The issue is not riding year round, its riding after work when it is dark and cold.
Cold is a relative thing. Some people tolerate it better than others, my wife doesn't do well when it is below about 65 degrees, she wears a vest when it is 70.
When you live somewhere where it is warm, your body doesn't tolerate cold as well.
It makes a big difference riding when it is 55 degrees during a sunny day compared to after work in the dark.
Also it can feel much colder when there is humidity like fog. I will bet in Alaska the air is pretty dry during the winter.
There are places in San Diego county where it can easily get in the 30's during the winter.
This probably sounds whimpy to you but it is real.

Mayonnaise said it all.. nicely done sir!

Ride outside, no different from any other season. Lights and fenders are advised.

RIGHT! It was 52 degrees here today and it rained/misted all day. There are also wet leaves all the road.

You macho men with your amazon stokers can ride outside in conditions like that all you want. We choose to ride indoors and choose to ride an Ergvideo entitled Autumn Colors Tempo, it was a great ride and we both got a good workout. The bike is clean and we stayed warm and dry.

What more can you ask?

Wayne in central Illinois

The term "training" has the connotation that I'm trying to get better for some future event. These days, I'm just trying to slow the process of getting worse. I don't train. In the warmer months, we ride the tandem. Year round, I try to ride either my single road or single mountain bike when the roads & weather permit. I also snowboard in the winter. However I never think that I am training. If I don't find some pleasure in the activity, I don't participate.

Love your setup DubT, I have been looking at the different options out there now. Next step is to try and get a demo ride on a couple before I commit to that much. My stoker will not ride below 50 and we will be there soon here in NJ. My wife also does not ride a single and we need to keep our aging bodies going.. use it or lose it.

Well we did get out last night. Started around 6pm it was already pretty much dark. I had two very bright headlights and and a very bright Axiom Pulse 60 tail light so visibilty was not an issue. We did one of our usual loops which is 19 miles with moderate hills and is partially on a bike path separate from the road and the roads we do ride on have a good shoulder with little traffic. Temperature was around 70 only had to put on a vest towards the end. Afterwards we ate dinner and did some grocery shopping headed home did our chores and got to bed around 10:30. My wife said she had fun but was exhausted. I know when it gets cold she won't be wanting to go, so I am still planning on getting the Kurt Kinetic trainer. Like Oldacura training for us is maintaining some fitness level, not being competitive or having a particular goal but to enjoy the rides we do. Being pretty competitive in the past sometimes I get carried away and then have to remind myself I am not young any more and have to stop chasing young punks. (We need to see a picture of your old acura)
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I changed my avatar to a photo of my car but it was too small to see. Here is a larger photo: (I don't mean to hijack this thread).

Nice! Looks like new.

I am having a hard time finding a "smart" trainer with 145mm spacing. What is the spacing on your calfee?

Our Calfee is 145mm. I am using a Kurt Kinetic Road Machine, it is built very beefy and holds the tandem well.

Unfortunately KK has not embraced the smart resistance controlled technology yet.

My stoker only rides the tandem and resorts to spinning or the tandem on the trainer once we lose daylight savings time as well as other cross-training. It works well enough for her. This winter we will both employ Zwift (zwift.com). It has a nice social component to it. I recommend it.

Looks like Kurt Kinetic is about the only trainer that can handle a 145mm dropout. From what I am reading this unit might be usable with Zwift just not sure how the resistance is controlled.

My Computrainer handles 145 with no problem. Have you looked a the BKOOL?

I have looked at cycleops, wahoo kicker snap and elite smart trainers. Cant get a firm answer on elite as they are not readily available here in NJ. I submitted a support question to elite and they suggested to try one out at LBS. Wahoo and cycleops both state 135mm as the largest.
I looked at the Computrainer and it looks very nice but the price is too high for what i am trying to accomplish. I will look at bkool now.


Thanks much!

We have 2 Cycleops fluid trainers. They both will work with 145mm and look like there is enough adjustment left for 160mm. You could try one at a store in case they made changes after we bought ours.

We have also used Cycleops fluid trainers with 145mm rear a spacing tandem. It is certainly an older model though...

Years ago at a Paralympic training camp in Colo Springs we did our power tests with tandems mounted in Computrainers 9(ours was 145 spacing). Try looking for one used.

Itwoul pobalyvoid he warranty, but a ner skewer and some wshers mymake thKIcKR 145 useable

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there are some used Racermates by Computrainer on eBay right now. racermate | eBay

Thanks everyone appreciate the input.
Found a great deal on the Tacx Vortex Smart Ergo should be here by Friday.

The dark is even more of an issue than the temps alone. Dark and gloomy is a downer. After the change to standard time we concentrate on short hard rides during the week. We have a short out and back near our house and we generally do some intervals there. This helps keep us warm and we can do them in the dark on wet roads if needed. The full fenders on the 650B tandem we recently built helps with this a great deal and the large tires also help with road issues that can come up quickly on you in the dark. On weekends we try to ride as long as the weather permits but cold is an issue for my stoker. If the sun is out we can usually make a longer ride in the cold.

This is the opposite of the traditional long slow winter rides but the guys that ride those don't have a normal day job. The intervals do a good job maintaining some fitness. Riding the trainer is the last resort.

RE: Winter training. Two things that I do not know about you and your wife. 1). What goals you have with tandeming, and 2). Your knowledge about "training" in general. I had a lot of pressure at age 20 to hang with the "big guns" when I received a category 2 USAC racing license. Some things I learned are that "training" should not be restricted to riding from point a to point b at the same pace. Instead, you should mix in some hard efforts during shorter rides.

Atrophy (muscles weakening from not enough pressure) from being sedentary for long periods, can be your enemy. Maybe join a gym and go three days a week. Try least 3 sets (my favorite) of an incremental strengthening regiment such as the leg press (increase leg press 5% per week). I have started at 250 lbs, and in time worked my way (slowly) to 600 lbs. Sitting on a trainer "spinning" may do some good for you aerobically, but with high rpm's, very little in terms of strength.

Riding a "smart" trainer is nothing like the typical resistance trainer. There are several available that simulate real road conditions. Think flight simulator for a bicycle. Our Computrainer with the ErgVideos is NOT BORING. Our daughter and her boy friend just bought a BKOOL trainer and she loves it, she hated the resistance trainer. The other day it was windy and she choose to ride indoors and enjoyed it. If you have not tried one of the new trainers I would suggest at least checking them out.

My resistance rollers aren't boring either. If you're bored on rollers, you aren't working nearly hard enough or you're using them without a resistance unit. The other thing of course is to always have a ride plan for roller rides which is a part of your overall periodized training plan which will deliver you to next spring ready to rock 'n roll. Mini goals every day keep it interesting.