A comment on my blog post about getting separated the other day (http://familyonbikes.org/blog/?p=1648) made me start thinking about this. Micheal (the one who posted the comment) is a good friend of ours and he is out touring with his family now on two tandems. They never, ever let each other out of their sight - never. If one of them gets even 100 meters ahead they both have whistles they can blow to alert the other that they're getting too far away.

On the other hand, my husband and I have always toured apart for much of the day. Since we first started cycling together back in 1990, his pace is way faster than mine. He doesn't mind stopping to wait for me every hour or so, but the frustration involved in trying to cycle my pace all day every day would be too much - we would have stopped cycling altogether years ago if I demanded that he stay with me.

Are we abnormal? Do most cyclists stay right with their partners? This just feels so normal to me that I never even really thought about it.