Tandem Cycling - Our new Rumba

Finally!

After probably a full year of prowling Craigslist, pestering members of this forum, and hemming and hawing, my wife and I brought home our first tandem yesterday! It's an immaculate '00 or '01 Burley Rumba. The beauty (part1): found it only 20 minutes from home (this after making inquiries into tandems from as far away as Michigan and Washington State). The beauty (part2): well, just behold! the bike is in great shape, with goodies like water bottle holders, a rack, fenders, and a pump. All for a fair price, and pretty much everything we could hope for -- first-time tandeming, after all, is something of an experiment.

It poured yesterday, so we had to content ourselves with attaching pedals, adjusting the seat post, installing a computer. Today dawned sunny and dry, but cccold (37) and windy (gusts of 20mph plus). Not the ideal conditions for a maiden cruise, but we both wanted to get on it and see what all the fuss is about. :)

We drove to a local highschool -- we live on a hill that emtpies on to a very busy road, so we wanted do our first experiments in balance and coordination in the confines of a parking lot. We'd practiced clipping in and mounting in the garage yesterday (we bought SPD pedals and mtb shoes), so it wasn't long before we were off and pedaling with a 1, 2, 3. And turning. And not falling. Yay, us. Five more minutes of that, including a couple of practice stops, and we were off on the open road. Mostly rolling hills in the towns of Bolton and Harvard, MA. Nice place for a ride.

So, after a mere 12 miles, I can report that Joan and I are fans of this thing called tandeming. We didn't do everything smoothly, and we're learning that we like to spin at different RPM, but we did more right than we didn't, and we talked everything through, and we learned. And we'll keep learning.

So, thanks to one and all on this forum. Your advice and words of experience proved very helpful in our quest for our first tandem. Now I need to see if I can find out how much slack the timing chain should have and how to adjust it. :)

(requisite photo in the Happy couples thread.)

David (and Joan)

Oh thats great! We also have a Craigslist Rumba. Rumba's are a great value for a real ridable bike. The components on our bike could be considered "low" end with Tiagra & Deore but the performance so far has been first class. Enjoy!

The first tandem ride together is an exciting time. Hope that you enjoy your new Burley. Your posting brings back fond memories as we started 17 years ago on a used Burley. We spent an hour stopping, starting, and turning. A year later we got married, have owned five tandems and riding is a big part of our life.
Sheldon and Martha
Greenfield, IN

Very nice find and I like the green a lot.

Did you guys set the stoker bars up like that on purpose??? (NTTAWWT)

The stoker bars were set up like that when we picked it up. They looked a bit odd to me, but, so far, no complaints fromthe stoker. So, I guess we'll go with funtion over form, unless we'll be shunned by the two-up community. :)

In all seriousness, are they facing the "wrong" way?

Well, they're on backwards and pointed down. They should be cowhorn style like a pursuit or tri bike type base bar. Your stoker will end up with more and better hand positions if you flip them around. It looks like the extension on the stoker stem is just upside down. All you have to do is loosen the two allen bolts and flip the extension over.

Here's a pic of the more traditional position.

http://santanatandems.com/images/07ArrivaSE%28e%29.jpg

Doh! Thanks very much. I'm off to the garage now.

Have fun! Can't remember our first real ride on our starter tandem (which we still ride) ten years ago but the first ride in the dealer's parking lot before we bought it made us both feel like maybe we were going to fall over. We didn't and didn't really care if that's how it felt because we both knew we wanted to ride a tandem (together). Glad your patience paid off.

Joan decided not to come to the garage to check out the new handlebar position (something about being comfortable on the sofa, thank you very much... could the bloom already be off the rose?!), but I fixed it and we'll work on fine-tuning the position (reach, angle) on future rides.

Thanks again for the tip, andr0id.

Congrats and enjoy! We were hoping to get out today too but work prevailed. Was a bit windy here. Drop a PM if you want to go and ride together. We are in SE MA. Always looking for other teams to ride with.

Paul

You guys are in our backyard. Hope to see you on the road -- we haven't come across another tandem out here yet. Get used to shifting up & down on those hills!
Most of our riding is north, west, and south of Worcester, but I'm pretty familiar with your area too.

Congratulations! Have fun!

Great looking tandem duo and good lookin' Rumba too!
Perhaps the Seven Hills Wheelmen are still active in your neck of the woods and you can join them for a ride later this year?
Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem