Anyone riding a Tandem?

[Lazarus]

I bought a Tandem off CL a little over a month ago. It's been great fun for the wife and I to cruise around town and run errands with. She not much on exercise but has had a lot of fun with it. We're on it most days. It's definitely not made for speed

[bikin' Ed]

When my wife and I first got together, I was an avid rider, her not so much. The tandem was a great equalizer so I didn't have to keep waiting for her. As my schedule changed she wanted to ride on her own. So, I bought her her first good quality bike. She now much prefers it to the tandem and the tandem mostly hangs out in the garage.

[Piwoslaw]

The Wife and I would love to ride tandem, but there are already 7 bikes in our garage (and only 3 people in the house). Buying yet another bike wouldn't pass. Also, a tandem wouldn't always work for us: our usual riding together is either halfway to her work, then we split up, or on a multiday bike trip and transporting the double either in a train or in a car would be almost impossible. In both cases a Cyclemate would be ideal, but I can't find it anywhere.

[Lazarus]

Yea I understand the collection problem. Before you know it your garage is full and you have parts everywhere. This has been good for us because my wife did not ride or have a desire to by herself. I think she likes the fact that if she gets tired she can just soft peddle until ready to go again . We'll see if she catches the bug and wants one of her own. For now I'm just glad that this gets her up and moving so to speak.

I think it's also opened her eyes to the town we live in. Been here over 20 years and never really have seen it until traversing it on 2 wheels. It really shows the character of the place and lets you interact with the folks.

[Grant-53]

My wife and I tried a tandem once that belonged to some friends. I had a hard time controlling it. Come to find out my wife has one leg shorter from a childhood break. The rocking threw me. I did see a photo of a tandem with a rear trike set up years ago; the author said it was great in the snow!

[BuckarooBanzai]

Out of curiosity, Lazarus, how much did the CL tandem cost you? These reach up to $1200 in my area

[Lazarus]

Originally Posted by BuckarooBanzai

Out of curiosity, Lazarus, how much did the CL tandem cost you? These reach up to $1200 in my area

They were asking $375. It's pretty low end parts and heavy. I've got a whole garage of parts so as things break or wear out I'll just replace with better components. I imagine with the use it gets (30-60 minutes/Day) it will last a pretty long time.

[BuckarooBanzai]

$375's not bad, anything I find cheaper tends to look like it was fished out of a lake..
As for heaviness, well, that's just a better workout

[bmwboarder]

Do any of you have a nice road tandem?? I don't have one, but from an efficiency outlook, would that be even more efficient than a regular road bike? I've heard of a couple friends hitting over 60mph (downhill) on a tandem. Obviously, they are crazy, but 2x the power without 2x the air resistance does seem like its a good way to go.

[bikin' Ed]

Tandems (especially those built for road racing) are superb on the flats and downhill. Where a single might average 20 mph all day the tandem will probably average close to 25mph.

Uphill is tougher on a tandem than on a single. When riding with singles, you'll see them getting spit out of the pack on a long uphill.

When I was riding with a club, I had a tandem couple I always used to draft. On uphills I'd move along side and gently push the stoker to raise their speed up the hill. On the down hill I'd tuck and stay in their wake. On longer/steeper decents, I'd begin to move faster than the tandem at which time I'd again push the tandem and again tuck back in behind. One such occassion was our only sub 4.5 hr century (100 miles)