I Was Wondering How Much Do You Guys Spend On A Tandem ? . We Have A Burley Zydeco Entry Level Tandem $ 1200.00 . The More You Spend Doesn't Mean You Go Faster . It All Depend On The Engine Which Mean The Riders . We Run 3 Times A Week , Gym 3 Times A Week , Bike Over 100 Km A Week .some Time I Run 10 Km In The Morning 57 Minutes , Tandem 25 Km In The Afternoon
,then Straight To The Gym For 1 Or 2 Hours . When We Are Riding In The Flat Area We Passed Road Bikes , Sometime We Smoke Them Doing 30 Km In A Hour . How Much Exercise Do You Guys Do ? Or You Guys Just Ride Tandem And That It .i Am 40 Years Old 156 Lbs And My Wife Is 39 Years 115 Lbs .

How Much Do You Guys Spend On A Tandem? Way too much. We've purchased a total of seven tandems during the past decade and presently have three of the seven: two custom road tandems and a full-suspension custom off-road tandem.

How Much Exercise Do You Guys Do? More than most, but not nearly as much as we'd like to.

You Guys Just Ride Tandem And That It? No, we ride our own bikes, we ride road and off-road tandems, and we have a home gym that gets used primarily in the winter for light free-weight work (me), aerobics (she) and stationary cycling (both of us).

i Am 40 And My Wife Is 39. We have 'kids' who are 33 and 29 and we are about 10+ years your senior; which is to say, we've been through a lot (e.g, college, weddings, grandkids, etc..) compared to most folks our age.

Not nearly as much as we should. 50% plus of the time we spend together is while ridding or preparing to ride the tandem. We own two tandems and a triplet.

How much did we spend? Very little in comparison to the amount of benefit we get from riding--less than 10k but more than 2k.

How much exercise? Not nearly enough. We're working up to 100+ miles per week on the tandem. On off days, we occasionally break out the Total Gym for some strength training. We also walk quite a bit, but count that as transportation rather than exercise.

Just tandem? No, we also ride half-bikes on short distances or for transportation, i.e. a trip to the store toting a trailer, or when we worry about the tandem not being safe, i.e. concert in the park where we can't keep the bike with us.

How old? Old enough to know better, but young enough to still make the attempt! About the same age as TG...

How much fun do we have? LOTS.

Cheers!

Our very first tandem was a production Fench Follis . . . a true 10 speed . . . paid just under $350, brand new in 1975.
Our first full custom tandem in 1977 cost us then the pricey sum of $1200.
Prices progresed upwards (inflation) on the next 3 custom tandems.
Current tandem is 4 years old and retailed for just over $10K. Yup, more inflation (just add zeroes and we know a zero means 'nothing').
Are we faster on the lighter/better tandems? Yup, we were.
When we were younger (our 60s) we'd still pedal 10,000 miles a year (200 mi a week).
Now we ride 100 a week on tandem.
Pilot still rides his single usually once a week (got to justify having one).
We also like to walk + stoker does 1 hour of exercises daily to keep flexible.
Ages: 75 and 73. Our weight: Piot 135, stoker 112.
Health: great! We're also both cancer survivors, but hell, we've got lotsa stuff left to do!
If we knew we were going to live this long, we'd have taken better care of oursleves (just kidding!).
Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

Largely true. However, the dispersion between an entry level tandem, and the high end, on weight, quality, aerodynamics, and rolling resistence is significant, probably more so than between an entry level single bike, and a high single.

I guarantee you that for any two given riders, they will be measurably faster on a Co-Motion Robusta, or Santana Beyond, or Calfee, than they'll be a Burley Zydeco.

1) there will be almost a 25 lb weight difference,

2) the wheels will be measuarbly more aero, worth in the 25 watt range,

3) 25c tires will have substantially lower rolling resistence,

4) the aerodynamic position of the riders with drop bars instead of upright bars will be worth in the 100watt range.

the collective effect will be measurable.

Making some rough assumptions on Kreuzotter, The high end tandem with aero wheels is going to be about 3 mph faster on the flats, assuming each team puts out 400watts.

On an 8% grade, the speed advantage drops to about .5mph, but the high end tandem puts 30 seconds into the entry level bike each mile.


Bottom line, we'll spot you 75 watts if we get to ride the Robusta.

Fun factor can be the same on a Zydeco as on a Calfee.
However, the handling, weight, go-fast and more comfortable ride of a Calfee vs a Zydeco would manifest itself rather quickly!
While it can be difficult to justify to some folks what we spend on a tandem, it is equally difficult to justify why folks have 2 or more cars, snowmobiles,motorcycles, swim pools, or pay $50 for a game of golf!
We consider the money spent on our tandem as an investment in our good health.
Besides, at our age, what are we going to do, wait 'til we get older?
No way!!!
Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

We're 13 and 3 years older and 50 lbs. heavier as a team. Stoker does elliptical and stretching most mornings, my only exercise is w/e tandem rides.

Typical training rides are about 40 miles, mostly cruising at 20-22 mph /32-35 kph and sprints up to 30 mph /48 kph on flat ground. That’s in the “C” group around here. There are a lot of faster riders in our area, so we don’t “smoke” many besides the old folks or parents out with kids.

Our custom S&S Bushnell with a combination of Campy Record / Centaur was intentionally built to be more like a V-8 powered SUV than a sports car, and has fulfilled our needs very well on the many event rides and rallies that we’ve enjoyed since it was purchased.

We can definitely go way faster and further than we ever could have dreamed of on our old Burley Duet starter tandem. And we go as fast, further and more comfortably than we did on our "in between" Trek T-2000.

The Busnell cost about $7500 from Tandems Ltd. with travel cases. That sounds like a lot when you put the number next to “it’s just a bike”. But it continues to provide bountiful ROI for enjoyment and it’s a whole lot less in initial cost / per weekend use and upkeep than the fishing boat that was my previous hobby/obsession.

How Much Do You Guys Spend On A Tandem? We're just beginning. We paid $900 for a decent used Santanna as our "starter". If all goes well and we gel as a team, the plan is to have Scott Quiring, a local custom builder build us a custom frame in a couple of years. I will spend the time from now till then accumulating and testing the components on the Santanna frame. Like others have posted. the benefits in regards to health and relationship are immeasurable so a few grand on bikes, if that is your passion, is easy to justify.

How Much Exercise Do You Guys Do? Not nearly enough. That is one of the reasons we bought this bike. Life is busy and this gives us shared time that we can also use for exercise.

You Guys Just Ride Tandem And That It? No, we ride mountain bikes and road bikes as well, we also do indoor exercise. Me on the trainer and her with aerobics.

i Am 40 And My Wife Is 39 We are 46 and have seven kids from 14 - 23 all of whom cycle. We like to spend much of our free on bikes and or bike trips at mountain bike trails or road ride destinations. When we have a family event that is out of town, I bring my bike and my wife drops me off 40 or 50 miles from home on the way back.

Lodie, why do you capitalize every word?, seems like hard work, plus makes it hard to read.

I think it is reasonable to spend more on tandems than on cars, better for everyone all around.

We got our tandem 22 years ago. For $2,500.00. Now Bilenky sells them for ~$5,000.