rhorvati

Thought some of you may find this interesting and entertaining. I built a tandem for my four year old and six year old boys. I have a tandem that my wife and I enjoy and thought my boys would enjoy that same. Needless to say, they love it. I get a kick out of seeing how much fun they have riding it. I figure it would help reinforce working together as a team. They get noticed from both other little kids and parents seeing them ride it.

So far it's been a total blast. They learned much more quickly than I could have imagined that they can go much faster as a team. Before I was barely poking around to keep up, now I have to move it along and make an effort. Basically their top speed is limited to their pedal RPM as they can easily push that gear.

Having both boys on one bike has also been great at physically keeping them together. When they ride on their own bikes it sometimes becomes a challenge when one boy zooms ahead while the other is poking along behind. Do I speed up and leave the slow one behind or do I slow down loosing sight of the one in front. This is no longer an issue.

Here is a video of the process on how I made the bike.

Enjoy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iYph9Lsr7c

TandemGeek

Beyond Awesome!!

Mind if I share this on my blog?

photogravity

Excellent stuff! You're quite the craftsman to create a junior sized tandem for your little ones. It's great to get them on a bike, but then getting them on a tandem at that young an age is to borrow what TandemGeek said, "Beyond Awesome!!"

MNBikeCommuter

Best video I've seen in a long time! :-)

rhorvati

Feel free to share. People suggest I sell them. The market is way too small and I could never make a profitable business out of it. This was done for the sheer joy and enjoyment for my family and anyone else it brings a smile to. Just this evening the boys rode this tandem to the ice cream store. Riding by one of the stores in the plaza, a woman ran out in amazement and had to get a closer look. Like I said, lots of attention.

rhorvati

I have friends with kids of similiar age range. My boys have been on balance bikes and balancing on two wheels since the age of two. At three they were on 12" wheeled bikes with no training wheels. Most of my friends have kids still on training wheels which is considered the norm. One evening during a get together I took the mini tandem and each child had so much fun riding as a stoker to my 6 year old captain. For these kids this was their first time without training wheels. I didn't know if it was actually going to work. I know first hand the influence stoker balance has negotiating tight singletrack on the mountain bike. It was very satisfying to see kids so excited to be riding on two wheels.

Drtumolo

That is awesome! Great job.

CaptainHaddock

Heh, someone beat you to it!
https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...1#post14635665

Love the tandem race at the end!

PMK

Very very cool!!! FWIW, another great Dad did something similar and posted photos on MTBR a few years ago. Yours and his bikes are both sweet.

He had his kids race in the Iceman race, November in Michigan?

I believe they started out as a team of three. They had a Cannondale tandem with a trail a bike or similar. Then Dad built them their own. Like yours, those kids were all smiles.

I need to start gathering some bikes being thrown away. With #1 grandkid 2 and #2 due any day, this gives me time to build one.

Really well done bike and video.

PK

PedalPink

I really enjoyed this great video of the mini tandem's construction ... and the happy race team at the end. Wonderful!

johntrev

Terrific! Thanks for sharing the story and the building process. The boys are very lucky!

bike00

I saw your kids on the tandem at the Maybury race last Saturday. They looked real happy and were the talk of the race.

3bluebikes

Thank you, Rhorvati. Your boys are very fortune to have such a loving, talented dad.