Snap!! (Update #3 – The Big Surprise)

Unbeknownst to stoker Eve, a few months after the initial frame break incident on their European tour and a few months before their second frame break incident in Florida both chronicled in my original blog entry, Oh Snap!!!, Roger had conspired with our friend Tim P. at Cycology Bicycles in Marysville, Tennessee to order a new [...] Read more…

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Oh Snap!!! (Update #2)

This is the second follow-up to the first two chapters of the Broken Erickson Saga: A Man & His Tandem. In the first chapter we learned how our friends Roger & Eve would begin a journey into the dark and mysterious world of bicycle frame repair in ”Oh Snap” . In the second chapter, “Oh Snap, [...] Read more…

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Discussion Forum Obits For The Recently Departed

We recently had a long time contributor bid farewell to one of the tandem discussion forums I frequent and his sign-off made me reflect a bit on some of the sign-offs I’ve seen, to include my own from the Hobbes list back on April 10, 2007. Yes, I actually left Hobbes… in some respects having [...] Read more…

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San Diego Custom Bike Show Coverage…

This will likely build through the weekend as more articles and photo galleries from the 2011 San Diego Custom Bike Show begin to emerge. Article #1 - Red Kite Prayer / Patrick Brady’s first impressions and a few early photos in advance of his full gallery of photos, yet to be posted. Article #2 – Bicycle [...] Read more…

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FS: Rolf Prima Vigor Tandem Wheelset & Gates Carbon Sync Belt Drive

Looking to upgrade your Co-Motion or any other tandem with 145mm rear spacing and a 28.5″ stoker compartment with some go-fast goodies? If so, a friend of ours is offering up two of the most sought after upgrades: Item #1 is a Gates Carbon Drive tandem sync belt and 69t sprockets designed for use with stock Co-Motion [...] Read more…

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Nice people, nice bike, and I believe the prerequisite color of purple.

Very cool, from a cobby weld, to two loaner bikes, to a great surprise for Eve. Roger and the others did a good job.

Ride the wheels off this one too.

PK

April 24th Update (9,151)

As always, these are just summaries. The actual entries with linked websites, objects, video's etc... can be found here:

Blog: http://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: http://www.thetandemlink.com

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SRAM X.0 + Jtek Shiftmate Straight (3rd Follow-Up)

OK. We’ve put quite a few more hilly miles on the SRAM X.O + Jtek Shiftmate Straight adapter since Update #2. I’d like to say that it was still “perfect” but, that’s not quite the case. Now, it’s not an insurmountable problem, but it’s similar to the same issues we’ve had with the more [...] Read more…

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The Entry Level Tandem Price Gap

In my “pulse of the tandem market” update, I mentioned the entry-level tandem price gap and that bears some additional discussion, because it’s an interesting situation. Here’s the deal, if you’ve budgeted $3,500 or so for a new tandem the world’s your oyster: lots of great options out there, including a couple really nifty redesigns [...] Read more…

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Headed to Chattanooga For Santana’s Mother’s Day Weekend Rally

Breaking News: Team LGood is headed to Chattanooga, Tennessee for the Santana Mother’s Day Weekend Rally on May 5th – 8th. I believe there are still a few other slots available if anyone is interested. More info HERE. Our first and only Santana Rally was the 1999 Mother’s Day Weekend in Asheville, North Carolina, so [...] Read more…

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Our Hubbub Mirrors… 8-Week Update

Well, it’s been 8-weeks for me since I wrote my initial review, and about 4-weeks for Debbie and we’re both completely impressed with the Hubbub mirror. It stays put, which was not true of our other mirrors. Both would always need to be adjusted before a ride Mine would routinely need readjustment after hitting a big [...] Read more…

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Taking the Pulse of the Tandem Community

Some of the folks who are regular readers of Tandem@Hobbes, Double_Forte@YahooGroups, GA_Peaches@YahooGroups, and BikeForums.net may have noticed that I did not conduct a tandem enthusiast poll this past winter. It was an intentionally omission, i.e., I just didn’t feel like it. But, that’s not to say that I’ve lost my interest in keeping my finger [...] Read more…

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Tennessee Tandem Rally… Almost Full

Just four more slots remain, as there have been a few cancellations. You can learn more about the rally and get registration information from the TTR Website: http://www.thetandemlink.com/TTR.html We’ve always joked around that the Tennessee Tandem Rally “isn’t your parents tandem rally“. While most of the big climbs at TTR are optional, TTR has always been [...] Read more…

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A.O.R.T.A. 2011 – Still Time To Register

As a reminder to off-road tandem enthusiasts, there’s still time to register for the 2011 Appalachian Off-Road Tandem Adventure being held at Bent Creek & DuPont State Forest near Asheville, North Carolina on May 13th – 15th. This will be the 2nd annual A.O.R.T.A. event, which means lots of tweaks and fine tuning have been [...] Read more…

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April PEACHES Ride: Rome, Georgia

The April PEACHES (aka, unofficial tandem club of Georgia) ride turned out to be a very special event, even more so than one would typically expect when eight couples + another friend riding waist gunner on a triplet show up for a group tandem ride. As mentioned in Sunday night’s blog entry, ‘Oh Snap (Update [...] Read more…

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Distracted Driver Mows Down Tandem Team in Illinois… (Follow-Up)

With a tip of the hat to our friend John (of John & Sonya) who pointed out the article to me via an Email today… Here’s the first follow-up I’ve seen since the news coverage that followed the March 7th incident where Errol Maul mowed down and killed 53-year old Cindy Combs and put her [...] Read more…

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Serotta in Sarasota… It’s Baaack!

Long-time, regular readers may recall our friend and Serotta devotee David H. brought an 80′s vintage Serotta tandem to my attention back in November that I chronicled in this blog entry. I was intrigued back in November, but found the asking price to be a bit steep and the seller — who appeared to be [...] Read more…

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OK, TG now does Facebook…

With some trepidation, I’m back on Facebook. Admittedly, I’ve truly become a troglodyte when it comes to things like Skype, VoIP, Twitter, and just about anything beyond Adobe PageMill 3.0, Email, and WordPress, noting I’m pretty much a hack at even things I do have some knowledge of. So, I guess in my 83-year old [...] Read more…

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Yeah, it was a thin week… (Bloggishnish)

I think I may have over-achieved last week with about 12 entries, so this week was a bit thin. There are several items in my queue that I’ll try to get to this week, e.g., PEACHES Ride in Rome, that Serotta tandem is back on the market, my thoughts on tail lights, an update on the [...] Read more…

May 1st Update (9,247)

As always, these are just summaries. The actual entries with linked websites, objects, video's etc... can be found here:

Blog: http://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: http://www.thetandemlink.com

Note: As mentioned in my "Taking Off This Weekend..." entry, my blogging mojo is about a quart low this week, due to a variety of things. I hope to get a recharge over the next week.

However, more important was not burying the lead... my humble request for Tour de Cure donations. I explain a little about my appreciation for fund raising fatigue in my "Taking Off This Weekend...." entry, but be that as it may, I'm still passing the hat!

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Tour de Cure… My Final Request of 2011

If everyone who visited my blog site each week donated just $5.00 (the minimum on-line donation), we’d be able to provide the American Diabetes Association with over $10,000 in much-needed funding! So, how about it? Can you spare $5? How about $10? Maybe even $25? We’ve had a couple of readers make some very generous [...] Read more…

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Taking Off This Weekend….

My apologies, but I’m taking this weekend off. It’s been an interesting week filled with highs (Debbie’s Birthday) and lows (devastating tornadoes), and I just can’t get my head around any of a number of subjects that are on my mind, but somewhat clouded at the moment. Work has become a four-letter-word at the moment, [...] Read more…

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May 15th Update (9,417)

As always, these are just summaries. The actual entries with linked websites, objects, video's etc... can be found here:

Blog: http://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: http://www.thetandemlink.com

Note: Yes, it's been nearly 2 weeks since my last summary. However, just looking at blog hits, it appears some of y'all may have already checked-in to see what I'd been working on.

As suggested by the subject lines in all but two of this weeks highlighted items, this is my Santana Special Edition where I've chronicled our weekend in Chattanooga and our test ride experience after spending 3 days riding a Santana Beyond.

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011 Santana Beyond Review – Beyond Sublime

TG’s Anti-Climatic Backwards Review Unlike most reviews that don’t summarize or score the subject of their review until the last paragraph, in this one you get the summary and specifications right up front… Diving into the details is optional. Note: This still hasn’t been proofread so excuse any grammatical errors. Cutting To The Chase: As [...] Read more…

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2011 Santana Beyond Review – Introduction & Background

Santana could have named its flagship tandem ”Beyond Sublime“ That’s pretty high praise, but it’s truly well deserved. I say that if only because our benchmark is another tandem that offers sublime ride qualities: our ’08 Custom Calfee Tetra Travel Tandem (Below). Moreover, for the past few months we’ve been using our Topolino AX 3.0T wheelset [...] Read more…

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Next Generation Drag Brake… Update

Back in November of 2010, I posted an entry regarding a supplemental rear drum brake in development out in Oregon that would fill the gap left when the Arai drum brake was phased-out. Latest word is, development is still on-going with bench testing, road tests and brake compound evaluations underway. Although I have not asked [...] Read more…

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Lockheed Cycling Team – Brewery Ride Video

On the Friday after the tornadoes tore through the south, the Lockheed Martin Cycling Club based in Marietta, Georgia had a scheduled training ride out in Bartow County. Nicknamed “The Brewery Ride”, there are actually several different loops that depart from the Cartersville, Georgia Budweiser Plant and make their way out into the rural areas [...] Read more…

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A Tale of Two Rallies… Chattanooga ’07 & ’11

Note: This is the sixth and final article in a six-part series of blog entries regarding our Santana Rally in Chattanooga. The Introduction can be found HERE, Day 1 can be found HERE, Day 2 can be found HERE, Day 3 can be found HERE, and Day 4 can be found HERE. While we had a great time at the Santana Mother’s Day Weekend in Chattanooga, [...] Read more…

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Santana’s Chattanooga Rally, Day 4 (May 8th)

Note: This is the fifth in a six-part series of blog entries regarding our Santana Rally in Chattanooga. The Introduction can be found HERE, Day 1 can be found HERE, Day 2 can be found HERE and Day 3 can be found HERE. As foreshadowed in the last paragraph of my Day 3 entry, Sunday started rather early for me around 4:00 am as I’d gone [...] Read more…

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Santana’s Chattanooga Rally, Day 3 (May 7th)

Note: This is the fourth in a six-part series of blog entries regarding our Santana Rally in Chattanooga. The Introduction can be found HERE, Day 1 can be found HERE. and Day 2 can be found HERE. As noted at the end of my Day 2 entry, Saturday morning started off well in that I was able to sleep all the way through [...] Read more…

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Santana’s Chattanooga Rally, Day 2 (May 6th)

Note: This is the third in a six-part series of blog entries regarding our Santana Rally in Chattanooga. The Introduction can be found HERE, and Day 1 can be found HERE. My first full day of the Mother’s Day Weekend Rally started off a bit early, as I made the mistake of going to bed around [...] Read more…

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Santana’s Chattanooga Rally, Day 1 (May 5th)

Note: This is the second in a six-part series of blog entries regarding our Santana Rally in Chattanooga. The Introduction can be found HERE. The first official event of the four-day rally was a 1:10 pm rider’s meeting in front of the Delta Queen. We were running a little behind and made it out to [...] Read more…

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Santana’s Chattanooga Rally, Introduction

As mentioned in an April 24th Blog entry, we received “an offer we couldn’t refuse” from our friends Bill and Jan McCready of Santana Cycles a couple weeks back that motivated us to sign-on for their Santana Mother’s Day Weekend in Chattanooga, Tennessee on May 5-8. The enticement included a couple of very attractive incentives [...] Read more…

May 30th Update (9,539)

As always, these are just summaries. The actual entries with linked websites, objects, video's etc... can be found here:

Blog: http://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: http://www.thetandemlink.com

Note: Yes, once again it's been nearly 2 weeks since my last summary. I didn't have a lot to share as of last weekend given that we were having a great time at the Georgia Tandem Rally, but was able to get a few things down on paper this week, including the culmination of my SRAM rear derailleur research. Still quite a few in the queue.

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May PEACHES Ride, Cherokee County, Georgia

Our May tandem club ride was hosted by friends Jim & Charlotte who chose to follow the route used each year for the Rose Pedal Ride in Canton, Georgia. You can find some nice photos of the roads this ride uses at the Rose Pedal Website. It truly was a beautiful ride through Cherokee County, despite [...] Read more…

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Yeah, I dress for the slide… not the ride, even when it’s hot.

I had to run a few errands this afternoon and, as I often do when I don’t need to carry much on an errand, I used my motorcycle because I simply prefer to ride on something two-wheels vs. in something with four wheels and, well, it gets about 38 mpg which is nice. At one [...] Read more…

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Cyclists as motorists; observations from Tour de Cure

OK, there really wasn’t a Lamborghini Gallardo with a bike rack on the back at the Tour de Cure, but the photo was just too cool to pass up and it makes the point that just because someone rides a bike, it doesn’t mean they’ll necessarily be a better or smarter motorist (note the relationship [...] Read more…

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Tour de Cure Results; Thanks Y’all!

With a big thank you to the 27 folks who sponsored us for this year’s Tour de Cure back on May 15th, their generosity enabled us to donate $1,255.00 to the American Diabetes Association. We’ll be sending out personal thank you notes later this week, as we’re hoping that there will be some better photos [...] Read more…

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SRAM X.0 10-spd + Campy 10 Ergo = I’m Impressed (Final Update)

OK. It’s time to put a fork in my SRAM conversion experiment because, it’s done! Today’s 46 mile ride in Cherokee County with our friends from the local tandem club provided a really good test for the 10-speed SRAM X.0 shifter mated to my Campy Ergo 10-speed shifters, as I feel like I spent nearly [...] Read more…

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2010 SRAM X.0 10-spd + Campy 10 Ergo = So Far, So Good

As a follow-on to yesterday’s SRAM X.0 / Jtek Update #4, and as foreshadowed in Rick T’s comments, the 2010 SRAM X.0 Exact Actuation 10-speed rear derailleur provided flawless shifting on our 40 mile ride this morning. It may be a keeper! As you can see from the photo above, I did take some time after [...] Read more…

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SRAM & JTek Update: Still not the final solution, but… (Update #4)

It’s been just a little over a month since I published Update #3 on our SRAM X.O + Jtek Shiftmate Straight rear derailleur experiment that began back on March 5th. The shifting has been excellent when the Jtek is dialed-in. However, I’ve continued to find that the Jtek pulley walks a bit and needed to [...] Read more…

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Daytime Tail Lights: A Couple Things….

First and foremost, I’m convinced that running a GOOD tail light during daylight hours is a great idea. Yeah, yeah… yet another dorky thing to the fashion conscious cyclists. Get over it: to most of the non-cycling world (that would be about 95% of the people in cars who actually see you cycling), if you [...] Read more…

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Tweaking Bike Fit As Time Goes By: – 5 Millimeters = Sore No More

Regular readers may recall this item from the summary in my recent Santana Beyond review: Rider Comfort: My neck and shoulders were noticeably less “tight” after riding the Santana vs. our Calfee. This may have also been a result of the shorter distances we rode with long breaks between ride segments. Hmmm. I may install a spare [...] Read more…

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Georgia Tandem Rally XIII, 20-22 May 2011

Introduction So, how was the 2011 Georgia Tandem Rally in Macon, Georgia? Fun, Hot & Hilly! Photo Galleries: Tim Presley on Flickr Well, we’ve now attended our 13th of 13 Georgia Tandem Rallies and as always, we got to see a lot of old friends, got to meet new friends, rode a few miles, and [...] Read more…

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How Does He Keep Coming Up With Stuff To Write About?

It’s easy when there are rallies and other events to chronicle, but for the “other stuff” I simply add things to a list of topics that I keep in a queue as they pop into my head. In some respects I end up writing about what folks are talking about… kinda like Jimmy Buffett’s chorus [...] Read more…

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Wow, a lot of interesting things. Nice website. I marked a few rides on my calendar... hopefully I can make a couple of them this year. Or, at least use the cue sheets for our own little weekend tour around the Finger Lakes (which isn't too far from Pittsburgh).

I'm only 41, but I have to admit that I guess I'm too old to understand blogs. From your summaries, it looks like you have some interesting things, but it'd be easier to choose the item I wanted to read if you had them all listed in your website. Maybe I just haven't figured out blogs since I never read them. (And twitter is a whole 'nother level that I don't get!)

I have to agree on the one blog though, that the GA bicycle rules look like a good idea except for the comment that bicyclists may not be allowed on roads if there's a bike path nearby. That makes me nervous! I'm too used to enjoying the challenge of an uphill and then cruising downhill to have much patience for bike or jogging paths. I donate a little each year to rail trails because I do agree on their benefits, and I do use one for commuting to work occasionally, but when I'm on a road tandem or my road single, I want to cruise on nice asphalt with some elevation changes!

EDIT- Also, it appears that blogs aren't searchable. Is that true? I've definitely searched for "tandem rallies" or "bike rides NY", etc., and don't recall your blog coming up, even though you discuss many rides. I could be wrong... maybe I just glazed over them because I don't normally pay attention to blogs. I guess I need to change. I've adapted from 8 speed to 9 speed, I guess I could learn to read blogs. ;-)

Appreciate the kind feedback, and it's never too late to learn: I'm 10-years your senior and have been able to figure out some of this on-line stuff, albeit I'm still basically a hack.

To your needs, Blogs are indeed searchable, by key words (upper right hand corner of my Blog) or by using drop-down menus like the ones in the right-hand margin of my blog, i.e.,


Archives: Select Month

Categories: Select Category

204218

The problem with hosting the entries off my Website, which I did from 2001 - 2009, is that it's very hard to find anything other than using Google which may or may not produce what you're looking for. There are thousands of updates in my web archive, which are about as hard to find as the 6,500 things that I've posted to BikeForums over the years. It's also a lot harder on me since I have to manually upload those entries.

The Blogs are more like an on-line diary that lets you easily embed images, links, videos, etc... so that everything can be archived, searched, and found in a number of different ways. I'm somewhat surprised at just how many Google searches outside of my Blog or site turn up results from my Blog. From a user-standpoint, the Blog is much easier to use for composition, editing and publishing and it links to FB and other on-line resources, if you so choose. I like the Blog format mostly because I like to publish long, content-rich articles that really don't lend themselves to most other formats. It also saves readers of those forums from having to deal with my typically longish writings. But, most of all, I write about what I strikes my fancy without forcing it upon anyone; it's an on-demand publication for those who find what I write to be of interest, value or perhaps a nice distraction. To the rest of the world, it's pretty much invisible.

Mind you, the Blog doesn't replace my Website, it's merely an adjunct to it since all of my rally calendar info, tandem club listings, and other links still reside on www.thetandemlink.com. There are a couple of links on my Blog that take readers right to those and, likewise, links on the web site that take surfers to my Blog.

At the end of the day, Blogs seem to work best when you simply find one that consistently has things that are of interest to you and that you subscribe to so that you get automated feeds when something is posted. If the subject catches your fancy, you read it. If not, you don't. Its very similar to being a subscriber to mailing lists like Tandem@Hobbes or forums & threads at BikeForums.net, but far more specific in that you know exactly who's doing the writing. I have my own small list of Blogs that I follow as well.

TG, regardless of the method of supplying the information, it has been a huge help to us as we learned about tandems and probably has helped hundreds of teams.

Now Double Forte I have never quite sorted out. I will say I prefer a place more like here or MTBR.com.

Thanks for all your efforts and results. May not say it or show it but it is appreciated.

PK

Yes, thank you much for your efforts. If blogs are most easy for the individual writer, then that is interesting to know, since other pubishers of larger forums would likely be large sponsors or businesses.

Everyone has to adapt, and I prefer to see reviews from people who actually use the products, like yourself.

Thanks,
-John

TandemGeek,

I'll reiterate that your blog, website as well as postings here on Bikeforums are VERY informative and I have learned a lot from each. Please continue to share your tandem findings and insights in the current format.

FWIW, like PMK, I prefer the forum format at MTBR vs. the Double Forte format, but I still read both.

Thanks all for the kind feedback; much appreciated.

As for DF, before the advent .php forums the mailing group formats similar to Tandem@Hobbes were simply what we used: they were much much "community based" where you had a tight little group of folks who searched out those groups. There was also a companion Website that I kept up to date with list members, etc. that had similar information to what you now find in the .php "profiles".

I've toyed around with setting up a tandem-based .php forum at TheTandemLink.com... in fact, there's even a shell sitting out there that I've never done anything with. I've decided to leave well-enough alone because I've found that every time a new group or .php forum is launched it only dilutes the legacy forums and never really gains much in the way of a critical mass beyond it's original core members. BikeForums is very much like that, in that it's pretty easy to see who the regulars are, much like Hobbes, DF, MTBR.com, etc. A former Hobbsian has been able to establish himself as the tandem guru at Bicycling.com's .php forum where there isn't really a dedicated tandem subforum but where he is able to help out visiting posters by fielding their tandem-related questions in the "bicycle love" and other subforums, presumably by searching on "tandem" when he visits. I'm reluctant to pull-down DF if only because there still are a few long-time members that seem to enjoy using it, but still ponder the migration to a dedicated .php server. So, who knows what the future may hold... but don't hold your breath.

... I'm reluctant to pull-down DF if only because there still are a few long-time members that seem to enjoy using it, but still ponder the migration to a dedicated .php server. So, who knows what the future may hold... but don't hold your breath.


I was not implying that you pull down DF. there's still some great info shared there. Mostly just mentioning that the forum based groups work well for me.

June 12th Update (10,057)

As always, these are just summaries. The actual entries with linked websites, objects, video's etc... can be found here:

Blog: http://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: http://www.thetandemlink.com

Note: Yes, it's once again been nearly 2 weeks since my last summary. However, sometimes the words just don't flow... and sometimes I also get busy with other 'stuff'.

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Our ’98 Erickson: All Dressed-Up & Ready to GO!

As mentioned in last Wednesday’s blog entry soliciting leads for a small performance tandem to support a Paralympic team’s trip to the US Nationals in Augusta, Georgia, we offered up our ’98 Erickson and it apparently will fit the bill, so to speak. So, the Erickson has been given the once over and re-fitted with [...] Read more…

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An Amazing Contrast In Motorsports (Bloggishnish)

What an amazing contrast in the different racing forms that are Formula 1 and NASCAR during today’s parallel running of the Grand Prix of Canada and NASCAR’s 5-Hour Energy 500 at Pocono Raceway. You can see it in the names of the events, in their Websites, the fan discussion forums, and even in how the [...] Read more…

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Speedplay Frog Pedals: Titanium Axle Model Owners Beware….

If you’re a Speedplay Frog pedal fan and own a set of the high-end, uber-light Titanium axle models, if and when you need to do a pedal body rebuild you will discover that the standard replacement Frog pedal bodies don’t fit. It’s not the end of the world, but it can come as a rude [...] Read more…

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The New PeriScope Debuts Back in Poland…

Ah, the miracle of modern transportation and take-apart tandems…. The very same, brand new Co-Motion PeriScope tandem that was put together for last week’s Tennessee Tandem Rally and its owners — David, Christen and Audrey — have safely arrived back in Lotz, Poland and has taken to the road already, based on a FB posting [...] Read more…

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2011 Tennessee Tandem Rally… Part 2 of 2

A follow-on from Part 1 Saturday In The Park: Saturday once again saw the weather shaping up to be sunny and hot just like Friday. After breakfast at the Hilton it was out to the entry way for the mass start. Did I mention how much I like mass starts for tandem rallies? Simply [...] Read more…

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2011 Tennessee Tandem Rally… Part 1 of 2

Introduction Well, we’ve now attended our 9th of 9 Tennessee Tandem Rallies and as always, we got to spend time with a lot of old friends, met new friends, ride a few miles, and otherwise have a grand time. TTR sets the benchmark for pulling off an exceptional rally and while making it look easy…. [...] Read more…

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Attn Georgian’s: Small Performance Tandem Needed for Paralympic Road Natl’s

Posting this for a team traveling to Augusta, Georgia for the Paralympic Road Nationals the week of 20-26 June. The two 5’7″ women are looking for a contemporary, small-size (52cm – 54cm), lighter-weight performance tandem they can borrow or rent for their use during the event. If you live in North Georgia and/or Eastern Tennessee [...] Read more…

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A Note From Larry Black… Classic Rendezvous Weekend

A few weeks back I’d shared some notes with Larry Black of Mt. Airy / College Park Cyclery regarding Paketa tandems and learned that he’d be coming through our neck of the woods. Sadly, the timing fell on top of the Georgia Tandem Rally weekend so our paths wouldn’t quite cross at the right time [...] Read more…

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2011 Georgia Tandem Rally – Photo Collections

As a follow-up to my Georgia Tandem Rally report back on May 22nd, a few new photos (like 349 or there abouts) have been posted by GTR Co-Chairs Roger & Eve to their Shutterfly Account that you can find HERE. Roger has also created something of a short photo / video collage entitled the 90-Second [...] Read more…

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Georgia “Better Bicycling Bill” Signed & Becomes Effective on July 1st, 2011

House Bill 101, (HB 101), also called the Better Bicycling Bill, was signed into law back on May 11th and will become the law of the land on July 1st. The key feature of the bill that had most cycling advocates pushing for its approval was quantifying the phrase “safe passing distance” to be three [...] Read more…

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June 19th Update (10,210)

As always, these are just summaries. The actual entries with linked websites, objects, video's etc... can be found here:

Blog: http://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: http://www.thetandemlink.com

As you can probably tell from the entries, we haven't done much tandem riding in the past couple weeks and my last solo ride was a week ago last Friday. Just a bit too much "stuff" going on and our priorities clearly aren't set quite right. So, much of what's in this week's summary are snippets related to some distractions and two items that I've had in my queue for a couple weeks. Still more stuff to work on in the queue, just don't have the right mind set for it at the moment.

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Dead Oaks (Bloggishnish)

The center piece of our 2009 backyard landscape redo was a 100-year old red oak tree that we carefully left in place as we removed all of the other trees that were choking it out. Apparently it missed the other trees and decided not to leaf-out this year. And, for good measure, a smaller hardwood [...] Read more…

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Decisions, decisions…. (First Follow-Up)

This is bad. It’s been over a week and I’m still Jones’n to add a HD to the stable. After spending the better part of the day working in the yard cleaning up debris in the now-unshaded back yard (more on that in a minute), and after learning that the folks who would be picking [...] Read more…

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Our ’98 Erickson: All Dressed-Up & Ready to GO! (First Follow-Up)

And it’s gone. A couple of gentlemen from Knoxville stopped by the house tonight to collect the Erickson around 6:00pm and it should probably be in Augusta, Georgia by now. Looks like the gals from Bend, Oregon who’ll be riding the Erickson — Rachael Scdoris and Laura Winberry — are also on their way. Greg’s [...] Read more…

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Co-Motion Tandem Race Series (CTRS)

Regular readers who’ve been on board for a while may recall a Blog entry from February 18th this year in which we passed-on word Co-Motion had decided to discontinue the July 4th weekend “Co-Motion Classic Tandem Race“. In short, while the events were successful and everyone who participated from sponsors, to riders, and so on, [...] Read more…

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daVinci Designs relocates & holds open house

Back on May 15th daVinci Designs (aka, daVinci Tandems) held an open house at their new home over at 1264 South Jason St. in Denver, Colorado. The new place is not too far from the old one, basically just a bit further North and on the other side of the local golf course. You can [...] Read more…

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Decisions, decisions…. (Bloggishnish)

I have no idea why… Well OK; that’s not entirely true. When I get in a deep funk, there’s nothing like pondering a new toy to serve as a distration. Hopefully, common sense will creep into those flights of fantasy and bring me back to Earth before doing something that will strip the retirement fund [...] Read more…

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B-17 Bomber “Liberty Belle” Is No More…. (Bloggishnish)

The good news is, no one was seriously injured. The bad news is, the World War II vintage Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress replica of the original B-17 “Liberty Belle” that flew combat missions in World War II is a complete write-off. We had the opportunity to see the Liberty Belle on a visit to the Cobb [...] Read more…

Co-Motion Tandem Race Series (CTRS)

Regular readers who’ve been on board for a while may recall a Blog entry from February 18th this year in which we passed-on word Co-Motion had decided to discontinue the July 4th weekend “Co-Motion Classic Tandem Race“. In short, while the events were successful and everyone who participated from sponsors, to riders, and so on, [...] Read more…

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Looking at the OBRA results, it looks like there were a few teams for the TT, and that there wasn't a tandem division for the Icebreaker crit, or the Silverton RR.

Doesn't seem to be off to a fyling start.

July 17th Update (10,480)

As always, these are just summaries. The actual entries with linked websites, objects, video's etc... can be found here:

Blog: http://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: http://www.thetandemlink.com

Note: Yes, it's been nearly 4 weeks since my last summary. This one includes 15 items that I've written since June 23rd and only about 1/2 of them are tandem-related. So, yes... I've been a bit distracted of late. Hopefully we'll find ourselves back on the tandem in August and into the fall.

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Harley Happenings…

OK, I will confess that we put way more miles on the Harley-Davidson this weekend than we did the tandem. Like 60:0, or there abouts. But, we have our reasons, and good ones at that! However, that said, the H-D stuff was both very cool and very interesting on a variety of fronts. #1 – [...] Read more…

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Socially Inept… Yup, that’s me. With or without Tequila added.

No doubt about it, I’ve finally come to realize I’m becoming more maladroit and more prone to bouts of social ineptitude. So, to friends and family who have politely overlooked and tolerated my often times boorishness and bouts of grumpy, withdrawn and selfish behavior, let me first say I’m sincerely embarrassed and extend an apology [...] Read more…

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Tire Wear & Square Tires

Anyone remember the Seinfeld episode, “The Dealership” where Kramer & the sales guy see how far they can run a Saab on empty? Every once in a while I find myself doing the same thing with rear tires on our tandems, noting that the very soft Vredestein Fortezza performance‘ tires I prefer tend to wear [...] Read more…

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Tandems East Tandem Rally, July 8-10

Yo, Southwest New Jersey is flat… who knew? Tandems East Photo Galleries HERE. FRIDAY, July 8th So, we left my folks house around 10:30am on Friday morning for the somewhat short, 80 mile trip down to Pennsville, New Jersey for our first ever Tandems East Tandem Rally (TETR) on July 8-9. We arrived at the [...] Read more…

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Cyber-Sabatical…

Our physical vacation over the past week has morphed into a cyper-sabatical. Once I catch up at work and at home perhaps I’ll be able to refocus and finish writing my Tandems East Tandem Rally Report. Read more…

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Down Time, well sort of… (Bloggishnish)

As mentioned in my Snippets earlier this week, Leg #2 of our July 4th holiday week was spent with my folks near Reading, Pennsylvania. We had an uneventful 8 1/2 hour drive from Point B near Knoxville, Tennessee area on July 4th that put us at my Point C near my folks house just before [...] Read more…

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Snippets, July 6th…

Snippets: Yes, these essentially replace my Bloggishnish entries and also cover smaller tandem cycling related items that don’t warrant their own heading. We’ll see how these work for a while… What Happened To The ‘Weekly Reader’ Postings? Victims of network connectivity and lack of productivity issues. I have typically sent out a snap-shot of the RSS [...] Read more…

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Smithsonianmag.com – Turning Bamboo Into A Bicycle

It’s been a while since I’ve found anything of real interest in my daily Google search engine results, but one of today’s search strings delivered a link to the Smithsonian Magazine’s website where I found a really nice article by Jeff Greenwald focused on the bamboo bicycle building trade entitled, Turning Bamboo into a Bicycle [...] Read more…

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Florida Panther’s Vero Beach Ride Report

Once again we are pleased to share a Florida Panthers Post-Ride Report from our guest contributor Kathy Foster, the Panther’s publicity chair. The days might be hot for tandeming in Florida now, but at least we can catch an ocean breeze occasionally. More than two dozen Florida Panthers descended on the oceanfront Holiday Inn in [...] Read more…

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Decisions, Decisions… Decision Made: FXDWG in da house

As a follow-up to our previous “Decisions, Decisions” entries, we decided to officially start working off our Bucket List. Truth of the matter is, we’ve realized that some times it’s simply a good idea to live for today while still planning for tomorrow… since we really don’t know what the future may hold. As I [...] Read more…

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Hanging at Club Patterson

Life IS good! We returned a short while ago from a morning ride from Louisville, Tennessee — perhaps one of the most amazing places to ride in terms of the rolling terrain, shade-covered, low traffic roads with challenging climbs easily within reach — and are now hanging by the pool. We ‘should‘ have been here [...] Read more…

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Remember when? The 80′s & The Battle of the Network Stars

The two Rogers — Roger Bireley via Roger Strauss — passed along the first of the following two videos that flash back to the 1980 and 1981 Battle of the Network Stars competitions from the 70′s & 80′s with Howard Cosell calling the action during the tandem bike relay races. This is actually a pretty [...] Read more…

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More Snippets…

Tandem riding: Fingers crossed, we’ll be back in the saddle next weekend! Garage Sales: On the bright side, we got rid of a lot of stuff that was cluttering up closets and the attic but the juice was hardly worth the squeeze. Our efforts yielded about $10/hr for the net proceeds vs. the time it took [...] Read more…

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Snippets…

Tandem riding: it’s been three weeks since our last ride on the tandem. Not good. Erickson loaned to the Gals from Bend: They missed the podium by 20 seconds with a solid 4th place in the Thursday Paralympics Nationals Time Trial, but Saturday’s road race will play to Laura & Rachael’s endurance: keeping our fingers [...] Read more…

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Paketa… Hearing Lots of Good Things

While we failed to entice Dave Walker into ‘loaning’ us his personal Paketa over the winter so that we could give it a go on our local roads, we’ve been talking to quite a few Paketa owners and to a person, they’re all very pleased with their Magnesium dreams. By the way, in the event [...] Read more…

July 24th Update (10,574)

As always, these are just summaries. The actual entries with linked websites, objects, video's etc... can be found here:

Blog: http://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: http://www.thetandemlink.com

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Snippets… July 24th

Tandem Cycling… Uh, yeah. Still haven’t been able to get ourselves back in the saddle for a number of reasons. However, we’re hopeful that this week will see us turning the corner on some of those reasons and we’ll start building base miles back on single bikes during the week and will make time to [...] Read more…

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Southern Tandem Rally 2011 @ Raleigh, North Carolina…

Don’t forget to register for Southern Tandem Rally! Just as a reminder, the cut-off for rally registration is only 6 weeks away on September 1st. Yeah, we need to get off the dime too. I think it’s the 450 mile drive that’s weighing on my mind: makes you appreciate how much time and effort Smith [...] Read more…

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R&E Newsletter: Tandems Are Back!

Looks like the Northeast and Northwest tandem dealers are all seeing a strong tandem market. Our friends at Tandems Limited mentioned that they’ve had a very busy year thus far during recent discussions at their tandem rally earlier this month. Apparently, our friends out in the Pacific Northwest at R&E Cycles have also been VERY [...] Read more…

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Bicycle Quarterly: Summer 2011 Issue & Rene Herse #201

I think I’ve mentioned that I always eagerly await my Bicycle Quarterly with great expectations and the Summer 2011 edition did not disappoint. At very large portion of the Summer ’11 edition is dedicated to the history behind Rene Herse #201 and its racing history. From BQ’s Website, here’s the summary: With the 1200 km [...] Read more…

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Team Strausky’s Pennsylvania Tour Blog, aka. Tandempalooza

Our friends Roger & Eve spent this past week doing a credit card tour of Southeast Pennsylvania and have documented their adventures on their new blog, Roger & Eve’s Cycling Adventures, aka. tandempalooza.wordpress.com. Definitely worth a read for anyone thinking about doing a tour by tandem of the Southeast “food belt” in my home state [...] Read more…

July 31st Update (10,691)


As always, these are just summaries. The actual entries with linked websites, objects, video's etc... can be found here:

Blog: http://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: http://www.thetandemlink.com

Note: A thin week. Seems like a bout of writers block, so my apologies for the light reading. However, I've done my best to make up for it by providing readers with links to several hours of fantastic interviews of some cycling industry icons, courtesy of Diane Lees, The Outspoken Cyclist at WJCU in Cleveland.

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Snippets… July 31st

Tandem Cycling… Well, we found enough time to get out for at least one short ride this weekend on Saturday morning, so it’s a step in the right direction. Still need to get ourselves signed up for a couple of fall events here in the next week, but struggling to find the motivation. Our Government… [...] Read more…

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The Outspoken Cyclist: More Favorite Interviews…

Back in February I posted a list of my favorite interviews by long-time friend Diane Lees, host of the Outspoken Cyclist on WJCU in Cleveland, Ohio. Her program airs every Saturday evening at 5:30 on WJCU and you can download shows after the fact from either the WJCU – Outspoken Cyclist webpage or at the iTunes Store. Given that it’s been quite [...] Read more…

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Co-Motion FAQ on Corrosion Prevention: Sweat Is The Enemy!

A new FAQ posted to Co-Motion’s website is must read for all of the Toxic Avengers out there who sweat buckets of salt laden perspiration onto their frames. When is your bike most vulnerable to rust? Here’s how to prevent corrosion problems Summertime is the time most of look forward to great weather, long rides, [...] Read more…

August 14th Update (10,782)

As always, these are just summaries. The actual entries with linked websites, objects, video's etc... can be found here:

Blog: http://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: http://www.thetandemlink.com

Yes, I took a week (or two) off...

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Snippets, August 14, 2011

As a reminder, snippets are usually small items either related to our tandem cycling activities that don’t warrant their own blog entry OR our other activities and interests which may be unrelated to tandem cycling and that also don’t warrant their own blog entry. Facebook: I absolutely suck at Facebook (period). I even posted an [...]

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Trailblazers Tandem Cycling Club – Serving VI Cyclists in Toronto, Canada

A few weeks back we received a nice note from Audrey Chin to let us know about the TRAILBLAZERS Tandem Cycling Club based in Toronto, Canada. I still need to add a link to their club from TheTandemLink.com, but in the mean time I thought I’d share some information on the club via my blog. The TRAILBLAZERS [...]

Read more…

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Tandem Pilots Needed In Atlanta & Columbus, Georgia

If you have a tandem and have ever been interested in volunteering your time, talents and tandem to pilot a visually impaired stoker AND live near Atlanta or Columbus, Georgia, this may be your chance! Our friend and VI tandem cyclist Lori Miller just forwarded an Email posting from Pam Fernandez to the TandemRacing forum [...]

Read more…

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2nd Annual Florida Tandem Rally, Oct 28-30 at The Villages

Registration for the 2011 Florida Tandem Rally is now open, but deadlines are approaching, i.e., T-shirt cut-off is Sept 15th. Website HERE. Registration Form HERE. You can find some additional details regarding the event but, in general, even though this is called the 2nd Annual Florida Tandem Rally, it’s technically the 3rd time The Villages [...]

Read more…

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Dancing Bear Inn Bicycle Bash Goes Tandem!

Well, sort of… Let’s put it this way, it appears as though several Freeloader Tandem Tour alumni and friends will be participating in the Fall edition of the Dancing Bear Inn’s Bicycle Bash Weekend in Townsend, Tennessee the weekend of Sept 9 – 11. Although this will be the first Bicycle Bash Weekend that we’ve attended, [...]

Read more…

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The D.I.C.E. Weekend: One of the Georgia Tandem Club’s August Rides

Well, it was a week ago Saturday… so this is a belated report … but we actually made it out for the first of two Georgia Tandem Club rides scheduled for August. Or, to be more accurate, the first of two planned events for August in that the Double Ice Cream Extravaganza (DICE) Weekend was [...]

Read more…

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Craig Calfee – Bicycle Designer (Lincoln Advert)

Just received an Email from our friend and builder Craig Calfee with a link to Lincoln’s “New Century Design: An idea series” web-based advert featuring Craig, Guy Kawasaki, Lincon Designer Max Wolff & the architecture design firm ArvoKO. It’s an amazingly well-done piece on Craig (and the others, for that matter) that features his work [...]

Read more…

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Yup… Another Bout of Writer’s Block

We hope to return to our regular programming as soon as I can focus on a few subjects that would be of interest to the broader audience. I believe the combination of not enough cycling + the weather + current world events that has derailed my writings. Lots of Harley stuff going on, but that’s [...]

Read more…

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Tandem Down Near Aspen, CO: No Major Injuries In This Instance

A tandem team from Broomfield, Colorado was struck by a motorist who “didn’t see them“. In this instance, initial reports seem to indicate there were no life-threatening injuries after it was initially thought the stoker had suffered a broken leg. The incident happened in Basalt, Colorado outside of Aspen where an 83-year old motorist turned [...]

Read more…

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Sad News: Another Tandem Team Run Down, This Time In Onedia Wisconsin

Not too many details are available just yet, but according to local news accounts Kris Hanson (56) and her husband Douglas (59) were hit from behind by a 2007 Chevrolet Corvette driven by Michael Gustmas (55) in Onedia, Wisconsin while riding their tandem along County Highway EE near County Highway C on Monday. Sadly, Kris Hanson [...]

Read more…

August 21st Update (10,877)

As always, these are just summaries. The actual entries with linked websites, objects, video's etc... can be found here:

Blog: http://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: http://www.thetandemlink.com

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Another Team Down! And This Time It’s Personal… Friends from PA

In what seems to be a never-ending stream of incidents involving motorists running down tandem teams, we learned via some friends whom we met at the Chattanooga Santana Rally this past May – Shirley & Dick D. — that another couple whom we’d first met and spent time riding with at the Santana Rally in [...] Read more…

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Snippets: August 21st

As a reminder, snippets are usually small items either related to our tandem cycling activities that don’t warrant their own blog entry OR our other activities and interests which may be unrelated to tandem cycling and that also don’t warrant their own blog entry. Tandem Cycling: Nada for this weekend. Friday was a late night, so no early get-up [...] Read more…

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A Night Out With The Family at Six Flags

This past Friday night our company commandeered the Six Flags over Georgia amusement park from 6pm until midnight. I think at last count nearly 8,000 tickets were sold for the ‘Family FUN Night at Six Flags’ including the five for Debbie and me, our son Wesley and wife Julie and granddaughters Caroline & Charlotte. I [...] Read more…

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Anyone Interested in a Small Size Co-Motion Macchiato?

Now, don’t get the wrong idea here. I’m not turning my blog into a classified ad site. It just so happens that my West-Coast alter ego, host of the Northwest Tandem Racing website, and regular source of tandem info from Oregon, Henry Abel, let me know he and Amy are selling their tricked-out Co-Motion Macchiato [...] Read more…

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San Diego-Based Blind Stokers Club Continues To Grow!

Received a nice note from Dave White, founder and Director of the San Diego-based Blind Stoker’s Club (BSC) with a couple of updates on the BSC. For any readers who haven’t heard of the BSC, here’s a little information about the club from their Website: The Blind Stokers Club (BSC) has roots from 2005, based [...] Read more…

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Tandeming, Through The Eyes of a 14-Year Old

To readers who also receive their tandem cycling reading fixes from the Tandem@Hobbes mailing list, my apologies for the repost. But this was just too good not to move into broader circulation… Our long-time friend Mark Johnson from Precision Tandems in Kansas shared a couple of web journals written by his daughter Courtney who, along [...] Read more…

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Eastern Tandem Rally – Photo Gallery

Although I don’t recall seeing any post rally write-ups, a little bit of sleuthing on the Web has turned up some artifacts from the 2011 Eastern Tandem Rally at the University of Connecticut in Storrs on August 5-7. The first artifact is a photo album / slide show shot by our friend Paul that you [...] Read more…

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New Tandem Club in Connecticut

We received a note from Michael Drzewiecki to let us know a new tandem club has been formed in Connecticut: Connecticut Tandem Club or CTTC. As is quite often the case, the inspiration for the club came as a result of or while working on a major tandem rally. In this case, it was ETR [...] Read more…

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Follow-Up: Tandem Cyclist Fatality in Onedia, Wisconsin

Back on August 3rd we shared news reports regarding another collision involving a tandem bicycle that was hit from behind by a car in broad daylight. The collision took the life of Kris Hanson (56) and left her husband Douglas (59) in critial condition. Yesterday, some additional details became available and were included in a [...] Read more…

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Another Tandem Rear-Ended & Stoker Killed: Casa Grande, AZ

Sadly, the tandem community has lost another friend, this time in Casa Grande, Arizona. According to new accounts, Brian (46) & Pam (47) Pangburn were riding their recumbent tandem north on Trekell Road in Casa Grande, Arizona on Tuesday morning and just before 9:30am a 1994 Chrysler Town & Country mini-van driven by J.B. Gore [...] Read more…

August 28th Update (10,962)

As always, these are just summaries. The actual entries with linked websites, objects, video's etc... can be found here:

Blog: http://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: http://www.thetandemlink.com

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Snippets: 28 August 2011

Tandem Riding: Yes. Not much, but definitely starting to ride again and looking forward to cooler weather and an upcoming weekend visit to the Smokey Mountains in early September for the Dancing Bear Inn’s Bicycle Bash. Not sure we’ll be ‘hanging’ with anyone on the rides, but that’s OK. We’re targeting that weekend for R&R, [...] Read more…

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Used Tandem Market Offers Up Some Nice Hardware….

Perhaps my memory is failing a bit, but I can’t recall an August where previously owned tandems looking for new homes seemed to be coming out of the woodwork. Last week it was Henry Abel’s Co-Motion Macchiato that went on the block, this week has seen three more high-end tandems hitting the blocks, and all [...] Read more…

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Dagnabit… Lost Again! What’s the Hot-Ticket in GPS These Days?

Here’s a twist for regular readers; I’m asking YOU a question. What’s the hot-ticket these days when it comes to on-bike navigational aids? This subject came up when a friend wrote to ask me what I knew about GPS and iPhone apps for cyclists and I had to confess that I was absolutely clueless. In [...] Read more…

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Blogging Playlist: Music To Write By…

Poor Debbie. Whenever she comes into the family room to watch TV while I’m “composing” on my laptop I’ll invariably put on my head phones and fire up iTunes to drown-out the sound of the TV. I’m one of those people who seem to work best when it’s dead quiet or when listening to instrumentals. [...] Read more…

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Distracted Driving… PSA’s & Self-Defense Techniques

Compelling stuff to be sure…. Sadly, despite the best of intentions behind all of the public service announcements that have been released by various different agencies and even telecommunications companies like AT&T, until people start to practice a little self-control and curtail their use of cell phones, texting, fiddling with MP3 players, programming GPS devices [...] Read more…

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Friends On The Mend (Follow-Up)

As a follow-up to our report on friends Tom & Cheryl being run-down by a motorist in Pennsylvania last week, we’ve shared some Emails with Tom and have been otherwise keeping up on their recovery via some mutual tandem friends from Indiana and their respective Facebook updates. Their indomitable spirits and positive attitudes are serving them [...] Read more…

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Petition To Allow Tandems On Public Roads in Hokkaido, Japan

Ayaka Yoshikawa of Sapporo-shi, Japan is attempting to petition the Hokkaido Prefectural Public Safety Commission to revise its current laws which prohibit tandem bicycles from many public roads. More specifically, and quoting from Ayaka’s petition: Hokkaido is one of the best and most popular cycle touring destinations in Japan. The land is less populated and lightly trafficked [...] Read more…

September 6th Update (11,052)

As always, these are just summaries. The actual entries with linked websites, objects, video's etc... can be found here:

Blog: http://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: http://www.thetandemlink.com

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Sorry… Another Thin Week.

An apology to my readers for yet another thin week. Let me say right up front that there’s some way-off topic content in my weekly Snippets that sheds a little light on some new distractions / interests that are providing filler for our current situation. The snippets also illuminates how we’d really like to ‘firm-up’ [...]
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Bloggishnish: September 1st

Tandem Riding: Well, we got in a couple short rides from the house this weekend. Nothing to brag about, but definitely some quality time with each other on the bike, and that’s the most important part of “the ride”. Now that I told what we did, here’s what we didn’t do this weekend. We didn’t [...] Read more…

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Yet Another Stoker Deal… FestiVELO on Nov 6th near Charleston, SC

WHAT: 14th ANNUAL Foodilicious Flat Pedal Festival of Bicycles! WHEN: November 3-6 WHERE: Moncks Corner, South Carolina WEB SITE: http://www.festivelo.org/. Last week we also heard from Margaret Struder of the 4-day 2011 FestiVELO event over near Charleston, South Carolina. Like Thomas, she was also interested in reaching out to the tandem community for their upcoming [...] Read more…

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5th Annual Col. Allensworth Century, Oct 8th – Smokin’ Stoker Discount!!

WHAT: 5th Annual Colonel Allensworth Century & Funride WHEN: Saturday, October 8, 2011 @ 7:00 am WHERE: Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park, Allensworth, CA Tulare County (Between Bakersfield & Fresno, west of the 99 Fwy on CA hwy 43) WEB SITE: www.crankintimecycling.com. OK, here’s the scoop. Got a nice note from Thomas Ward, Ride Director [...] Read more…

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Slim Pickin’s…. (Bloggishnish – Political)

As much as I’d like this blog entry to be about one of my favorite big-screen cowboys — Slim Pickens — (aka, Louis Lindley, Jr.) best remembered for his comic roles as ‘Major Kong’ in Dr. Strangelove and ‘Taggart’ in Blazing Saddles… It’s not. Unfortunately, it’s about presidential politics and the sorry state of the GOP who can’t seem [...] Read more…

September 18th Update (11,143)


As always, these are just summaries. The actual entries with linked websites, objects, video's etc... can be found here:

Blog: http://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: http://www.thetandemlink.com

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Hot Disc Brake News… Or News About Overheated Disc Brakes, If You Prefer

A Little Background: During my Eurobike debrief with Bill McCready of Santana Cycles last week he mentioned that some 17 [sic] tandem teams from Santana’s July 31 through August 8 Burgundy & Provence Tandem Cruise signed-up to participate in an optional ride on August 4: an ascent of Mt. Ventoux. Interestingly enough, we’d already heard about the [...] Read more…

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Dancing Bear Lodge – Bicycle Bash Weekend (Sunday)

All good things must come to an end, and given that Debbie and I haven’t figured out what we’d do for employment or income in Maryville, Tennessee, Sunday would be our last day in Tennessee before heading back to Georgia. For the Sunday ride, Matt Alexander’s idea of a “recovery ride” is apparently quite different [...] Read more…

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Dancing Bear Lodge – Bicycle Bash Weekend (Saturday)

As I said in the closing line of my Friday entry on the Bicycle Bash Weekend, early to bed for me always means early to rise as I typically sleep for perhaps 4-5 hours unless I’m really beat or struggling with some type of ”crud” (cold/flu). So, given that Friday was a pretty easy day in [...] Read more…

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Dancing Bear Lodge – Bicycle Bash Weekend (Intro & Friday)

Introduction What a Spectacular Area to visit! What Delightful Weather we had! What Nice Roads & Routes we rode! What a Lovely Lodge we stayed-in! What a Friendly Staff to look after us at that lodge! What Delicious Lunch & Dinner we had at that lodge! What Great Friends we have to share all this with! [...] Read more…

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500th Blog Entry… Good Grief

Yes, believe it or not, we just surpassed 500 Entries since creating our blog back in January 2010. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a red flag. Worse yet, I think our average entry has about 1,200 words, so I shudder to think how many hours all of that represents. Never mind [...] Read more…

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Eurobike Report via Field Correspondent Bill McCready

As he did last year, founder and president of Santana Cycles, Bill McCready, offered readers of the Tandem@Hobbes list a bit of a teaser on Eurobike & Santana’s displays in a posting back on Sept 3rd: An invitation from Bill at Santana. If you are in Europe this weekend I hope you get a chance [...] Read more…

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Midwest Tandem Rally 2011, Ann Arbor, Michigan – Reports from the Field

While we didn’t attend this year’s Midwest Tandem Rally at Ann Arbor, Michigan, some 355 other folks did. A bit down from the 470 that attended MTR ’10 in Shipshewana, Indiana. We have been fortunate enough to receive and see some reports from the field. We’re still keeping an eye out for photo galleries and [...] Read more…

October 9th Update (11,304)

As noted in the title above, this will be the final "Weekly Reader" we post here at BF. It's been nearly a month since our last update and over the past week I've wrestled with the future of The TandemGeek's Blog as well as our Website, TheTandemLink.com

At one point I was prepared to sunset both, but have since then revisited those decisions and decided to simply scale back the content and frequency of my blog entries and to move our "diary" content to a new blog. To that end, please see the following full text of my most recent blog entry where I explain the plan for what lies ahead.

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A New Dawn For The TandemGeek’s Blog … With The Start of a New Day Comes A “Lite” Version of our Blog


Based on a number of both public and private comments we’ve received since posting our plan to sunset [our] blog [earlier this week], we are modifying our “exit strategy”.

Rather than a complete sunset of the blog and our Website, we will continue to service the blog but new content will be limited to tandem-specific news related to rallies, clubs and the like.

Following this week’s final update, we are curtailing our practice of “pushing” summaries out to the Web-based lists as we have in the past; however, our subscribers will still receive Email notices as updates to this blog are posted.

We hope this will allow us to continue to serve the needs of tandem enthusiasts looking to connect to other tandem enthusiasts while freeing up some much needed personal time to pursue our own tandem cycling and other interests.

Finally, as it turns out, I still find maintaining a diary / blogging is something that helps me relax and that I find enjoyable. Therefore, we have created a new blog entitled Riding Two-Up to capture our personal adventures and interests… which will only be updated when I’m so moved.

The recent flurry of updates at Riding Two-Up represents a “backlog” of draft entries written for The TandemGeek’s Blog related to our motorcycling interests that had not yet been published. It is not representative of what the future will hold.

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The full text of the following blog summaries can be found at the following URL:
http://tandemgeek.wordpress.com

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A New Dawn For The TandemGeek’s Blog

Based on a number of both public and private comments we’ve received since posting our plan to sunset this blog, we are modifying our “exit strategy”. Rather than a complete sunset of the blog and our Website, we will continue to service the blog but new content will [...]

Read more…

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The Sun Has Set on The TandemGeek’s Blog…

It was a good ride, but all rides must come to an end.

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Thinking About My Last Blog Entry….

… and what to close with. Yup, I’m pretty sure I’m going to hang it up, a least as far as regular tandem blogging goes. Stepping away this weekend for the motorcycle rally really made me appreciate the need for some variety, but it also reminded me of how much we enjoyed tandem cycling way [...] Read more…

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Distractions… Much Needed

To our regular readers, we’re still in the game but have throttled-back a bit on blogging over the past couple of weeks while attending to some other things. As you can see from the last entry, we’re making updates to our website, www.thetandemlink.com as the 2012 tandem rally dates and locations begin to be available. This [...] Read more…

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2012 Tandem Rallies… Start Making Your Plans!

As is always the tradition, there are always two eagerly awaited announcements made during the Saturday banquet at the Southern Tandem Rally. This year was no exception. So, without further adieu, here’s the scoop: The 2012 Georgia Tandem Rally will be held on 17-20 May at Dublin, Georgia The 2012 Southern Tandem Rally will be [...] Read more…

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Snippets: September 21st

Private Firm vs. County Gov’t Agency… What a Difference: This is probably not a fair comparison, but it’s just too good to not mention. A few weeks back I decided to burn-off some of my vacation time on a Tuesday afternoon and used that time to get in a single-bike ride from our home . It [...] Read more…

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September PEACHES Ride, Covington, Georgia

Our September tandem club ride was hosted by friends John & Mitzi B. who invited us back to Covington, Georgia for a morning ride and lunch afterwards at Amici’s Italian Cafe. You may recall there was an impromptu August D.I.C.E. tandem weekend hosted by Roger & Eve (aka, Team Straussky) where the Sunday ride on [...] Read more…

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Avast, it’s International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

It’s true. September 19th is International Talk Like a Pirate Day Conceived in June 1995 Officially came out of the closet on September 8, when Dave Barry wrote an entire column about the upcoming September 19th event, at which point it became International Talk Like A Pirate Day What’s the Point? There is none. It’s [...] Read more…

Sort of a reprise....

Yes, it's like a Zombie Blog... I thought I'd killed it but it came back.

This is a summary of the entries I've made since my last post in October 2011. Posting activity is clearly way down, but rally updates continue along with some technical anecdotes interspersed with personal stuff that fills in the gaps in our riding when the weather doesn't cooperate.

The actual entries with linked websites, objects, video's etc. can be found here:
Blog: http://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: http://www.thetandemlink.com


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Tennessee Tandem Rally Dates Set For June 8-10

This just in from the Tennessee Tandem Rally organizers…. and the Website is now live with downloadable registration forms. Hello Tandem friends, Alright it’s time once again for the Tennessee Tandem Rally. Since you’ve attended a rally in past years you get a few days to register before we open the website to everyone. [...] Read more…

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Very Rare Santana / Vyatek ExoGrid Demonstrator Tandem

Stumbled across a very rare Santana tandem on Ebay that is also a very good deal with a Buy-it-Now price of $5k. Sadly, it was made for 6’2″ Howard Lindsay, founder and president of VyaTek and his 5’7″ tall wife Dawn: I’m only 5’8″ and Debbie’s a mere 5’2″. Here’s the write-up for posterity: This bike [...] Read more…

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Woulda, Shoulda, Coulda… but didn’t ride this weekend either.

Well, Friday was a great day for riding… too bad I didn’t get the chance. The morning was spent working from home, then doing some banking and fixing a worn-out motion sensor on the front of the garage. The better part of the afternoon was spent up in the attic and back room over the [...] Read more…

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Chain Lube Du Jour: Pro Link Gold

As a follow-up to last week’s thoughts on Chain Maintenance, I ultimately decided to give the Fry Daddy deep fryer a rest for the Calfee’s new drive chain and, instead, have opted to give the Pro Link Gold a try. I also decided to try something a little different with regard to applying the Pro [...] Read more…

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Didn’t Ride This Weekend… Dagnabit, But Still Had Fun!

Well, as mentioned in our Groundhog Day Revisited blog entry, this past weekend was something of a bust for out-of-doors cycling here in North Georgia. We had a bit of a cold snap that had us turn our attention to indoor activities vs. getting in some road work on the tandem. Well, OK: Saturday did [...] Read more…

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West Coast Bike Shows & Co-Motion’s Making The Rounds

Yes, I still read the postings to Tandem@Hobbes… and now and again I’ll be moved to either comment or perhaps even share something when someone asks. But, sadly, just don’t spend a lot of time posting there or even at Bike Forums these days. I figure with as much stuff as I’ve posted buried in [...] Read more…

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Chain Maintenance & Keeping An Eye On Chain Wear

I thought about doing a repost of last year’s “Tandems & Spring Maintenance” entry, but decided to simply post a link to that and focus on chain maintenance instead. So, here’s the linky to last year’s Tandem Maintenance Reminder. Chain Maintenance Keep on top of it! Seriously, never forget that a drive chain is a [...] Read more…

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Groundhog Day Revisited….

I started writing this last weekend and, well… suffices to say that winter has finally arrived in Georgia, noting the temps won’t get out of the high 30′s today…. perhaps this weekend. Snow flurries are even in the forecast for Tuesday. Turns out those fat rodents aren’t any better at predicting the weather than the [...] Read more…

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Shaping Up To Be Another Great Weekend…

Well, we’re halfway through the weekend and it’s been a good one! We did The Georgia Rib Company thing last Saturday night and were pleasantly surprised to see and spend the evening with quite a few of our tandem cycling friends. It was great fun catching up with folks whom we hadn’t seen since November [...] Read more…

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This Past Week On Our Other Blog…. (No Tandem Content)

Musings from our other blog “Riding Two-Up” —————————- Gerbings Heated Gear; Almost Perfect… - I’ve been a huge fan of Gerbings heating riding gear ever since I bought my first pair of heated gloves and jacket from Atlanta BMW / Ducati back in 2001. It’s kept we warm and toasty throughout the subsequent 10 winters with only [...] Read more…

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Florida Panthers Gather at The Villages, by Kathy Foster

Once again we are pleased to share a Florida PANTHERS Post-Event Report from our guest contributor Kathy Foster, the PANTHER’s publicity chair. The PANTHERS Tandem Club likes to ride and have fun. We did both on Jan. 28, inviting members from throughout Florida to come for a bike ride and party in The Villages, where many [...] Read more…

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The Best of 2011…

Best gadget / accessory: Hubbub Mirror Best bike acquisition: It didn’t have pedals Best Tandem Event: Freeloader’s Weekend, followed closely by Dancing Bear’s Bicycle Bash Weekend Best Ride: Not sure, but even my worst ride was still better than my best day at work Read more…

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Our 2012 Rally Plans Starting To Take Shape…

Well, our 2012 rally plans are starting to take shape. We’ve got our room for the Alabama Tandem Weekend in Sylacuaga, Alabama noting ATW is a non-cost / no-frills gathering (ah, the good old days) where folks simply gather to have a great time riding some routes that have been planned by the gracious hosts [...] Read more…

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A Good Couple of Days…

Hey, looky here… He’s blogging again! Yeah, it’s been that kind of winter thus far. But, I think I’m starting to perk up a little. In my efforts to “burn off” some of my vacation time I left work early on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and was able to get in a little saddle time [...] Read more…

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Gates Carbon Drive: 1st Gen Prices Plummet & 2nd Gen CDX Closer To Market

With a tip of the hat to the tandem gang at BikeForums.net, it would appear that: (A) Pricing on the individual Gates 2000mm carbon drive belts & 69t pulleys has fallen dramatically over the past year such that you can pick up a pair of rings & new belt for about $150 + shipping & applicable taxes, well under the current MSRP for Gates tandem system @ $210.

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Theft Alert: 2011 Calfee Bamboo Tandem from Walnut Grove, California

Just posted to the Tandem@Hobbes forum from tandem community icons Dick & Marilyn Powell:Our nearly new Calfee Bamboo tandem was stolen from our home last night in Walnut Creek, California.

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Off Topic: Amazing Model Train Display in Hamburg, Germany

This is way off topic, but since I’d wager that more than 1/2 of the folks who ride tandems have at least one team member who had a model railroad or at least a train set up under their Christmas tree in their youth, I thought this might be of interest to a few of our readers.

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Tandem Rally Updates¦ Keep em Coming!

Let me start off with a sincere thanks for the folks who keep us in mind and share their event updates; we love seeing how rallies continue to thrive and being able to share that information with our friends in the tandem cycling community. So, that said, we've been busy collecting updates and searching the [...] Read more

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The Reason For The Season Blurred By Santa Once Again: A Rant.

I guess with all of the endorsement deals and appearance fees he's signed over the years the modern-day Madison Avenue creation we call Santa has been able to pull down some serious dough-ray me and built himself a car collection that might even make Jay Leno a bit envious. A pretty [...] Read more

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ITO Road Fatalities Mapping

This showed-up as a link on one of the motorcycle forums that I frequent and it is probably of as much interest to cycling advocates / facilities designers as it is to motorcyclists. What you're seeing is a composite view of road fatalities that have occurred between 2001 and 2009 in the United States. You [...] Read more

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The Outspoken Cyclist: That Great Intro Music & More Favorite Interviews

It's been nearly 5 months since my last installment of my favorite interviews� from Diane Lees weekly show on WJCU, The Outspoken Cyclist, so I figured an update was new. As a reminder, Diane is a long-time friend as well as the producer and host of the Outspoken Cyclist on WJCU in Cleveland, Ohio. Her program [...]Read more

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Some Fresh Stuff From Co-Motion

This is actually a three-fer blog entry, in that there three things that piqued my interest from Co-Motion this week from three completely sources. However, as it turns out, they complement each other. The first is a nice article w/photos from Bike.Portland.org made after paying a visit to Co-Motion that you can find HERE. The [...] Read more

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2012 Southern Tandem Rally Website Launched and lookin' good!

The 2012 Southern Tandem Rally is being held in St. Augustine, Florida on 19-21 October and hosted by our friends Rick & Debbie Brackett. In advance of registration opening in early 2012, they've now launched their 2012 STR Website and it's lovely and full of all kinds of features and social networking interfaces. We were fortunate [...] Read more

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R&E Cycles in Seattle: A New Website & Putting the "E" Back in R&E

With a tip of the hat to our reader Steve for a comment in our blog entry on tours that alerted us to this. Dan Towle, owner of R&E Cycles in Seattle, Washington, continues to find new ways to meet the needs, wants and desires of his loyal clients and make R&E a more attractive [...] Read more

It's been about a month since I last posted a summary, so this list has about 15 entries. Yes, that means spring is here and we're riding more!!!

The actual entries with linked websites, objects, video's etc. can be found here:
Blog: http://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: http://www.thetandemlink.com


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Tandems East – Tandem Expo, March 31st & April 1st in Pittsgrove, New Jersey

If anyone is in the market for a tandem or even thinking about tandems, this is probably the only time and place where you’ll find this many assembled, ready-to-ride tandems covering the entire price, performance and configuration range. We’ve attended one of the Expo’s and would go every year if we were a bit closer [...] Read more…

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3x the Fun: First Tandem Rally on a Triplet

If you are a regular reader and caught our Alabama Tandem Weekend reports, this isn’t exactly breaking news. However, I was so jazzed by the whole experience that I thought I’d share some additional comments pertaining to just the triplet experience. We’ve played around with triplets before, but this was our first serious, long riding [...] Read more…

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2012 Alabama Tandem Weekend (Sunday Report)

OK, this one will be shorter than my Intro/Friday write-up and the Saturday report... I promise. Sunday, March 25th With the Triplet all dialed-in, today started off a bit more relaxed than Saturday morning did. Perhaps relaxed isn’t the right word, as I find tinkering and tweaking tandems to be very therapeutic, i.e., instant gratification [...] Read more…

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2012 Alabama Tandem Weekend (Saturday Report)

As a follow-up to my earlier blog entry on the Alabama Tandem Weekend and Friday recap, here now are my recollections from Saturday along with photos taken by Tim, Bev and others who were stalking the tandem teams on Saturday… Saturday, March 24th Saturday started off with breakfast around 6:00 am. After eating I got to [...] Read more…

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2012 Alabama Tandem Weekend in Sylacauga (Intro & Friday Report)

This year’s Alabama Tandem Weekend (ATW) was hosted by Tim & Beverly P. out of their home town of Sylacauga, Alabama. It’s pronounced sil-la-caw-ga and it’s located southeast of Birmingham at the southern terminus of the Appalachian Mountains. For classic TV buffs, it’s also where Jim Nabors was born and raised. Just a neat little southern town surrounded by [...] Read more…

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The March PEACHES Ride: On Our Home Turf & A Visit To Olde Towne

A few weeks back we attended the annual Georgia Tandem Club (aka, PEACHES) monthly ride planning event at a restaurant on the north side of Atlanta. As a reminder for regular readers and a primer for new ones, PEACHES stands for “Pairs Enthusiastically Astride Cycles Having Experiences Simultaneously” and was the nickname adopted for the [...] Read more…

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Visiting With An Old Friend: A Ride on Our Erickson

We wanted to get in some additional base miles last weekend but were once again challenged by the weather, as storms on Friday had lingered into Saturday morning. In anticipation of a wet spring I had already taken steps to outfit our once beloved but now rarely ridden ’98 Erickson with our Reynolds Ouzo Pro [...] Read more…

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What Good Are Laws That No One Knows About? (3 Foot Law)

Back in July 2011, Georgia’s “Better Bicycling Bill” became the law. Other than cycling advocates, I’d venture a guess that very few Georgia motorists know anything about the changes brought about by the new law and, in particular, the so-called “3 Foot Law”: 40-6-56.35: Subsection (a) defines the term “Safe Distance” to mean not less than [...] Read more…

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Other Tandems @ NAHBS…

Ok, now for some of the other tandems that were captured on camera and/or in words by folks who actually attended this year’s North American Handmade Bicycle Show… 2012 Best Tandem of Show: Kent & Katie Eriksen’s personal Ti road tandem Kent Eriksen is someone who our long-time, regular readers will remember from several previous [...] Read more…

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Hey, We Actually Had Nice Weather For A Change!!!

Even though we had a mild winter, it seems like the weekends were always the coldest days of the week and/or when the rains decided to fall. Not so this past weekend. Well, OK, it was still a bit too chilly and windy for my sweetheart’s druthers, but she was a trooper and braved the mid-morning [...] Read more…

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Mountain Tandems @ NAHBS!

Interestingly enough, off-road tandems made a nice splash at this year North American Handmade Bicycle Show. Over the past few years it’s been the one-off road tandems that seemed to dominate the stage, with just an occasional off-road tandem like last year when Co-Motion showed up with a new 29″ rigid off-road tandem sporting a [...] Read more…

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Tennessee Tandem Rally Over 1/2 Full; 20 Spots Left

In case anyone is procrastinating and needs a little motivation, the 2012 Tennessee Tandem Rally (TTR) has 30 of the 50 spots filled at this point, with folks coming from 11 different states as far away as Maine! You can find Tim & Sharon’s invitation in our blog entry from last week HERE. You can [...] Read more…

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Bengal MB700T Disc Brake… The Start of a New Product Test

Let me start off by saying we like product testing. Well, OK: I like product testing. There are just so many different ways to design and differentiate products that it’s hard to know what works well until you put it through the paces over enough time and without any interference from handlers. That’s the [...] Read more…

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March 18th PEACHES Ride Information

When: Sunday, March 18th / Riders Meeting@ 9:00am No ride if Raining or if Temps are Below 40°F Please let us know if you’re coming by NLT March 16th so we’ll know to look for you at the start and/or to leave maps behind if you’re running late. Email to: mark@werlivingood.com will work just [...] Read more…

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Tandem Club of America… Annual Membership Update

I received my 2012 TCA Membership Roster and, as I have done for the last nine years, I thought I’d share a quick look at the Tandem Club of America’s (TCA) demographics. As always, my hand-tabulated counts from the membership listing were entered into my spreadsheets and looked at on a state-by-state basis in comparison to [...] Read more…

April 30th Update (13,341)

It's been another month since I last posted a summary, so this list has about 12 entries, half of which pertain to our new-found affinity for tandems with more than 2 saddles. Yes, that means we've added yet another long-bike to our collection.

The actual entries with linked websites, objects, video's etc. can be found here:
Blog: http://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: http://www.thetandemlink.com


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2012 Tour de Cure… Help Us Meet Our Goal!

If everyone who visited my Blog each week donated just $5.00 (the minimum on-line donation), we’d be able to provide the American Diabetes Association with over $10,000 in much-needed funding! So, how about it? Can you spare $5? How about $10? Maybe even $25? We’ve purposely held off on kicking our fund-raising effort into [...] Read more…

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Triplet Frame Pays a Visit To AirGlow (All-Done, Pt4)

This is the 3rd of who knows how many parts there might be to this triplet project, but we’re getting pretty close to being done with the refinishing of the frame. You can find Part 1 HERE, Part 2 HERE and Part 3 HERE. Still more photos of the triplet continue to trickle out from [...] Read more…

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PEACHES Ride in Hampton, Georgia on April 28th

Just a short note to acknowledge the great ride that was hosted by Roger Strauss & Eve Kofsky this past Saturday “down” in Hampton, Georgia… home of the Atlanta Motor Speedway, which sits right next to the Clayton County Airport’s “Tara Field”. Note, for those not familiar with Southern Folklore, the famous plantation called Tara [...] Read more…

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Triplet Frame Pays a Visit To AirGlow (Sneak Peek, Pt3)

This is the 3rd of who knows how many parts there might be to this triplet project. You can find Part 1 HERE and Part 2 HERE. Hall Clarke just sent yet another teaser photo of the frame and it’s pure bike-porn. I’m not quite sure where exactly it is in the paint process, but [...] Read more…

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Triplet Frame Pays a Visit To AirGlow (Ready for Paint, Pt2)

This is the 2nd of who knows how many parts there might be to this triplet project. You can find Part 1 HERE. Well, the paint job is clicking right along now. Last evening Hall sent over a couple more photos, including one that depicted the black cherry test pearl swatches for us to approve. [...] Read more…

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Gates CenterTrack for Tandem Sync Drive – First Sighting!

Our friends and gonzo, hyper-mileage riders Charlie & Pat from Texas recently took possession of a custom Calfee Bamboo tandem outfitted for on and off-road use. I’m not sure that it’s still sporting the red rims, but as you can see it was fitted with a Gates Carbon Drive sync-drive belt. Well, as bicycle technology [...] Read more…

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Triplet Frame Pays a Visit To AirGlow (Bead blasting & prep, Pt1)

Ok, as a follow-on to my previous blog entry where we fessed-up to buying a triplet to have “just in case” and perhaps as something we’ll be able to use with the grandkids, here is the first of what will probably be two or three updates on the re-birth of that triplet. You’ll recall that [...] Read more…

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Triplet Fever… We Got It Bad!

OK, we had a choice: pick up a second Harley-Davidson motorcycle — a Road King that would allow us to cruise on interstates in relative comfort so we could expand our motorcycling horizons — or feed our new-found passion for riding three-seat tandems by picking up a triplet. Yeah, pretty bizarre trade-offs when you [...] Read more…

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Tandem Rallies Are Almost Upon Us

If you haven’t done a tandem rally but enjoy riding a tandem, you owe it yourself to give the rallies a try!! As noted in a previous post, we’ve already enjoyed one tandem rally this year, aka, the Alabama Tandem Weekend. The folks down in Austin at TXCATs are getting geared up the 2012 Southwest [...] Read more…

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It’s wedding bells, and bikes, for this (tandem) couple

Our friend Bill McCready at Santana Tandems was kind enough to share a link to a neat story out of Orange County California that featured one of his client couples — Julie Valero and George Allen – and their unique way of getting to their wedding last weekend. You can find the entire story on-line at [...] Read more…

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Not a Lot of Recent Activity Here…???

That’s true. No major tandem outings for us since the Alabama Tandem Weekend. In fact, I didn’t even get a chance to swing a leg over a bicycle since then up and until yesterday. Boy-o-boy, going from a triplet to a single bike will get your attention in a hurry. I was clearly missing about [...] Read more…

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Sebring Tandem Rally Report, by Kathy Foster

Once again we are pleased to share a Florida PANTHERS Post-Event Report from our guest contributor Kathy Foster, the PANTHER’s publicity chair. The PANTHERS recently hosted the Sebring Tandem Rally on March 23-25 in, well, Sebring, Florida. Bike spokes were spinning and race car wheels were smoking at the second annual Sebring Tandem Rally the last weekend [...] Read more…

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May 25th Update (13,817)

It's been about a month since I last posted a summary, so this list has 11 entries, half of which are daily updates from this past weekend's Georgia Tandem Rally.

The actual entries with linked websites, objects, video's etc. can be found here:
Blog: http://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: http://www.thetandemlink.com

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Tour de Cure: Still A Little Short of The Goal… One Last Request

First off, let me thank our friends and co-workers who have already given generously; we’re humbled and deeply appreciative of your contributions and support. That said, and while we hate to ask again — noting we’re really not comfortable asking at all — we’re still looking for contributions that will allow us to meet our [...] Read more…

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Where Do You Store A Triplet?

Back in 2003 I helped a friend from New Jersey — Paul Meixner — polish up a series of FAQs he developed for the web on Multi-seat Tandems. That is, tandems with more than two saddles. In the FAQs we addressed a whole bunch of things that folks considering the purchase of a triplet, quad [...] Read more…

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2012 Georgia Tandem Rally: Sunday, May 20 (Part 5 of 5)

Sunday Report Note: This is the fifth of five parts. You can find the other updates using these links: Summary - Thursday - Friday - Saturday – Sunday. Expect that photos will continue to be added to these posts as we find them. Roger’s Description of the day ahead: Have we saved the best ride for last? We’ve got time to [...] Read more…

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2012 Georgia Tandem Rally: Saturday, May 19 (Part 4 of 5)

Saturday Report Note: This is the fifth of five parts. You can find the other updates using these links: Summary - Thursday - Friday - Saturday - Sunday. Expect that photos will continue to be added to these posts as we find them. Roger’s Description of the day ahead: Saturday is always the busiest and most fun day at GTR. Riders will have four [...] Read more…

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2012 Georgia Tandem Rally: Friday, May 18 (Part 3 of 5)

Friday Report Note: This is the third of five parts. You can find the other updates using these links: Summary - Thursday - Friday – Saturday - Sunday. Expect that photos will continue to be added to these posts as we find them. Roger’s Description of the day ahead: GTR’s first ride rolls on Friday morning, where we will [...] Read more…

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2012 Georgia Tandem Rally: Thursday, May 17 (Part 2 of 5)

Thursday Report Note: This is the second of five parts. You can find the other updates using these links: Summary - Thursday - Friday – Saturday - Sunday. After looking over the agenda for this year’s Georgia Tandem Rally (GTR) in Dublin, Georgia we realized we’d need to exercise our early arrival reservation and make the trip down [...] Read more…

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2012 Georgia Tandem Rally: Summary

Note: This is the first of five parts. You can find the other updates using these links: Summary - Thursday - Friday – Saturday - Sunday. Since I’m a little behind in posting my updates and GTR is now in the history books, I would be remiss if I did not offer a quick summary of the weekend: It [...] Read more…

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Roof-Topping the Triplet

We decided to go ahead and bring the triplet along with our tandem to this year’s Georgia Tandem Rally, even though it appeared that it wouldn’t be needed due to a change in plans by one of the prospective 2nd stokers that no longer necessitated the additional triplet at GTR. We did this in part [...] Read more…

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Chain Lube Update

Back in February I wrote about chain maintenance and noted…. Of course, now that it’s time to break out a fresh chain I must once again wrestle with the choice of lubrication. I’ve been using ProLink Gold (aka, ProGold) on the timing chain for the past 6 months and have been really impressed with it. [...] Read more…

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Triplet Frame – Sneak Peek of Nearly Finished Build

After a 300-mile / 5-hour round trip to Washington, Georgia and a short visit with Hill Clarke at AirGlow, our triplet frame was back at home on Friday, May 11th for the first time in about 3 weeks. As those who were following the blog updates on the paint job already know, the paint job [...] Read more…

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Building Your Stoker’s Confidence & Trust : A Re-Post from BF

OK, this is technically a re-posting of something I wrote at BikeForums.net today in response to a question that basically asked, “How to I help my stoker comfortable with high-speed descents?” Listen to what they’re saying on and off the bike and be sensitive to how they feel on the tandem as you push the envelope [...] Read more…