My kids have been connected to cycling since before they were born... Burley trailer, Burley Piccolo, Adams tandem trail-a-bike, tandem w/kid-back, tandem w/crank shorteners, and now "regular" (they're 11.5 and almost 14). And now... just a couple weeks ago Peter captained Emily for the first time on our Bike Friday tandem for an hour ride. Coming up the last few blocks on our return home they put the hammer down and I couldn't keep up with my 41-lb city bike. You should have seen their smiles at the stop light when I caught up. I was so proud of them.

Yesterday I suggested to Emily that we take advantage of a break in 3 days of rain to go on a ride. To her question, "Where?" I jokingly suggested a 50 mile loop to our nearest "big hill" (Cantelow for your Sacramento Valley folks) and she said Peter already told her he wouldn't captain her over that hill until she could do it on a single!! (He did it on his single bike last year for for the first time and they've both been up it many times on the tandems.) I was astounded that they'd already discussed this!!

They both ride singles around town for almost all our normal travel. Its just what we do (my wife is a cyclist too) and they accept it. Last year Peter and I trained for and did a metric century on our Santana. I savored the training time to talk, just him and me... a bit different than dinner table conversations. This year I'm trying to get both signed up for a metric century on the tandem. We also enjoy the "dueling tandems" (no, we're not competitive with the two bikes) with my wife and I both captaining, but strength differences between us captains has limited us to about 30-45 miles.

So, I don't know how long it will last, and they're certainly not always willing to go out with me. Sometimes I do get the classic, "I don't know" and "whatever," but as others said, do what you can, savor what you have.

Don
Davis, CA