I'm new here, so take this observation for what that makes it worth. I notice that a thread on this forum will get a hundred viewers for every poster. Man, if that were true on some of the racing forums I post on there'd be nothing at all. Come on folks, we need your baseless opinions and ranting tirades. Help me out here... what would be the tandem equivalent of the classic Campy vs. Shimano rants on Velonews??? How about "steel is real." Jump on in, there's enough alligators for all. Who rides tubulars on their tandem? Let us know how smelly our clinchers are!!!! Or, better still, what glue do you use? 3M!!!!!!

We have stokers we must answer to.

Civil behavior is a hallmark of tandem cyclists. Ranting tirades, while they do occur, are far and few between and usually related to STI vs. Ergo vs. barcons or something Bill McCready wrote.

I have one Major Rant-- People do not realise that Tandems are as good as solos. They are looked down on as being slow--Not Always. They are ridden by elderly couples or one fit bloke and someone lacking in power-- Not Always. They are not a real bike as they are too cumbersome to be able to do the rides that solo's can do-- Never. There is no way that that old bloke on the back of my Tandem will do 25 miles offroad, let alone the full 100 miles of the ride-- see you at the finish and I'll have a cup of coffee waiting for you.

Those are the comments that I have heard on the trails and it is the kind of comment I relish now. We have a full offroad Tandem, that is set up for offroad. If a solo can do it, then so can our Tandem. We draw the line at full downhill courses, and large steps that will catch the bottom tube, and so far we have not perfected bunny hops,(But we are practising).
I just wish that SOME riders will give the respect to Tandems, instead of running them down. That way I will not have to keep buying larger size helmets, AFTER MAKING THEM EAT THEIR WORDS AS WE PASS THEM BY THE 1/2 WAY MARK ON RIDES

LOL stap!!!!

Nothing better than getting even!

I always promote tandems to my friends. I offer them the use of my tandem (nobody has taken me up on it yet). I think a lot of it has to do with the age of the cyclists. Tandems are by-and-large ridden by middle-aged cyclists. And, the vast majority of teams are male/female couples with the female being not as passionate about cycling and generally not as fit as the male, or both the male and female are not all that fit.

So, some of the predjudices hold a little water. But...there are tandem teams comprised of two fit riders..and they fly!

On the local tandem rides, maybe 1 out of 5 teams can keep a decent average speed up. When I did the GTR, it was down to 8 teams at the front.

So, keep on making the singles eat their words! its fun!

+1

I have to wholeheartedly agree with TG on this one. I frequent the Road Cycling forum often as I've been riding a single roadie for 16yrs. However, it seems a majority of the threads on that particular forum are exactly what you mention above ... ranting tirades with little to no value or benefit. Of course, this is just my .002.

I wish there were more than 10 to 25 viewers at any given time on the Tandem SubForum, but I don't wish upon this forum the general ranting tirades that frequent a few of the other subforums.

I'd much rather have substance over quantity so-to-speak.

Our tandem has been ridden once this year.... From the old house to the new house, I rode it .75 miles. on the bright side, we're both commuting more on bikes, so maybe once we're settled we'll get the tandem out & have some opinions to share next year.

I go to the road riding threads to get my dose of testosterone fueled rants. Tandem riding is enough of an oddity we don't want to alienate even one team

My wife and I are new to the tandem world, but we are both returning riders and racers, just a little out of practice after years of injuries, raising kids, building careers etc. We are currently on vacation in the San Juan Islands without our tandem, but convinced our hosts to go rent tandems tomorrow and explore this beautiful island (Lopez) in closer detail. Tons of touring groups and individuals come over on the ferry each day to do just that, as this is one of the least crowded of the San Juan's. The weather is unbelieveable!! The sunsets spectacular and the roads newly recovered. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's ride and just wish we had our own Burley Rock and Roll with us.

How's that.

Imzimmer, you got me on that: this seems to be a pretty small group. Wouldn't want to start trouble and lose valuable data from even one participant. Not even steel vs. Aluminum??? How about this: I think my Cdale is the $hit 'cause of that huge tubeset. The reason I wouldn't own one of their road bikes is exactly why I bought one of their tandems. And I'll bet it would test out really well against any opponent in a frame deflection test. Anybody got data on that?

No data. What I do know is we bought our C'dale road tandem because of the bikes we could test 1) the cannondale was most comfortable for us and 2) we found a good deal on a gently used example.