Tandeming


Tandeming

Some call riding a tandem a relationship ‘maker or breaker’ or ‘relationship intensifier’.  Captains (the rider on the front) and Stokers (the rider on the back) have a unique cycling ‘interaction’.  There is an interdependence and it is different than cycling as an individual - there is trust, dependence, and closeness that does not occur when riding on a solo bike. 


My husband is a lifelong cyclist. He happily pedals the hills of Lancashire and zooms along at 15 to 20 miles an hour.  Cycling was never really a part of my life.  When Steve suggested trying cycling, I was 40 and after several rides watching him pedalling far ahead of me while I struggled to keep up, my enthusiasm for the sport really wasn't there.  So Steve suggested trying a tandem and while on holiday in Key West, Florida, we tried a big, clunky town tandem, and had an absolute blast.  It was enough to prove the concept, riding on a bicycle built for two worked for us. 


Upon our return to the UK, we went to a tandem specialist bike shop, JD Tandems, and found our first tandem bicycle. Ours is an Orbit, modified with upright bars for me and racks for 4 panniers and a top box, along with holders for 3 water bottles.  We didn't really know what we were doing when it came to riding a tandem so the owner of the tandem bike shop took us through how to mount a tandem, how to ride a tandem, how to dismount from a tandem.  This is different, very different, than riding a single bike - getting on is different, the pedaling is different, getting off is different and the communication is wildly different. 


We headed out with our shiny new tandem and proceeded to do more than 10,000 miles together which ultimately led us to writing this book with a focus on the journey by tandem from the bottom of the UK to the top - Lands End to John O’Groats on a bicycle built for two.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Shakedown Pedal - Day 1 of 5 - Home to Kendal

Image
And we’re off!  Shakedown Pedal - Day 1 of 5 - Home to Kendal From Home to Kendal, Lake District Mileage - 60.7 Altitude Gain - 2600 feet Perceived Difficulty - easy first 40, hard last 20, really hard last 10 Weather - sunny cloudy Description of the day: How we felt in the morning - Rested Breakfast - Coffee, homemade Chinese w/ an egg on top Pack up picnic supplies - Leftover bbq, fruit, nuts, chocolate Morning, break Ribchester Midday, break Scorton Afternoon, break Warton Arrival in the town - difficulty - easy to find hotel Where we stayed - Stonecross Manor, Milnthorpe Road, LA95HP, Kendal Where we stayed - description of the town What we did for dinner - hotel restaurant Highlights of the day - made 60 miles! Story of the day - 10 miles to Kendal sign, every few miles 5:30 - Up early having thought of a few last minute things to do and double check before heading out. One of which was setting up the posts for the Shakedown Pedal and making sure I could access the blog from...
Read more

LEJOG Day 14 - Nantwich to Manchester

Image
Nantwich to Manchester today, 45 miles and 4th day of this 5 day mmm section.  We are 488 miles in at this point and Manchester will bring us to 535.  60s / 19 degrees today and only 925 feet of climbing.  8.5 miles of unpaved road though… Brian mentioned that he met up with a couple who had done 126,000 miles on a tandem - that is some serious cycling!  242 miles a week for 10 years.  We’ve done more than 10,000, but not 20,000 - guess we’d better get going! We’ve been talking about the various reasons for doing the tour - to do the route, to see the country, to get fit, to transition into retirement (which I’m sure Steve will chip in about at some point) and another adjunct aspect is managing diabetes.  And we have now proved that you cannot out-pedal a bad diet.  If there’s pita bread or potatoes the night before, even knocking off 50 miles won’t bring Steve’s blood sugar down into the normal range.  The ‘3-legged stool’ of this particular puzz...
Read more

LEJOG Day 1 - Lands End to Truro

Image
We woke up to sounds of the sea, coming in from the open window.  The moon was still out shining in the water towards the Lands End lighthouse a mile offshore.  It’s Day 1 and time to go! Breakfast isn’t until 8:00 so it’s coffee, coffee, coffee until then.The gear is scattered everywhere in our wee room up in the eaves so a couple hours to sort all that won’t hurt - need to come up with a packing system so we don’t have to dump out the bags any time we’re looking for one little thing.  The weather check says sunny, wind is ESE at 12-15 and temp is mid 70s / 22-24. Steve is making trip notes from the book about any little navigation ‘challenges’ to pay attention to. Had a nice breakfast and a pack up for second breakfast. Pedalled up out of Lands Ends over the tops and then down into Mousehole.  This was via an off route detour down to the sea in Lamona Cove, where there was no road out - we’d missed the turn at the top of the hill so went all the way down to the sea...
Read more