Tandem Cycling - Stp

We rode the Seattle to Portland ride over 2 days this past weekend average speed 17.1 (excluding time in Portland stop and go traffic). Did more passing than getting passed but certainly got passed. Fun tandem ride with no long or steep climbs and some fun rollers. Stoker got a kick out of checking the mirror and seeing a line of singles 20 to 30 deep. Not a good ride if you are timid about passing people, of the 10, 000 people registered for this ride it felt like we passed more than 1/2 of them. Saw plenty of tandems including 1/2 dozen parent child teams. At one point were able to form a pace line of 4 tandems that randomly came together.

Hats off to the Holiday Inn Express in Chehalis Washington absolutely the most Bicycle accommodating hotel ever. Free............ beer, pasta, fruit, massages, bike parking, breakfast, no objection to riders taking bikes in rooms or elevators...fantastic!

Happy to have done it once but I do not think I would do it again except as a 1 day double century.

How did the logistics work? Did you fly to Seattle and ship your tandem to your hotel? Did you fly to Seattle and fly back from Portland? Did you make your own arrangements, or use a company or organization?


Stoker got a kick out of checking the mirror and seeing a line of singles 20 to 30 deep.

And did any half-cyclist ever do a pull, or were they all wheel-suckers?

And did any half-cyclist ever do a pull, or were they all wheel-suckers?

My understanding is that there's an implied consent by tandemists that singles are going to suck wheel in the STP. I did the ride on my single in 2009. My buddy, myself, and many others got behind a triplet with a rear-facing boom box on the rear rack; the last stoker was in charge of DJing the iPod and swinging her arms in the air. If any of us tried to take a pull, we'd've been run over by the train.

Excellent job Chichi:
A male riding buddy of mine rode stoker last year. He is about an inch taller than my wife, so I could modify the bike to fit him perfectly. It was really fun to have major horsepower on the back. (He is 20 years younger than I). We missed the 04:45 group, but were in the front of the 05:00 group, but still did it in 10:30. Glad we didn't stop halfway though. The people that did it in 2 days got pounded by rain, wind and thunder/lightning almost the whole way in.
Triple Crown next year?
VG