Bill - In our training, we decided that the other child would be safer riding a tandem as he is not Mr. Stamina and I am trying to get everything just right to make this experience a positive one for the family. I would hate to have him start on the complaining trail come day 2 and end up not finishing the ride. So tandem #2 will be joining the family stable.

You know, I was excited about going with two tandems. Probably the excitement is due to riding a tandem is still brand new to me (only a few weeks old at this time).

Then that excitement deflated like a popped balloon today when I got my RAGBRAI packet in the mail. There is a section in there on Tandems as well as on Recumbents. After reading what the booklet had to say on tandems, my take on it was that there is some negative energy contained in those few paragraphs on tandems and I guess it left a bad taste in my mouth with regard to my "excitement" about the family riding two tandems. Now I'm sure that riding with two kids and being safe riders, we are not going to be an addition to some of the negative thoughts about tandems which were addressed in those paragraphs, but let me know what your take was after reading the section in the booklet on tandems. I didn't get the same "negative energy" feeling after reading the section on recumbents, but something must have happened in the past with tandems to really sour the mood of other riders.

Read the sections and let me know if my thoughts are off base.

BB