Fifty Plus (50+) - Ugly ride coming up - need moral support

Sunday is the Strawberry Fields Forever 100K, a mere 4500' of tandem climbing in store. There seem to be a number of unfortunate instances of 15% or so pitches which are just bearish on the tandem. Please console.

OTOH, cholcolate covered strawberries are rumored to be available:)

One year I did the 100m in the rain. There were so few riders that Gizdich Ranch was giving out as much pie as we wanted. Mmm.
That ride has the best food of any I've done.

I've only ever done the 100m but there's only two really steep sections on that course, and they're short. You'll miss the inch-deep hail we had on the descent of San Jose-Soquel last year. It was exciting!

You'll miss the inch-deep hail we had on the descent of San Jose-Soquel last year. It was exciting!
Inch deep hail itself would be bad enough, but that much hail is the result of a fairly strong thunderstorm. I'm guessing that "exciting" was a bit of an understatement.

Got granny gears? Here's your chance to put 'em to good use!
Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

You'll be right.

And there is no shame in getting off and walking.

Machka and I did a 300 randonnee on our tandem and it had some steep climbs, both around 2 miles in length and up to 12% grade. We factored those into our ride planning, on the supposition that we would be walking part of them. It worked out well because we put time in the bank on other parts of the route.

We do have a lower granny on there now (36T cog and 26T ring), so what has made some hills a little less daunting.

If the old saying "misery loves company" holds true, it might make you feel better knowing that in two weeks my wife and I are signed up for the Spindletop Spin in Beaumont Tx. We have logged in only 50 miles so far this month approximately. Work, and family stuff has kept us from riding. I am signed up to do a century while she is going for the 53 miler. It is a flat route, but with our lack of training we are just going to go for it!

A day riding on your tandem sounds beautiful. What's the ugly part? :thumb:

Every time a see a mixed tandem team, I smile. :)

I feel much better now:) We do have low gears. In fact I just recently replaced the 12-32 cassette with a 12-36 giving us a 24-36 low: comes in very handy over 10%. Walking is definitely in our tandeming toolkit of course. Temps are actually going to be cool, maybe not breaking 65deg so that's a real plus. And then there's the strawberries.

Just make certain the Turbo comes in when required. You know the advantages of a Tandem so use them. Downhill and forget the brakes- Flat bits and try not to tow too many and uphill- throw out the tow rope to those than have too much energy.

What's your reply to the usual "Comment"?

Mine was "If the pilot starts steering-I'll start pedaling." As we veered over towards the passing rider.

Edit

I came across a Tandem team where the stoker had her feet up on the crossbar. I had to make the comment as I also saw the walking sticks strapped to the pannier rack. Apparently the stoker had broken her ankle in a bad fall a month ago and had still decided to ride. She had one leg she could use but only pedaled uphill--where it mattered.