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Thanks Michael, sound advice. I've spent a day riding one before so I'm fairly confident that it wont be a complete shock, but last time was also with someone half my weight, whereas like you my new stoker and I are both stout and 6ft +
We're going to be there and on the road by 9, the 120 mile route has only about 3,500ft of climbing, and we've got a forecasted tailwind so the conditions are as favourable as they could be - so we're going to give it a go. But yep, I think I might do a little bailout research just in case..
plxarc
Looks like a cracking tandem, no one does aluminium quite like Cannondale did, loads of room in the back and proper tandem wheels.
Have you ridden one before? I was in a somewhat similar situation to you when I bought mine 2 years ago, my brother who lives in Birmingham picked it up and the plan was for me to get the train up there and cycle it back the 20 miles from central B'ham to Leamington one evening.
Upon getting there, we found that 2 x 6'2" oafs thrashing about took a a fair while to ride in anything resembling a straight line. After an hours riding around the block barely staying upright, we didn't trust ourselves to be let loose in central B'ham traffic and so retired to the pub. I ended up taking it on a train to Milton Keynes and riding on to Reading solo. There are precious few services which take tandems but there is a specific type of 'Virgin Trains' class which take them and I believe they run between B'ham and London.
I don't wish to discourage you from what I'm sure will be a great maiden voyage. And I must say that when riding the tandem with novices since, no team seem to be quite as bad as me and my brother were. But it might be worth thinking about a plan B in case it proves too ambitious (God, I sound like my mum, sorry).