Originally Posted by
joe@vwvortex
I agree - to each his own. While I'm no featherweight climber - I love to go downhill - which means I have to go uphill. There is no shortage of hills here - I can do 2400 vertical in 3 miles if I want
However - i've never done that climb on the tandem. We did do 25k vertical over 461miles in cycle oregon though. No way would I have even attempted that ride with tubulars - even with all the support we had.
I spent a month this summer visiting family and we took our single bikes with us. I spent the entire month climbing hills all over Eugene/Springfield, up and down the coast range and in and out of the Cascades. I detest climbing but so far this year I have ridden over 3500 miles and climbed 131,000 ft, including one Century that finished at the top of Mt Mitchell. I have not done any of that climbing on our tandem, but I did 100% of it on tubulars, no support needed!
BTW, I also love descending, I have been over 70mph on two wheels twice, over sixty a handful of times and over 50 to many times to remember. Now that I am older and less stupid (notice I didn't say smarter) I try to limit my descents to a maximum speed of about 45mph.