Murrays

In a thread several days ago, I mentioned that we finally had a flat group ride coming up where we might set a new personal record for average speed.

I was right! 26.5 miles at 20.0 mph What a great feeling crusing along a flat road at 24-26 mph with several singles strung out behind us!

BTW, our first Wednesday Night Ride on the tandem was this same ride one year ago.

-murray

woodcycl

Wow! Congrats to you both! I know how much fun that can be ... for botht he leading tandem as well as all the singles catching a wheel ... as I've done both over the years.

My GF and I rode the tandem 2 nights ago on a mostly flat route and averaged 19.1 the first 9 miles and on the way back with a few more inclines dropped down to 18.5. We are happy with the average speeds simply due to not really trying to go all that fast .. we were just enjoying the cooler less humid temperatures.

Way to go! Gotta love a little speed now and then.

galen_52657

You are just tipping the 'burg so to speek....

Wait 'till you get in a train of tandems on the flats...

stapfam

I'll be lucky!! First of all, I know of no other tandems to ride with. We have met a few others out on the hills, but we never seem to be able to arrange a ride. This problem is made worse by it being an offroad Tandem, and there are not a great number of them about, and it is ridden aggressively, which Most of the offroad tandems I have seen in our area, could not do. Then theres that thing called the Flats. WHAT ARE THEY. They do not exist offroad in our area, a few less hilly bits occasionally, but for us we are either going up or down. We have to wait for the organised randonnees and hope that there will Tandems of around our speed to ride with. Don't normally find them so have to stay with the club racers. Not enjoyable getting in a chain with them as our turn at the front seems to be about every 4th turn, but a couple of years ago we did 25 miles on relatively flat roads at 24mph average. this was from 25 to 50 miles into a 100 miler. Then we lost them. At 51 miles was Brassknocker Hill and by the time we got to the top, they were gone.

SteveE

What're "flats"?

They're are only two routes around here that I would call "flat" and even those have a fair amount of climbing. A couple of weeks ago, I took my daughter out with me on the tandem for the B-Ride that I lead every Saturday. Another couple came out with their tandem and ended up towing the group at an average speed of 20.5 mph over a 50 mile route. I don't have a computer on the tandem, so I have no idea what my speed was.

This past Saturday, my wife and I did a time-trial and finished first! (Of course, there were no other tandems racing that day. ) We averaged 23.1mph over the 10.2 mile couse on our 48 lb, 19 yr, old tandem.

woodcycl

Wow, that is truly impressive! Was that course fairly flat? Or, did it have some elevation? If there were any inclines, I hope you had the opportunity to burn up declines as well.

SteveE

It wasn't a flat course. Mainly down hill on the way out, up hill on the return. Thought we were going to puke at the end. I did learn not to eat Mexican the night before a TT, though. We passed a few folks (mostly on the way out. ), only got passed by a got in a fully fairing ALS Lightning just after the turnaround.

Here's the course profile:

ElRey

250' in 5 miles is about 1% gradient.

SteveE

Didn't say it was hilly. Actually it's on the flattest stretch of road around here that doesn't have any lights of stop signs. You can certainly feel it in your legs that the return trip is up.