zonatandem

Out on our daily tandem toot (about 1 mile out) and climbing up a local hill that has a stop light on the very top.
Stopped and as pilot put his feet down the tandem did an involuntary slow motion tip over!
Tried to hold the bike upright but stoker ended up on the asphalt as the tandem did a slo-mo unceremonial dumping of the tandem team! After untangling her body from the bike frame we made it to the curb and sidewalk.
No one got hurt, no road rash and no honking from the cars that were behind us at the traffic light.
Finished our 20 mile tandem toot none the worse for wear.
We both had a couple twinges here and there from the dumping; hit the jacuzzi to loosen things up.
This is the first time in about 10 years of any such a miushap.
Guess we were over due!
Pedal on!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem (stublebums!)

Mike Ayling

Rudy,

If it can happen to a team of your experience I don't feel so bad with the odd slow speed fall after only five years of tandem riding!

Mike and Mary.

oldacura

Glad to hear both of you are OK.

As we get older we don't bounce back from even a tip-over.

Carbonfiberboy 

Stopping is the trickiest thing on a tandem. It's hard to do it perfectly every time. We had a tip-over fully loaded in the Czech Republic right in front of a church just as people were coming out after services. We had a small crowd of well-wishers. Totally embarrassing. No damage.

Paul J

We did a slo-mo a couple of years ago and I'll never for get looking back and my wife was just looking at me like "what just happened!" She was a good sport, the poor driver behind us jumped out to make sure the "old" couple were OK, never felt old till that one. :-) We dusted ourselves off and continued our overnight to Gettysburg. The funny part of this story was I decided to go a different way then our normal which included 10 more miles and about 1,000' of additional climbing which got me into more trouble at the end of the day the the drop.

zonatandem

Yes 'Pschitt' can happen no matter how many miles you've ridden!
At ages 83 and 81 we are fortunate to have made it out OK without road rash/broken bones!
Something to be said maybe for taking our daily dose of calcium?!
All's well that ends well!
Pedalon TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

B. Carfree

We almost had one a couple years ago. We came to a stop sign. A car arrived at the same time as us from our left (rare for anyone to be at that intersection, so of course we arrived simultaneously, per Murphy). The driver of the car waved us through, but my captain couldn't see through the windshield glare. I was saying "go"; she had decided to fully stop. The bike stopped and I could either take the ship down with me or find a way down on my own. I chose the latter, which probably looked like I was diving to the ground for some loose change. The bike stayed upright, so I guess my launch was smooth enough. No damage to anything but what little ego I have.

Artmo 

We've done the slo-mo capsize a few times over the years, the most embarrassing being during the rush hour in Paris a couple of years ago, We were heading for the railway station to get the train back to Dieppe and riding in a bike lane which was blocked in many places by delivery vehicles. At one intersection the car in front stopped suddenly and over we went on the pedestrian crossing. Crowds of people simply walked around us as we picked ourselves up. No harm done.

Another, painful one, was when I tried to negotiate a very sharp turn with my stoker shouting, "no, no , no. Let's get off." The front wheel slipped off a low lip on the path edge and over we went. I fell on my hand and broke a rib. I now pay more attention to my stoker!