sapporoguy

One morning last week, my commuter bike woke up with a flat. I didn't have time to fix it. I hate taking the bus.

So I rode in on the Sovereign. I do this several times a year when the single flakes out, sometimes for a whole week. The tandem is surprisingly light and easy to ride solo. I sometimes ride around alone on it weekends just for the heck of it.

And all the fun quips from observers! ("Hey, dude: You lost your passenger!")

Anyone else do this?

OneIsAllYouNeed

I'll sometimes ride the tandem solo to pick my wife up someplace. Yesterday she left home on foot with our child in a Chariot stroller. I met up with them a mile away. I brought her bike shoes and helmet. We converted the stroller to trailer and went off for a nice ride all together.

More frequently, my wife will run some place and I'll pick her up with the tandem. It's a whole lot easier than hauling a second single bike.

B. Carfree

I ride one of my tandems solo five times per week. Monday through Friday I pick up my grand-daughters at pre-school. The three-year-old rides stoker using the same kiddie crank that my son used two decades ago. Her five-year-old sister rides on a Burley Piccolo trail-a-bike. We're quite a riot with those two singing and honking their horns on the four mile trip home.

qspencer

I did this regularly last year to pick up one of my kids from middle school. She felt self conscious about it at first but eventually realized a lot of kids who saw the bike thought it was cool. Unfortunately I haven't done it this year because both kids are in middle school and I don't have a triplet.

A few years ago my wife and I occasionally used our two tandems to take both kids to school when they were about 6 and 8. At some point we realized we were faster without them than with them.

bwebel

I do it all the time, mainly dropping kids at school and then continuing to work. I find adapting to tandem without stoker to be pretty easy, main difference is remembering not to use the rear brake very hard. Even the triplet works well enough solo when needed.

B. Carfree

Totally off-topic: Every time you post it warms my heart a little bit. I lived in Lubbock briefly a quarter-century ago and I thought I might have been the only person on a bike in the entire city. I certainly never saw anyone else riding. I always thought it odd that so few (or maybe no one) rode bikes there because the roads were very well set-up for getting about town on a bike and the motorists were generally not aggressive.

Alcanbrad

I have a few times over the years, mostly to pick up my wife or after dropping her off.

One funny story, I had just set out from the house solo on the Tandem headed to meet my wife who was a few miles away. I was a couple of houses down my road when I hear a noise and look over and see a knocked over garbage can and a black bear sitting on his butt with a bag of kitchen garbage in his lap. I was probably only doing 5 mph or so and passed him within about 6 feet between us. Our eyes met and we stared directly at each other as I pedaled by. The bear never moved from his position and I didn't change my speed or direction. It was very surreal. Afterwards I chuckled as I thought that I was glad he had some food and that when he saw me alone on the Tandem that he probably hoped that I was not in the circus out looking for a new partner for an act.

jethro00

My first tandem ride was solo. We bought our first tandem, a red Trailmate cruiser, from a local bike shop on a busy city street some miles from where we live. We could not fit the tandem in our car. So, my first tandem ride was on busy city streets, alone, to get the tandem home. Naturally, it started to rain shortly after I got started and rained pretty hard the whole way home. Although I would not recommend that as a way to start out, after that introduction to riding a tandem, I never really had much apprehension about riding.

Mr IGH

I ride my tandem about 1 mile to and from my GF's house to pick her up for our rides. Feels weird without the extra weight back there, the rear wheel hops over bumps.

prathmann

Our tandem was our commute vehicle for quite a few years so if I needed to do some errands during the day I'd take it on a solo ride. I also used it solo on some short but steep club rides when my single bike had a 14-21 freewheel. Later I converted it to a kid-back arrangement and would ride it with our daughter to her school and then continue on to work solo. The only issue I've had riding it solo was when it had a heavy load on the rear rack. The load so far back made the bike feel unstable. Our tandem also has a front rack so usually I could put the load up there.

qspencer

We've been here 3 years. There are a handful of road riders now, though still fewer than other places I've lived. Drivers are generally good; the roaming dogs are far more annoying. Some of the infrastructure wasn't really made with bikes in mind (newer main roads are 6 lanes with no shoulder), but I understand the city is starting to make an effort to change that. For me, though, it's a lot more enjoyable to get out of town and onto the endless miles of dirt roads. I got my first gravel bike shortly after coming here and it gets more use than my road bike.

JanMM

Our neighbor has figured out that if he sees me riding without my stoker that I am road-testing as part of my Household Bike Mechanic Man gig. That's about the only solo riding our tandem endures.

Binky

I ONLY ride my tandem solo.

I had hopes of getting my wife on it but she tried it just once and said that she prefers her own ride.

Bink

marciero

We bought our first tandem from a retired couple. After having an accident-they hit a car- which was apparently the captain's fault, the stoker proclaimed that she was done with the tandem. The captain continued to ride the tandem solo, which I thought was a little sad.