An event where tandem enthusiasts can gather for 2 - 4 days of group rides and social activities held all year long at various locations throughout the world. If you follow motorcyle activities, they are for tandem enthusiasts what Sturgis is for Harley owners and the Honda Hoot is for Honda owners.
Here is a link to our calendar with all the major rally dates and locations. If you click on the hyperlinks for each rally you'll be able to read a description of the planned event.
http://home.att.net/~thetandemlink/RallyInfo.html
Here's a notional description of what to expect at a rally that I wrote for someone here in Atlanta....
For events like the smaller Fri-Sun rallies held here in the Southeast here's how it works:
The organizers will identify a host hotel(s) where they've negotiated a "special rate" for a block of rooms. The hotel will usually serve as "rally central" where a hospitality suite will be located and just about all the hotels serve breakfast these days so that's covered by your lodging fee. People who will be attending the rally are on their own to make their reservations with the hotel. You just call up the hotel, tell they you are with the ________ Rally and secure your room with a credit card #. Mark's tip: Always call and make reservations as soon as you think you might want to attend an event so that you are assured of a room and have your best bet at getting the type of room you want, e.g., non-smoking king on the first floor (that way you can roll your tandem into the room if you so choose). If you decide not to attend later on, just cancel the reservation anytime before the event.
Now let's talk about the event & registration fees. For our regional rallies the registration fees for GTR are around $125. Included in your registration fees are:
- Two commemorative T-shirts
- Two pair of cycling socks or some other premium type of give away
- A bag containing the route maps/cue sheets for all three days of riding and often times brochures describing local sights and attractions.
- An ice-cream or dessert social on Friday evening, often times at an interesting locale (e.g., museum, wildlife sanctuary) or in the hospitality suite of the host hotel.
- A catered lunch buffet on Saturday out on the ride route in a pavilion, park or some other interesting location that offers overhead protection from the weather (organizers can't control the weather).
- A sit-down banquet on Saturday night, often times with give aways.
Here's how all this plays out.
Thursday/Friday:
- Folks travelling from far away usually arrive on Thursday nights.
- Locals with the day off will arrive on Friday morning.
- Registration will open at 9:00am.
- The first Friday group ride (~30mi) will go-off around 10:00am for the folks who spent the night or who arrived early on Friday.
- Lunch on Friday is own your own but often times the organizers will suggest good places to meet and eat with other rally goers.
- The second Friday group ride will go off at 2:00pm for those who arrive before noon, folks who rode in the AM and who want to do a "double".
- Afternoons are spent getting settled-in, meeting old friends and deciding who's going where with who for dinner.
- Dinner on your own.
- Dessert or Ice cream social where all the folks have an opportunity to meet each other and to socialize.
Saturday
- Breakfast in the hotel lobby.
- Lots of free snacks to stuff in your jersey pockets for the ride.
- Group ride meeting at 9:00am: Riders have their choice of route length/difficulty as the organizers will usually have short (20mi) medium (35mi) and long (45mi) ride options for the morning rides to the lunch stop with similar options for the afternoon rides that allow you to construct anything from a 30mi to 80mi day of riding.
- Stores will be located along most routes where riders can take bathroom breaks and buy beverages or snacks to hold them over to and from lunch.
- Lunch will be at a park and folks will arrive gradually depending on how fast they rode which route such that there's usually not a log-jam. GTRs lunches are always very healthy and offer a wide array of sandwich/croissants, cold salads, fruits, juices/water/gatorade (no soda) and often times hot soup.
- Again, store stops available along the ride back.
- Afternoons are spent fixing broken bikes, socializing and occasionally there will be a "special event" such as a swap meet. Mostly, folks try to recover from their ride, hang out in the hospitality suite where all kinds of soft drinks & beverages are available (BYOB) along with snack items.
- Cocktails are on your own at the dinner venue -- always a great location and always a great buffet that offers folks a variety of food items.
- The evening is closed out back at the hospitality suite or hotel lobbies with more social time. Although, if there's a pub or nightclub around some of the more energetic folks will make a night of it.
Sunday
- Breakfast in the hotel lobby.
- Lots of free snacks to stuff in your jersey pockets for the ride.
- Group ride meeting at 9:00am: Usually two different ride lengths designed to allow riders of all abilities to get in one last ride at a comfortable speed but still make it back in time for a late check-out.
- Lunch is on your own but is usually where folks once again break off with collections of friends for one last "gathering" before heading home.
The Southern Tandem Rally organizers of late have been incorporating cycling jerseys (not optional either) and that has driven the registration fees up towards $220 ($50/ea for the jerseys). For folks who don't have a closet full of jerseys or jerseys that match, they seem to get a kick out of them. Anyway, aside from the cost difference for the cycling jerseys, everything else follows a similar pattern. At the REALLY BIG rallies -- Northwest and Midwest where 400 - 700 teams (800 - 1500 people) show up -- the registration costs are usually ala carte, i.e., you can pay as little as $70 for the basics (maps, goodies, Friday social & lunch on Saturday) or opt to pay for T-shirts, jerseys, the banquet dinner, etc... to fit your budget and needs. These really large rallies tend to draw families so the ala carte approach works a lot better. There are occasionally rallies where the whole thing -- including lodging -- is packaged into the event cost. MATES & Eastern Tandem Rally do this quite often as they hold their events during the summer and use private colleges where students are out on summer break as home base for their events, giving them access to dorm rooms and the college cafeterias.
Hope this helps.