merlinextraligh

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.

TandemGeek

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: https://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: https://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 So, to friends and family who have politely overlooked and tolerated my often times boorishness and bouts of grumpy, withdrawn and selfish behavior, let me first say I’m sincerely embarrassed and extend an apology [...]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…

TandemGeek

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: https://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: https://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…

TandemGeek

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: https://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: https://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…

TandemGeek

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: https://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: https://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 [...]

Read more…

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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…

TandemGeek

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: https://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: https://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…

TandemGeek

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: https://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: https://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…

TandemGeek

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: https://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: https://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’ [...]
Read more…

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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: https://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…

TandemGeek

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: https://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: https://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…

TandemGeek

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:
https://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…

TandemGeek

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: https://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: https://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

TandemGeek

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: https://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: https://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…

TandemGeek

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: https://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: https://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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TandemGeek

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: https://tandemgeek.wordpress.com
Web: https://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…

TandemGeek

June 20th Update (14,343)

It's only been a couple weeks since I last posted a summary, but with 15 entries -- including two tandem weekend reports from Tennessee -- it seemed like a good time to go ahead and release an update. Note that I've added quite a few photos to the TTR entries that recently came available.

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

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Another Great Weekend & Special Guests…

Well, this past-weekend was interesting and fun-filled. Friday We began by having to set-aside our Friday night therapy session at On the Border with our friends David & Deb so we could entertain our 6 and 3.5 year old granddaughters, Caroline & Charlotte, while our son Wesley & daughter in law Julie went to a [...] Read more…

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2012 Tennessee Tandem Rally – Sunday, June 10th

This is the fourth of four parts of our TTR report. You can find the other parts here: Thursday - Friday - Saturday - Sunday. Additional photos to be added once they become available. It was a wash-out… Yup, not much to report here. We woke up to find that a steady light rain had been falling through the early [...] Read more…

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2012 Tennessee Tandem Rally – Saturday, June 9th

This is the third of four parts of our TTR report. You can find the other parts here: Thursday - Friday - Saturday – Sunday. Additional photos to be added once they become available. After getting a positive overnight status on Crawdad, everyone exhaled with a sigh of relief and began to focus on the day’s ride and [...] Read more…

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2012 Tennessee Tandem Rally – Friday, June 8th

This is the second of four parts of our TTR report. You can find the other parts here: Thursday - Friday - Saturday - Sunday. Additional photos to be added once they become available. Today was the traditional Friday remote start that would take us out along Little River on Old Walland Highway between Maryville and Townsend, Tennessee and then up [...] Read more…

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2012 Tennessee Tandem Rally – Thursday, June 7

This is the first of four parts of our TTR report. You can find the other parts here: Thursday - Friday - Saturday - Sunday. We just returned from the Knoxville, Tennessee area where we spent four days at our 11th Tennessee Tandem Rally. Despite a couple of bumpy moments, the rally was another great event that offered some amazing riding [...] Read more…

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Toronto Icon To Be Honored With Tandem Sculpture

Our good friends from north of the border, Dave, Vanessa, Maeve & Owain Seto, shared a really neat piece of news from Toronto, Canada with us this past week. Jack Layton to be honoured with statue and ferry terminal The Jack Layton Ferry Terminal is now an official part of Toronto, but residents will have another reminder of [...] Read more…

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Tandem Teams Gather in Carlisle, PA for MATES Rally

Just found a nice article in the on-line version of ‘The Sentinel” regarding this weekend’s Mid-Atlantic Tandem EnthusiastS (MATES) Rally… https://cumberlink.com/news/local/tan...a4bcf887a.html Tandem bike enthusiasts to hold rally in Carlisle By Matthew McLaughlin, Sentinel Reporter | Posted: Saturday, June 16, 2012 11:30 am | (1) Comments More than 100 people, some from as far away as California and Ireland, are in [...] Read more…

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Daily Vent…. Just one of those days on the bike.

So, we go out for a nice ride on a nearly perfect day. First irritation are the stoplights installed by Cobb DOT at Mars Hill Rd & Old Stilesboro Rd. that use video motion detection to trip the lights. Only problem is, the sensors just aren’t quite bike friendly and leave you sitting at intersection [...] Read more…

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Tour de Cure Update: This Just In… $1,700 Now Raised for ADA!!!

It’s been truly a heart-warming experience over the past few weeks to see how so many folks whom we either know or connected to via the tandem cycling community have come forward to provide support to our 2012 fund-raising efforts for the American Diabetes Association. Our hearts got really swelled-up and warm the other evening [...] Read more…

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Speaking of “New” Acquisitions: Check out John & Pamela’s New Seven!!!

Pamela Blaylock and John Bayley are icons in the tandem cycling community, at least to me. I’ve been reading Pamela’s writings since 1996 via Tandem@Hobbes where she continues to be a reader and contributor. Pamela & John are quite a couple and if you’re a cycling & tandem cycling enthusiast you owe it to yourself [...] Read more…

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Our Triplet’s Sibling Finds A New Home… (It’s a Small World)

Our dear friends Kevin & Linda V. from the Dallas Area Tandem Enthusiasts (DATES) gave us a heads-up back around May 12th that one of our recently acquired Precision Triplet’s sibling triplets had just gone on the market. Kevin & Linda are also regular readers of our blog and have been following our articles on [...] Read more…

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Oregon Gran Fondo… A Report by Dwan Shepard

Ok, I’ve shamelessly poached this from a posting to the Tandem@Hobbes Email list by Dwan Shepard that was just too good not to share with our readers. This was the inaugural Oregon Gran Fondo sponsored by Co-Motion Cycles & Rolf Wheels this past Sunday…. The Oregon Gran Fondo was wonderful. We were thrilled with the [...] Read more…

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Good Grief, What A Weekend!

Not sure why, but this past weekend turned into one heck of a jam-packed fun-fest intermixed with some (but not too many) house chores…. I’ll try to be brief (yeah, right). Friday Night: Friday started off with a joyful return to On the Border where we met our friends David & Deb and Atlanta’s best [...] Read more…

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Memorial Day Weekend at Club Fred… (Monday)

This is the fourth of four parts. You can find the others here: Friday, Saturday, Sunday. They say a picture’s worth a thousand words…. Well, how about a short intro and then couple pictures instead of my usual long-winded prose for the Monday update. As mentioned in the Sunday update, Brenda had to head home so we were [...] Read more…

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TandemGeek

July 22nd Update (14,893)

It's been about a month since I last posted a summary, so this list has a entries, a couple of which are pure bloggishnish, i.e., not necessarily tandem related: sorry about that.

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

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Bike Fitting, It’s Always Worth the Time & Expense if…..

… you can find a really good bicycle fitting practitioner. Anyone who’s ever taken the time and paid good money for a professional bicycle fitting by a really good bicycle designer and/or bicycle fitter will typically come out of that experience with a ton of useful information and suggestions and perhaps even corrections to previously [...] Read more…

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Attn Floridians, PANTHERS is hosting the 3rd Annual Lake Wales Tour de L’Orange

As an unofficial associate member of various different tandem clubs around the US and elsewhere, including the Florida PANTHERS Tandem Club, I receive notices on upcoming events. While we wish we could attend them all, life just doesn’t provide us with that option at the moment. Some of these rides make it on the calendar [...] Read more…

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Oi, Tandem Clubs Down Under… A New Aussie Resource On The Web

Received a note the other day from Barry Bailey down in Australia letting us know that they’ve stood up a new resource for tandem and visually impaired cyclists. As noted on their Website, Tandem Bike Australia: The Tandem Bike Australia website is dedicated to assisting all tandem riders as well as Vision Impaired Cyclists in [...] Read more…

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Some Nice Tandems Out There On The Market…

It probably comes as no surprise to any of our regular readers that I will occasionally check out the used tandem market via the usual internet outlets like Ebay and Craigslist as well as the somewhat more specialized ones like the always reliable, long-lived tandemmag.com/classified site that enthusiasts like your truly continue to hold in high [...] Read more…

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Holy Cow; Over 200,000 Views!

I just noticed our Blog has surpassed 200,000 views sometime yesterday. This would be the count going back to our first blog entry in January of 2010. I thought I’d cut and paste in a by-monthly visits view of the data for regular readers who might have been interested or curious to know just how many [...] Read more…

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Fear Not: Some Tandem Content Coming Soon!

Sorry about the somewhat thin tandem content I’ve posted of late. I’ve got one or two subjects in mind that I’ll mold into blog entries over the next few days. Lots of really nice second hand tandems have been popping up on the market so expect one in that regard. Still mulling over the other… Read more…

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19 Year-Long Honeymoon Continues With No End In Sight….

Wow, I can’t believe it’s been 19 years since my sweetie and I tied the knot back on July 16th, 1993. We first met shortly after I arrived in Georgia back in January of 1991 and had our first date in April. To say I was smitten would be an understatement. She was and remains [...] Read more…

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Independence Day in PA (Bloggishnish)

Monday, July 2nd The week of July 2nd we headed up to visit my folks in Pennsylvania, making the 11 hr / 780 mile drive up on Monday. Basically an uneventful drive up after just a brief shower and an amazing light show as we drove through the Cartersville, Georgia area. Our drive up was [...] Read more…

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A Couple Busy Weekends… Not Enough Riding Of Any Kind!

Looking back on the past two weekends we really came up short on riding opportunities. This past weekend was a “stay around the house” by design weekend as we prepped for a 5-day trip to Pennsylvania to visit with my parents near Reading. It was also a recovery weekend given that the previous weekend was [...] Read more…

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It’s OK To Wash Your Tandem, Really… Soap & Water Is a Good Thing!!

Let start off by saying that I really hope this does not come as a surprise to any readers… but it’s not only OK to wash a bicycle / tandem with soapy water and then protect it with a good wax: it’s essential to long-term frame (and component) care. What brought this to mind was [...] Read more…

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It’s a Gran Fondo at Penticton, B.C., & Tandems Are Now Welcome!!!!

This just in, based on feedback from the tandem cycling community regarding their earlier rule that prohibited tandems at the event, the Valley First Granfondo Axel Merckx Okanagan (VFGAMO) organizers have revisited their decision and decided to recind that rule. From their recent Facebook posting… Granfondo Axel Merckx We do appreciate your comments. Please know that our decision [...] Read more…

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It’s a Gran Fondo at Penticton, B.C., (Update / Addit’l Insight)

While no one from the VFGAMO has offered up any replies — at least that I’m aware of — another member of the BikeForums.net community who apparently frequents “The Paceline” forum was able to gleen some additional insite from another thread about the tandem ban spawned by the same BikeForums.net thread I’ve already referenced. The [...] Read more…

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It’s a Gran Fondo at Penticton, B.C., That Is Unless You Ride a Tandem…

Although the organizers for the Valley First Granfondo Axel Merckx Okanagan (VFGAMO) in Penticton, British Columbia on July 6th – 8th, have not yet responded to inquiries regarding the rational behind a rule that, on the surface this just seems bizarre enough to warrant a little exposure to our friends in the tandem community. In short, citing [...] Read more…

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Vero Beach PANTHERS Ride 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. Debby’s stormy days bring back the Vero Beach weekend we almost skipped earlier this month. The skies were as dark as they are today as we loading our Co-Motion and our bike gear. The [...] Read more…

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They did it!!! US National Road Champion’s (BVI)

Got word this morning that Rachael Scdoris and her pilot Lisa Turnbull won the US National Championship in the US Paralympic Blind/Visually Impaired (B/VI) classification in Augusta!!! Woohoo, way to go girls! The girls also won the bronze medal in the time trial held this past Thursday. We hope to see Rachael’s “hardware” when she [...] Read more…

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TandemGeek

August 31st Update (15,464)


It's been just a little over a month since I last posted a summary, so here's a snap-shot from the RSS feed to recap what you'll find at the blog.

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

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Beyond Awesome… In So Many Respects (16″ wheeled Kids Tandem)

This was just posted by a new member of BikeForums.net — Robert H. — who I believe hails from Michigan. Robert appears to be a highly skilled machinist — perhaps even an engineer for a major auto maker — and an equally awesome dad and cycling/tandem enthusiast. When you combine all of those things you [...] Read more…

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Paketa D2 / D2r Travel Tandem… That’s Right, S&S Couplers

For those folks who have considered a Paketa but wanted the hassle-free ability to travel with their tandem, it looks like you can now have your cake and eat it too. Spied on Paketa’s Facebook Page today was this freshly finished Paketa D2r tandem: basically a V2r with S&S Couplers From their Website, a recent [...] Read more…

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Chuck Harris, Truly An Icon Of The Cycling Community… A Rememberance

We learned today that Chuck Harris passed-away just a day or two ago. We had recently highlighted Chuck in a blog entry that included a link to a very nice biography entitled “The Mirror Man of Gambier” penned by Greg Siple. The article originally appeared in Adventure Cycling’s April 2011 edition. You can find “The Mirror Man [...] Read more…

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Updates at TheTandemLink.com

Well, I finally had a bout of insomnia that saw me up at 3:00am with no hope of returning to sleep so I was able to make a few overdue updates to the mothership: TheTandemLink.com As with all changes to our companion website, the following summary joins all of the other lists of changes that [...] Read more…

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Bicycles & Motorcycles… More Alike Than Folks May Realize

It’s kind of funny to lurk on various different types of cycling and motorcycling discussion forums where you can see common themes come up from time-to-time. For example, one of the very common “off-topic” or “general discussion topics” on the motorcycle forums has to do with “The Wave”. That’s right, that very simple gesture where [...] Read more…

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Curious about the rest of our weekend?

Hopefully some additional photos will surface from our monthly Georgia Tandem Club Ride (aka, PEACHES) on Sunday so I can do a comprehensive report later this week: it was a great time. However, in the mean time, I figured I’d provide a link to my other blog where you can get a preview of the [...] Read more…

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Tweaking Tandems & A Great Ride Today… Perhaps We’ll Do It Again Tomorrow.

Despite doing our usual Friday evening “Decompression Session” at On the Border with our dear friends David & Deb, and then following up with a visit to Jimmy Mac’s for our friend “Sarge’s” karaoke gig from 8 until 11:30pm — something that has somehow become another part of shaking off the work week ritual — we [...] Read more…

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A Tired Tyre & Tube…


For the second week in a row I’ve made myself leave work “early” around 5:00pm so I could meet my sweetie when she gets home from work and join her for an afternoon ride on the tandem. It was something I started to do last week after I initially declined an invitation from Debbie [...] Read more…

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More on Mirrors… and Business

Update: Sadly, Chuck Harris passed-away in mid-August 2012, shortly after this was written. I received a prompt from YouTube yesterday that someone has posted a comment on one of the videos that I have posted and shared-out, noting I don’t really post that many videos to YouTube. Moreover, they tend to be instructional videos that [...] Read more…

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TandemGeek

November 1st Update (16,135)

It's been just a little over two months since I last posted a summary, so here's a snap-shot from the RSS feed to recap what you'll find at the blog.

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

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3rd Annual Florida 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. I’m enjoying a recovery day after helping the Florida PANTHERS host the third annual Florida Tandem Rally. Despite the threats of Hurricane Sandy and her winds, we consider it the best yet. All but [...] Read more…

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Changes at PennyWise Cycle Tours & 2013 Schedule Announcement

Long-time tandem friends Rich Wolf & Ina Thompson shared some information regarding PennyWise Cycle Tours that may be of interest to readers. The full press release from September 16th appears below. For release September 16, 2012 PennyWise Cycle Tours announces changes; 2013 tour destination Steve Rabe and Karen Kovacic have agreed to take over [...] Read more…

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The Sun Sets on the Tennessee Tandem Rally…

For those who may not have been on the Tennessee Tandem Rally alumni Email list or whose Email addresses may have changed, after a decade of hosting the Tennessee Tandem Rally our friends Tim & Sharon Patterson will no longer be directing the event. Their announcement follows: Hey tandem friends, Wanted to let you know [...] Read more…

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Doh! Christening Tandems in the Garage….

Oh the irony… Why is it the only dents or nicks I’ve gotten in our road tandems came when they were not being ridden and just propped up against a solid object in the garage? It’s not like we baby our tandems, and Lord knows they get leaned up against all kinds of things when [...] Read more…

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Southern Tandem Rally 2012, Part 2 of 2

SATURDAY The day started much like Friday with a very nice breakfast buffet around 7:30. What should have been a relatively easy “get ready to go” became a bit more complex when a special photo-op was planned by one of our friends as a way of capturing all of the “Pennywise Cycle Tours” alumni in [...] Read more…

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Southern Tandem Rally 2012, Part 1 of 2

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve written one of these up… which is to say it’s been a while since we’ve done a multi-day tandem event. In fact, it’s also been a while since we spent much more than two-hours in the saddle, the last time being a ride in Rome, Georgia back on [...] Read more…

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In Case You’re Looking For An Answer To A Question About Tandems…

… there’s a pretty good chance it won’t be buried in this blog. It’s probably not buried in our companion Website — www.thetandemlink.com — either. But, that’s not to say that I or several other folks with insight into some esoteric aspect of tandems probably haven’t written something on the subject… as every question about [...] Read more…

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7-Episode Adventure Series Centered Around Tandem Cyclist Begins Oct 1st

I received a note out of the blue from Jared Abrams, a cinematographer who has been working on a project related to tandem cycling. He went on to let me know the series is called “Take A Seat” and it will begin to air on NBC Universal Sports Oct 1st at 8:00 p.m. est. From his [...] Read more…

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Bengal Brake Update…

Back in March we started a product test of the Bengal MB700T disc brake on our Calfee tandem, but really haven’t offered much in the way of feedback since then. So, here’s a short status update: During the initial use of the Bengal it worked really well. However, we seemed to be getting an inordinate [...] Read more…

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A Pretty Good Weekend…

Well, we checked a few boxes, but not all of them… and there’s even a little tandem cycling content on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon! Friday: After a work week that just seemed way too long, we had a really nice time at On The Border with our friends David & Deb but then called [...] Read more…

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Blue Moon Blues….

Ever since the Blue Moon I’ve been having more than my fair share of the blues…. What’s the deal? Tandem Cycling, Not Enough: We continue to be sidelined from tandem cycling and cycling in general by a variety of things, which is probably the biggest contributor to my less than sunny disposition. Cycling and [...] Read more…

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Driver Found Not Guilty In Deaths of Gregory & Alexandra Bruehler

I hate it when I’m right… If you go back to my blog entry from October 3, 2010 when I reported that a motorist who mowed-down two cyclists was finally indicted nearly a year after the incident you find in my closing paragraph this comment: “Sadly, even when cases like this are brought to trial, [...] Read more…

TandemGeek

January 13th (17,401)

It's been about a 2.5 months since I last posted a summary, so this list has 16 entries which go all the way back to Nov 1st.

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

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Mild Weather Makes For Great Weekend Riding…

Wow, is it really mid-January? Like many folks here in the Southeast, we were treated to temps in the upper 60°F’s on Saturday and Sunday which beckoned outdoors to enjoy some time on both the tandem bike and our motorcycle. As mentioned in my previous blog entry on mud guards, our warm weather was accompanied [...] Read more…

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Mud Guards for Folks Who Don’t Like Mud Guards.. SKS Racer Blades

Although they don’t offer riders anything close to the protection you get from properly fit, full-coverage mud guards, I was reminded this weekend how nice it is to have at least an 80% solution, courtesy of our SKS Racer Blades. We’ve had these for several years, as they provided a nice hedge against ending up [...] Read more…

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Eastern Tandem Rally, Inc., Launches All-New Website!

This just in from our good friend Malcolm Boyd: the 2013 ETR rally schedule & a new look for their Website! The Eastern Tandem Rally organization is pleased to release its rally schedule for 2013. The Spring Thaw rally, co-sponsored with the PPTC, is scheduled for April 18-21 in Cambridge, Maryland and registration is now [...] Read more…

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The Ultimate Motorcycle Accessory… J&S Motorcycle Lift

I bought our J&S Motorcycle Lift back in September in anticipation of a wheel change on our Harley-Davidson Wide Glide. While I already had a pretty good motorcycle lift that I’ve used on my Honda & BMW motorcycles for about 10 years, it just didn’t work all that well with the Harley, i.e., it lacked [...] Read more…

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Reunited… Blogs that is.

Back in October of 2011 I decided to parse my interests into two different blogs: this one with a more narrow focus on tandem cycling and a new one that would be dedicated to my broader interests entitled “Riding Two Up“. While “Riding Two Up” gave me a little more latitude to write on a [...] Read more…

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Knoxville Tennessee’s Club VIBES In The News….

Our friend and co-founder of Knoxville, Tennessee’s Club VIBES, Sue Buckley, wrote to let us know they were back in the news again. It was a very nice video report from local news station 10 WBIR that focused on a very special 15-year old volunteer tandem pilot, Fausto Crapiz. You can find the video and a text [...] Read more…

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Got Shoes? Cycling Shoes That Is…

With the temps in the low-40′s I decided to go looking in the closet for my Sidi Freeze winter cycling shoes for todays ride. As I worked my way down the row of cycling shoes tucked under our street shoe rack in the closet I was somewhat taken aback by just how many pair of [...] Read more…

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Merry Christmas!

We’re enjoying Christmas Eve in front of the fire here with my folks in Pennsylvania and Debbie will have a White Christmas tomorrow morning! We had Christmas with the kids and grandkids on Saturday and then a second Christmas hosted by our daughter-in-law’s parents at their home last evening, so that was nice… but I [...] Read more…

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2013 Tandem Rallies… Coming at ya

Ready or not, the 2013 tandem rallies are getting scheduled so mark-up your calendars, get in those vacation requests and keep an eye on those registration dates. I spent a few moments updating the “Events” page at www.thetandemlink.com this morning and most of the annual rallies now have dates and places! So, I thought I’d [...] Read more…

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Home-Based Tandem Specialty Dealers

I guess it was so long ago that I had the “big A-hah” on home-based tandem speciality businesses that I sometimes wrongly assume most tandem enthusiasts know this too. That false assumption reared its head a while back when someone on one of the tandem discussion forums I frequent was taken aback when he made [...] Read more…

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R&E Cycles of Seattle, WA… Why Aren’t All Shops Like This?

Just gotta throw out some “props” to Dan Towle and the folks at R&E Cycles up in Seattle, Washington. For the second time in three years Dan and his crew have been Johnny on the spot for me when I needed some parts for the Bushnell eccentric on our Calfee Tetra Tandem. As before, I [...] Read more…

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Tis the Season…

Our good friend Brenda up in New Jersey shared this out on FaceBook tonight and while I’m not often moved by anything other than the love of my wife, family and dear friends… this was really quite a nice treat. Back on December 18th 2010, “Journey of Faith” performed a Christmas “Flash Mob” at [...] Read more…

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Floor Pumps: Out with the Old and In with the New

As mentioned in my post-Southern Tandem Rally (STR) write-up, I found myself in need of a new floor pump while at STR and rolled the dice on what was essentially a one-of-one Specialized Air Tool “Sport” model pump at a small but nicely stocked Open Roads bicycle shop in Jacksonville, Florida. Open Roads appeared to [...] Read more…

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Anatomy of a National’s Time Trial Machine: John Price’s Tiemeyer TT Tandem

John Price from Albuquerque, NM, wrote to let us know a little bit more about his Tiemeyer Signature Time Trial Tandem, following a big win at this year’s Master’s Road National Championships held on Sept 5-9 in Bend, Oregon. John is a reader of our blog and thought other readers might be interesting in seeing a [...] Read more…

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S and S Bicycle Torque Couplings™: Did You Know?

For readers who may not know what as S and S Machine Bicycle Torque Coupling is, they allow full-size bicycle and tandem bicycle frames to be broken down into smaller sections that can be packed into what is essentially a large suitcase that can be easily loaded into cars, taxicabs, shuttle buses, trains, boats, cruise [...] Read more…

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Time To Start Selling Off Excess Parts & Stuff…

Me thinks it’s time to start selling off excess bikes and parts again. I did a pretty big purge back in 1998 where we thinned the herd by selling off my ’84 Raleigh Prestige, ’92 Trek 2300, ’84 Gran Prix, a pair of custom Raleigh racing bikes, my ’87 Kuwahara Cougar MTB, and Debbie’s Novara MTB, along with a bunch of parts [...] Read more…

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TandemGeek

March 1st (18,179)

It's been a little over a month since I last posted a summary, so this list has 15 entries which go back to Jan 19th.

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

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The Tandems of NAHBS 2013…

Ah, the 2013 North American Handmade Bicycle Show… the best thing to happen in American cycling since I don’t know when. Best of all, next year it will be in Charlotte, North Carolina! You can bet your boots that we’ll be there since it’s finally in our backyard!!! Anyway, as a follow-on to my [...] Read more…

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Recalibrating Our Riding Habits As We Gear Up For 2013….

Regular readers may recall that I’ve been trying to wean myself off of the two-blog habit, having officially “reunited” my non-cycling ramblings from “Riding Two Up” with “The TandemGeek’s Blog” back on January 13th. I’ve done my best to restrain myself but, frankly, given that we’ve been treated to a more traditional,not-so-mild winter the Harley’s [...] Read more…

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Wow! Calfee Raises The Bar Again With NAHBS Tandems

If you hang out on Facebook and have “Liked” Calfee’s FB page, or are a regular on BikeForum.net’s tandem subforums then you’ve probably seen the two over-the-top tandems Calfee took to this past weekend’s North American Handmade Bike Show in Colorado: one was a time-trial special whereas the other was an off-road hardtail 29er with [...] Read more…

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2013 Tour de Cure: Please Help Us Reach Our $2,000 Fund Raising Goal!

We are doing what we can to raise both awareness and funds for the fight against Diabetes; won’t you help by way of a generous donation? Why [...] Read more…

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Pre-Bay Garage Sale: Tandem Wheelsets & Components

As mentioned a while back, I thought I’d give readers a shot at some tandem wheelsets and components before I put them out on Ebay. 2007 Rolf Prima Vigor Tandem Wheelset / Shimano Freehub: 2007 was the last year that Rolf used the 34mm deep rim with the very narrow brake track, but with the improved, [...] Read more…

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Newlywed Bina Bilenky Trahan on Tandems: Stoker’s Life

Stephen Bilenky’s daughter Bina, who has been mentioned several times on our blog before, recently penned an article that appeared on Embrocation Cycling Journal where she shares some anecdotes and insights on tandem cycling. It’s a quick and fun read that we thought our readers might enjoy. You can find it HERE. Read more…

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OMG! I Actually Rode My Ventana Marble Peak Today!!!!

Well, miracles do happen! I actually pulled my ’97 Ventana Marble Peak full suspension mountain bike down from the rafters, got it sorted-out so it would be trail-ready, and then paid my first visit with it to the Allatoona Creek Mountain Bike Trail today! I’m almost embarrassed to say, the last time I rode my [...] Read more…

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Bike Rumor Contributor’s Tour of Co-Motion’s Shop – Part 3

As a follow-on to today’s Part 2, here’s the third in the series of tree blog entries by Bike Rumor’s “bike commuter / lifecycle contributor” Nick Burklow from Portland, Oregon. Part 3 – Paint & Polish Read more…

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Bike Rumor Contributor’s Tour of Co-Motion’s Shop – Part 2

As a follow-on to yesterday’s Part 1, here’s the second in a series of three blog entries by Bike Rumor’s “bike commuter / lifecycle contributor” Nick Burklow from Portland, Oregon. Part 2 – CNC Machining Nick is capturing his Co-Motion stop tour experience in a series of three blog entries, the first of which he [...] Read more…

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Bike Rumor Contributor’s Tour of Co-Motion’s Shop – Part 1

My little search engine turned up a nice little blog entry by Bike Rumor’s “bike commuter / lifecycle contributor” Nick Burklow from Portland, Oregon. Nick has recently written a review of a Co-Motion Nor’Wester single bike for Bike Rumor and decided to take it back to Co-Motion’s facility in Eugene, Oregon instead of shipping it back. [...] Read more…

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Cycling Apparel: One-In / One Out…???? Yeah, Right.

As a follow on to my “Got Shoes” entry back in early January, and in response to some comments and questions I received both on and off the blog, I finally got around to doing a slight purge of some cycling apparel and in the process did an inventory of what we presently have hanging [...] Read more…

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Bicycle Fabrication: Handcrafted to Mass Production

While perusing the video’s on bicycle manufacturing I thought it might be interesting to share a few more videos I stumbled over. I decided to start with the high-end beginning with Seven Cycles & a hand-crafted custom and end with Giant’s final assembly line in Taiwan. Stacked in between is a 2008 video shot [...] Read more…

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Industry on Parade / Two-Wheel Triumph, Columbia Bicycles, Circa 1952

Ok, it wasn’t all that hard to find, but once again it’s worth the time to watch and compare how the manufacturing technology & techniques had changed between what you may have seen in the previous Raleigh Bicycle manufacturing film from 1945 to this 1952 film made at the Columbia Bicycle Works in Westfield, Massachusetts. This [...] Read more…

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Raleigh Bicycle Manufacturing, Circa 1945

A friend recently ‘liked’ a post on a cycling club’s website that linked to a 1945 British Industry film on how Raleigh bicycles were produced. It’s 17 minutes long, but was absolutely captivating to this bike geek so I thought I’d share it with our readers. I thought I’d shared-out a similar video made here [...] Read more…

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I Like Fridays… (Bloggishnish)

As I’ve mentioned in the past, my work schedule is set up such that we work nine 10-hour days, and then have every other Friday as an off-day. In theory, this is a pretty slick schedule. However, in reality 11 to 13 hour days are still the norm, and since the rest of the world [...] Read more

TandemGeek

March 29th (18,623)

It's almost been a month since I last posted a summary, so this list has 10 entries which go back to March 1st.

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

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Tandem Club of America… Annual Membership Update

I received my 2013 TCA Membership Roster and, as I have done for the past nine years, I thought I’d share a quick look at the Tandem Club of America’s (TCA) demographics. You can find the full report HERE at TheTandemLink.com. SUMMARY: While the year-over-year slide in membership appears to continue, this year’s annual net [...] Read more…

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2013 Tour de Cure: Please Help Us Reach Our Fund Raising Goal!

PLEASE NOTE: This is a “Sticky” that will appear at the top of our blog until we reach our $2,600 fund-raising goal: we’re about $572.00 away. Newer entries follow… We are doing what we can to raise both awareness and funds to help find a cure for Diabetes; will you help by way of a donation? [...] Read more…

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I Need Another Tandem Like A Hole In The Head; But Still…

I took this photo of our current tandem fleet for one of my presentation slides at the Tandems East Tandem Expo which was the first “family portrait” of our long-bike fleet in quite some time: From left to right are our 2008 Calfee Custom Tetra S&S Road Tandem, our 1998 Erickson Signature Road Tandem, our [...] Read more…

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2013 Tandems East Tandem Expo… It’s All About The People!!

Well, we had a GREAT time at the 2013 Tandems East Tandem Expo. As I mentioned in my earlier blog entry, “Tandems East Open House & The Tandem Geek Show“, this was our second tandem expo — the first time was in 2008 at their 20th Anniversary — and once again our hosts, Mel & Barbara [...] Read more…

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2013 Northwest Tandem Rally @ Bellingham Cancelled! Wow…

The following Email was shared-out on both Tandem@Hobbes & BikeForums.net’s tandem forum today and can be found at the Northwest Tandem Rally’s “home” Website…. From: NWTR <director@nwtr.org> Date: Mon, Mar 18, 2013 at 2:43 PM Subject: NWTR Important News To: NWTR participants & tandem enthusiasts Open letter to NWTR participants and tandem enthusiasts We regretfully announce [...] Read more…

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A Busy, Beautiful Weekend… Punctuated By A Tandem Ride!

Seeing how many of our friends “up North” were or are being treated to a mid-March return to winter replete with snow or at least a wintery mix, I’m almost ashamed to share a brief recap of our relatively warm & sunny weekend here in North Georgia…. I think my weekend actually began on Thursday [...] Read more…

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Tandems East Open House & the Tandem Geek Show

This coming Saturday & Sunday Mel & Barbara Kornbluh will be holding their 25th annual Open House in Pittsgrove, New Jersey. Some of their guest speakers on Saturday will include Zack Strahley of Co-Motion, daVinci co-owner Brian Davis, Spinergy wheel expert Ric Becker of the House of Tandems in TX, and Charlie Buchalter of ATOC/Draftmaster. More info can be [...] Read more…

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Should We Be Flabbergasted, Flattered or Fhilosophical?

Yes, yes… we know philosophical begins with a ‘pf’ instead of an “fh” but it was just too hard to resist. Anyway, our good friend Michael S. over in Croatia dropped me a note the other day in which he drew my attention to a Facebook page for a young lady in Athens, Greece…. and [...] Read more…

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Garage Sale / Ebay Post Mortem

Well, the goods are now either in the hands of or on their way to new owners. How’d we do? Well, on the plus side everything’s gone: three set of wheels, three stoker stems, three seat posts, five saddles, two sets of handlebars, seven water bottle cages, 3 seat post collars and a North Atlanta [...] Read more…

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The Dean Commeth…

As mentioned back on Feb 3rd, I’ve started to ride off-road on single mountain bikes again and it’s been a really nice change-of-pace from road riding. As well as the Marble Peak has been performing, I got it my head that I wanted to revisit riding on a hardtail for our local trail, as it [...] Read more…

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TandemGeek

May 9th (19,098)


It's been just over a month since I last posted a summary, so this list has 15 entries which go back to March 29th.

The actual entries with linked websites, objects, video's etc. can be found here:

Blog: https://tandemgeek.wordpress.com

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So that’s what a composite spoke sounds like when it breaks….

Doink! Yup, that’s what I heard as we were cruising down the billiard table smooth, 4% payoff grade called County Line Road at 35 mph tonight. At first I thought something had gotten shot out from under the tire that … Continue reading → Read more…

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2013 Tour de Cure: 10 Days & $220 To Go… Please Consider A Donation!

We’re just $220 away from hitting our 2013 fund raising goal of $2,600 and 10 days away from the Tour de Cure. We’re asking for your assistance just one last time in the hope that a few of you may be … Continue reading → Read more…

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Panama City Beach: Another Big Bike Weekend (Part 2 of 2)

Friday After sleeping in much longer than usual, which was quite nice, we got ourselves sorted out, stuffed the rain gear into the bike’s saddlebags and crossed our fingers that the rain would hold off until the afternoon as we headed … Continue reading → Read more…

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Panama City Beach; Another Big Bike Weekend! (Part 1 of 2)

A little background on why we just did two motorcycle vacations in the space of 4 weeks is probably in order, as this is even unusual by our own standards (perhaps it’s an omen of things to come?) After riding … Continue reading → Read more…


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New Wheels for the Triplet! But Are My Rims & Tires Too Narrow?

It’s been both interesting & occasionally even informative to watch several different “threads” running on “wider is better” themes across cycling. Frankly, I believe that so long as the average recreational/sport cyclists use wheels and tires at pressures that fall … Continue reading → Read more…


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Well, That Was A Heck Of A Week! Debbie-Fest Retrospective

Well, Debbie-fest 2013 — the extended celebration of my lovely wife Debbie’s birthday — has just about come to an end. Well, sort of an end. Thankfully, this year’s Debbie-fest did include some tandem cycling, but only because I was … Continue reading → Read more…

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Anyone Want To Talk About S_x? Oh wait… Sox, no I meant Socks!

I was just looking for a catchy subject line for a few thoughts on the subject of socks and went for the phonetic play on words. My apologies if I got any baseball fans in Chicago or Boston excited under … Continue reading → Read more…

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Spring Tune Ups… Especially For The Gently Used Tandems

For those folks who put their tandems up for the winter, or for any teams that simply don’t give their tandems a lot of love — it’s time to think about a Spring Tune Up! Seriously, tandems really need attention … Continue reading → Read more…

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Dropped Like A Rock By… (Wait for It) An Electric Assist Bike!

Here’s the set-up…. We’re out for a tandem ride on our local loop and working our way up a 2-mile long road that’s mostly uphill with 3% – 5% grade that we grind out at about 12-14 mph on a … Continue reading → Read more…

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KEY WEST PART 3… The Everglades & Trips Back.

This is the third of three installments that describe our min-vacation to South Florida & Key West. Most of the photos you see were taken by our friends David & Deb who were kind enough to share them with us … Continue reading → Read more…

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Key West… A Short Week In Paradise (Part 2, The Keys & Key West)

This is the second of three installments that describe our min-vacation to South Florida & Key West. Most of the photos you see were taken by our friends David & Deb who were kind enough to share them with us … Continue reading → Read more…

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Key West… A Short Week In Paradise (Part 1, The Trip to Miami)

INTRO: It’s not often we take off an entire week and it’s almost unheard of for us to do so without tandem cycling being a centerpiece of that time off. However, our dear friends and partners in crime when it … Continue reading → Read more…

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Just Belt Me… Really.

Crap… After seeing the black CenterTrack sprockets on a Calfee and a few other tandems at the Tandems East Expo two weeks ago, being pinged by BikeForums.net brother USPSPRO on the results of our custom Gates belt test from a … Continue reading → Read more…

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Sebring Tandem Rally 2013, by Diana Mirkin

We are pleased to share a Florida PANTHERS Post-Event Report from our guest contributor Diana Mirkin. The third annual PANTHERS Sebring Tandem Rally was held March 22-24, 2013 at Chateau Elan, the resort hotel adjacent to the famous Sebring International … Continue reading → Read more…

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Things I Didn’t Delve Into During My Talk At Tandems East’s Expo….

At the end of my 40-minute “Tandem Geek Show” during last weekend’s Tandems East Expo I decided to test the audience’s threshold for interest by asking if there were any questions before jumping into some other topics. As I suspected, there … Continue reading → Read more…

TandemGeek

June 15th (19,406)

It's been just over a month since I last posted a summary, so this list has 16 entries which go back to May 12th.

The actual entries with linked websites, objects, video's etc. can be found here:

Blog: https://tandemgeek.wordpress.com

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Tandems of the Ozarks Rally, Republic, MO, July 26-28

John White from the Springbike Tandems of the Ozarks (Springbike TOO), dropped us a note to let us know that, in addition to forming a new South Missouri-based tandem club, they are also opening up their annual “Tandem Social” to … Continue reading → Read more…

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Tandem Bikes & Hollywood

I stumbled over an interesting web site called “Ride a Bike” that has a large photo collection of celebrities posing with or on bicycles. I shamelessly poached the ones that included tandems, triplets & quads because, well…. I’m a … Continue reading → Read more…

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A Visit to MTB Tandems in Woodstock, Georgia

Last Saturday Debbie and I paid our first visit to Alex Nutt’s “new” MTB Tandems shop just off of I-575 at the Sixes Road exit in Woodstock, Georgia. The address is: 221 Rope Mill Pkwy Suite 2, Woodstock, GA 30114. Sadly, … Continue reading → Read more…

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Vero Beach PANTHERS Ride 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. Several times a year, the Florida PANTHERS get together for a weekend of riding in a different place. There … Continue reading → Read more…

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Random Thoughts From the Breezeway….

Well, let’s see, how about some random thoughts for yet another day where I find myself trying to get healthy and am otherwise forcing myself to relax… Being Sick is the Pits: Still under the weather, but off the DayQuil … Continue reading → Read more…

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Sidelined On Another Beautiful Saturday & Making The Best of It

Yup, no Two-Up-Love with my sweetie today… tandem or motorcycle. Still struggling with sinus / balance issues but there’s now light at the end of the tunnel: I’m now on an antibiotic. So, hopefully the drugs will take down the … Continue reading → Read more…

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20th Anniversary: 9 Day, 2-Up Pedal & Power Trek or a Cruise???

As our 20th anniversary approaches we have a 9-day window over the 4th of July week when Debbie will be able to take some time off. Otherwise, it’s a dry stretch until the Southern Tandem Rally in the fall. We … Continue reading → Read more…

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Long-Weekend Re-Cap: If Only….

I knew I was in trouble heading into a long, 4-day weekend when I realized I was coming down with a case of the spring crud Thursday afternoon at work. I was absolutely wiped-out, coughing and feeling a bit feverish. … Continue reading → Read more…

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Tandem Tech & Equipment: In Praise of Conventional Wheels

I can honestly say it was really nice riding on our 36°conventional wheelset during last Sunday’s 65-mile Tour de Cure event. Nice, because (a) they delivered a great ride and (b) I never gave them a second thought. While conventional … Continue reading → Read more…

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Tandem Tech & Equipment: Chain Wax & Rain Don’t Mix

Yes, I’m one of the old-school riders who still uses a hot-melt paraffin wax bath to lubricate the chains on our bicycles. Why? Good question. I suspect it falls into the realm of “cleanliness is next to Godliness” and ”old habits … Continue reading → Read more…

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Tandem Tech & Equipment: Selle An-Atomica Titanico Saddles

Ok, lets shift gears here for a moment away from wheels to talk about something near and dear to our derrières: saddles and in particular the Selle An-Atomica Titanico. So as not to keep readers in suspense, here’s the bottom … Continue reading → Read more…

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Tandem Tech & Equipment: Composite Spoked Wheel Retirement

Our Georgia Tandem Rally (GTR) weekend yielded some interesting discussions, discoveries and anecdotes covering a number of different tandem technology & equipment topics. So, this will be the first in a series of Tandem Tech / Equipment blog entries since … Continue reading → Read more…

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Georgia Tandem Rally 2013; The All-In-One Report

Well, this may be a first: a tandem rally report without any “action” photos that prove we actually attended GTR!! Somehow we ended up sneaking our way through the Georgia Tandem Rally in Covington, Georgia without being captured in any … Continue reading → Read more…

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2013 Tour de Cure: Post Ride Report

Yes, we did in fact successfully complete the 2013 Tour de Cure event yesterday! Mother Nature tried her best to keep us and hundreds of other riders from making it to the finish, but we persevered!! As a recap on our fund-raising, … Continue reading → Read more…

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Mark Fest, Part Deux…

Right on the heels of our Key West Trip, Debbie Fest and Bike Week in Panama City Beach came Mark Fest. Yes, that means my sweet Debbie and I were both born under the astrological sign of Taurus; hey, it … Continue reading → Read more…

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A Great Week of Tandem Riding As We Gear-Up For Next Weekend!

Wow, we had a great week where we were able to get out on the tandem bike four times! In previous years that wouldn’t have seemed like a big deal, but with the weather we’ve had this year it’s been a real challenge to get in any riding. … Continue reading → Read more…

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TandemGeek

July 10th (19,695)

It's been a couple weeks since I last posted a summary, so this list has 15 entries which go back to June 21st. Fair warning, a lot of the entries are more-or-less non-tandem related accounts of a week-long vacation we took, noting that I've been struggling with sinusitis since May 23rd and pretty much unable to ride things with two-wheels due to balance issues.

The actual entries with linked websites, objects, video's etc. can be found here:

Blog: https://tandemgeek.wordpress.com

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Next Generation Drag Brake… Now Available!

It’s hard to believe it was November 2010 when I first wrote about the Maddock Machine drag brake development project in this blog entry. The goal was to develop a direct replacement for the venerable Arai drag brake (at right) … Continue reading → Read more…

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Key West Visit, Sunday July 7th & the Return to Reality

Well, I knew it had to come to an end, and Sunday was the last day of our 9 day-long, 20th anniversary vacation. I’d have called it a second honeymoon, but as far as I’m concerned we’re still on our … Continue reading → Read more…

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Key West Visit, Saturday July 6th & the Butterfly Conservatory

We were able to sleep in Saturday since our schedule wasn’t being driven by a need to be any particular place at any particular time, which is at it should be when visiting Key West! As we emerged from our … Continue reading → Read more…

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Key West Visit, Friday July 5th & the Dry Tortugas

Back in April — after making our first trip to Key West via the Overseas Highway on our motorcycle with good friends David & Deb — we decided one of the things we wanted to do on any future trip … Continue reading → Read more…

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Key West Visit…. Thursday, July 4th

With much anticipation, Thursday finally arrived so we were off to Key West, Florida for what we hoped would be four days of fun in the sun. Looking at the weather forecasts it looked to be about 50/50 for rain … Continue reading → Read more…

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Anniversary Week, Day 5 (Wednesday)

Woohoo, I think my health finally turned the corner! I woke up feeling the best I’ve felt in quite a while this morning, so that was quite nice. It was also quite lovely out early on, which beckoned me for … Continue reading → Read more…

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Anniversary Week, Day 4 (Tuesday)

Quite frankly, I could have called-in sick this week instead of taking vacation and it wouldn’t have been all that different! Some symptoms are improving while others — chest congestion in particular — seem to be getting worse. So, once … Continue reading → Read more…

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Tandem Club of America: A New Chapter Opens As Another Closes…

I’d actually gotten something of a brief heads-up this was coming, but it was definitely something I had not expected to see for a few more years, and that was an announcement from Jack & Susan Goertz that they would … Continue reading → Read more…

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Anniversary Week, Day 3 (Monday)

One step forward, two steps back; the Crud. Despite feeling pretty good on Sunday, when I woke up on Monday I found the crud had regained a foothold in my head and chest with the return of some light headedness … Continue reading → Read more…

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Anniversary Week, Day 2 (Sunday)

Sunday morning brought about a reality check and slight suspension of fun & games as yard work, laundry and other weekly chores still needed to be addressed by the care takers (us) so that pretty much consumed 1/2 of our … Continue reading → Read more…

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20th Anniversary Celebration Underway! (Saturday)

For a variety of reasons — mostly due to work schedules — we decided to move the celebration of our 20th anniversary up two-weeks and kicked off our week-long celebration / vacation Friday night at… you guessed it: On the … Continue reading → Read more…

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First Look: Taiwanese-Made Cannondale RT1

Facebook truly is an interesting animal with regard to how one door opens another to perpetuate the social network. Case in point, I am friends with Rick L. up in Michigan noting we both share a strong affinity for tandems … Continue reading → Read more…

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Friends Larry & Martha’s Big Ride: The TransAmerican Northern Route

Imagine my surprise when my daily Google search macro delivered a news item from a Middle Tennessee radio station about our friends Larry & Martha Tolbert from Murfreesboro, TN! As noted in the new item, Larry & Martha began their … Continue reading → Read more…

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Catching-Up: The Past Three Weeks & “Bike” Riding….

The last time I did a personal update was June 2nd in my “Random Thoughts from the Breezeway“. The crud has had me in its grip ever since then, having now been through two difference courses of antibiotics and adding … Continue reading → Read more…

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For The Literary Buffs….

How about H.G. Wells and his second wife Amy aboard a Humber courting tandem? And digging deeper into the way-back machine we find a photo of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle riding in tandem with his first wife Louise (Touie) on … Continue reading → Read more…

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Carbonfiberboy 

Congratulations on your 20th! We're at 40 and still having the same, or maybe more fun.