photogravity

That's a truism if ever there was one! I have to admit that my ever-loving wife sure gives it all she's got!

photogravity

If only they knew! I've spent far more on 5 tandems than I've even come close to spending on 30 singles.

stevemtbr

On a tandem ride with my wife we met 3 down hillers on the CDA trail coming back from a down hill run in Kellog Idaho and one yelled "pedal faster and you might catch him"

On a side note some of the noncycling couples we pass while riding you can read the looks on there faces. She is thinking "Hey that might be fun". Him "over my dead body"!

jimmuller 

Heard yesterday from a young boy about age 6 maybe: "Cool! A double bike!"

Pic

Before we bought our tandem (heck I may have said it after also) my comments were regulated to:
You know she's painting her toe nails/reading a book/applying make-up back there. Would usually get a chuckle from the captain.

WNY tandem

We stopped at a small town tavern for a bite to eat during a ride and there was a group of motorcycles that had pulled up after we had arrived. When I went outside to retrieve our water bottles for refilling, one of the motorcycle riders asked me where my motor was, I replied "she's still in there eating". That got a big chuckle from the motorcycle group!

StephenH

We were stopped at a convenience store with the tandem and a lady asks "How many people can ride on that bike, anyway?" I should have told her "Oh, 8 or 10, depends on how friendly they are." I guess counting the seats was beyond her. Maybe she figured it worked like a clown car, who knows?

JanMM

Another cyclist at this past October's Hilly Hundred exclaimed: "Well, now I've seen everything!" Don't guess he had ever seen a recumbent tandem.

Artmo 

I'm often surprised that people don't know that it's called a "tandem."

Paul J

I've always loved riding. Back in High School I rebuilt a pre-war Hercules single speed and rode it all over the place. But riding never really caught on for my wife, she hadn't ridden much as a kid, so most of my riding has been alone over the years. When we got into riding a tandem I was in seventh heaven, enjoying sharing something I love with her now. One of the things I love about our Saturday breakfast ride is standing back and watching as she explains things to the interested folk that always come up to talk. We have a coffee place we regularly hit which has great outside seating so the bike is leaning against a parking meter near and she holds court on all things tandem. :-)

We do get the well worn comments of "She's Gaining On You" and "She's Not Pedaling" but usually it is smiles and waves.

ksisler

Rereading this thread from years ago and seeing the new posts made me think of it again.

I remember having some old friends over for the Thanksgiving meal and a few hours later they wandered out to the shop to see where I had gotten lost at (food makes me less of a social butterfly, the spouse more so, thus I let nature take its course).

Anyway the friends were just chatting with me and kind of looking around at all my highly customized street rods (mostly from the 1930's) and all the multi-seat bikes hanging from the ceiling and in different states of being built, brazed or repaired or reassembled on various stands and benches... after a few minutes the lady just looked at me and said ... "ah...yeah; something just a bit off must have bit you on the neck way back when, didn't it?" I just about choked on my beer...

djedgar

We have had various tandems over the years. On our recumbent with IPS, if anyone made the comment about her not pedaling, she would actually stop and then say "Don't give away my secret."

While on one of our our "normal" tandems we approached another tandem from behind. As we passed and I was next to their stoker (so at that point she did not realize we were a tandem too) I commented to them that, "Hey, he is not pedaling up there." We then passed them and we all laughed at the play on the more familiar saying.

qajaqer99

My wife and I pedaling by a child and her mother and the child exclaimed, " Look Ma, a two-cycle"

insylem

It seems all the pictures I've seen tandams seem to have both people pedeling at the same time. In sync. I've never ridden one but it seems that tandem would involve teamwork and proper cadence between the two riders. But it seems like it would be more powerful if the front riders pedals were 90 degrees forward or behind the rear rider. This way some one is ALWAYS pushing down. That way both pedals arn't at the bottom and less powerful part of the stroke.

Wil Davis

When I lived in the UK, a friend had a tandem, and I did a number of rides on it both as Captain and Stoker, and I found it to be great fun! The only other thing I have to add is my only tandem joke:

"Our dog is so smart that he saw a couple riding a tandem down our street the other day, and he ran indoors and came out with a bucket of water which he then threw over them!"

- Wil

Artmo 

Our neighbor told me a couple days ago " That thing looks fast when it's standing still."

born2pdl

Stopped for food during a long ride, 4 tandems traveling together. Wide eyed ~5 year old little girl: "Look! It's -- it's a Christmas tree of water bottles!!"

Mike Ayling

Mary is 60+ and has never ridden a single bike in her life and we have only been tandeming for 18 months so we are not into big distances. Fortunately here in Melbourne Australia there is an extensive network of local trains so we use these to get to the start and from the finish of our day rides. On one occasion on the train a lady a few years older than us started by saying that you did not see many tandems then went on to say that her husband Tony Marchant was in the winning Australian 200 meters tandem track sprint team at the Melbourne Olympic Games in 1956. Apparently he still rides most days on his half bike.

Influenced by three of his friends, Marchant took up cycling in 1953 at the age of 16. He earned some money from selling flowers and delivering newspapers and bought a semi-racing bike. Later, he was a given a proper racing bike from his first trainer Merv Norton.[1]

Marchant began at the Chelsea Amateur Cycling Club, which did not even have a banked cycling track and was trained by Norton and Maurie Cramer. Marchant rose to prominence by winning the 500 metres (m) time trial at the 1955 Victorian Championships for juniors in only his second year of competition. He then won the 5 mile title and the 500 m time trial at the Australian Junior Championships. He added a silver medal in the sprint.[1]
Marchant first teamed up with Ian Browne at the start of 1956, just ten months before the start of the Melbourne Olympics.[2] The older Browne selected Marchant because of the pure speed that Marchant had exhibited in the past year.[1] They were a contrasting pair. Marchant was a short man of 170 cm (5.6 ft) and 65 kg (140 lb),[1] while Browne stood at 186 cm (6.10 ft) and 86 kg (190 lb), unusually tall for a cyclist.[3] For a final test run before the pair formally committed to racing together, the pair simply had a few tandem sprints around the track.[1] Browne sat in the front seat, while Marchant sat in the rear seat.[1] The pair went on to win the 2000 m tandem event at the Australian Championships in 1956, but going into the Melbourne Olympics, nobody, themselves included, regarded them as realistic medal chances.[2] However, their mentor, former champion Billy Guyatt convinced them that they had the potential to make progress at international level.[4]
Their training schedule consisted of individual training two or three times a week and two days a week of coordinated tandem training during the Olympic year. Marchant's main tactical responsibility was to look to the outside for impending attacks while Browne patrolled the inside. Marchant devised a signal system, such as a head bump on Browne's hip, or even a verbal shout when the opposition made a move.[1]
[h=2][edit] Olympics[/h] Ten nations were entered in the tandem competition, and in the first round, they were drawn with Germany and South Africa, who fielded their silver medallist pairing of Tom Shardelow and Ray Robinson from the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki.[2][4] The Australians made their move too early and led at the ringing of the bell at the start of the last lap, but they were overhauled well before the line as they faded in the final straight.[4] Browne and Marchant were given another chance in the repechage round later in the same day. The Australians lead for three quarters of the distance, but were overhauled by their Czechoslovakian opponent in the final metres and were defeated in a photo finish. This would normally have meant that the Australians would have been eliminated, however the final repechage between the Soviet Union and the Germans resulted in a tangle, resulting in a heavy pile-up. Neither teams finished the race, but the Soviets were hospitalised. The cycling officials decided that the bruised Germans would be forced to compete in a repechage sequel against the losers in the previous repechages to qualify.[2][4] This allowed the United States and the Australians a reprieve.[5][6]
The Australians seized their good fortune and set their fastest time to date with 11.0 seconds (s). Having been beaten twice after leading out, the Australians sat back before sweeping past the Germans and Americans in the final lap. Australia were again drawn against South Africa in their quarter-final, who had defeated them easily in the heats. This time they equalled the fastest team in the competition over the final 200 m, clocking 10.8 s to progress to the final, where they faced the Italy. Giuseppe Ogna and Cesare Pinarello appeared to be in control at the start of the final lap. They had moved alongside the Australians with one and a half laps to go, but the Australians surprised them at the start of the final lap. The Italians came back to pull level at the start of the back straight, but the Australians held them off and pulled away to win by a length and a half. The Italians lodged a protest for interference but it was dismissed.[5] The Australians finished in a time of 10.8 s and Browne later claimed that he was convinced by the performance that they would win the gold medal.[2][5][6]
The final took place on the third day of racing. The Australians came to the conclusion that their wheels and tyres were too heavy, so they sought to buy better cycling equipment from the defeated Germans. The Germans agreed, saying "Have ours and you will win the gold medal."[5] Australia were again pitted against the Czechoslovak Vaclav Machek and Ladislav Foucek. One of the reasons behind Australia's return to form had been the return of Guyatt to a mentoring role. Guyatt had assisted them at the national championships, but they were assigned to another coach at the Olympics. Guyatt was regarded as a marketing-style motivator and he attempted to give Browne and Marchant a psychological boost. Equipped with their new machines, Browne and Marchant employed a tactical trick devised by Guyatt. The Australian staff had noticed that the Czechoslovaks had always made their final burst from a certain point from the finish. During the final, Australian team manager Bill Young stood at the said point as the Australian led out. When Browne came to the point, he pulled upwards and pre-emptively blocked the expected Czechoslovakian attack.[5] As the Australians veered out to cut off the opposition attack, the two pairs made hip contact.[1] This helped to stifle the attack and Australia went on to win the gold medal.[5][6] Upon returning to his home town, he was mobbed by thousands of schoolchildren who had come to welcome him, and he was given a civic reception.[1]

ironhanglider

Ian Browne was a stalwart of Victorian Cycling and in particular the now defunct Forte Knox cycling club. He had stopped racing by the time I joined but his son David was quite a sprinter, he lacked the raw power of Pate or Niewand but he did possess the ability for a second kick which gave him a very fast final 50m or so. I still race the tandem in Forte Knox jerseys.

Back on topic most of my weekday riding is done with my son (now 3) on the back of the tandem and my daughter (now 5) on a trail-a-bike behind, as I take them to school and childcare. The most frequently heard comment is "Cool bike". Both children prefer the bike to the car.

Cheers,

Cameron

chris ss

ok that was a great way to start the morning!