Tandems of the forum

Helpful, ta!

Also, getting back on a solo bike after 3hrs of tandeming is one of the weirdest experiences I've ever had. Must be even more bizarre after a transcontinental tour...

Our Dawes was so flexy that I'd get the sensation of gently swaying after a long tandem ride, much like when you get off a boat and feel like you're still rocking on the waves.

I know what you mean. We toured 5-6 days on ours this summer.
First ride on a solo bike felt quite weird, but also very fast!

Ah yes, but thanks to Jan Heine we know that planing is a desirable feature on performance bicycles.

For me it was how whippy the rear end felt on the Vaya. Like how unstable it is when you have a slightly flat tyre, but x10. Kate almost crashed straight out the driveway, just after I told her to remember to steer.

:D
I'm glad I'm the captain on ours.
Though for the first couple of rides it was very hard to get used to giving information about bumps, the length of ascents and the reason we were braking.

By now we are able to set off without counting down from three.

All true! Too many unwarned bumps. Learning to call out tighter corners too. Was about 50/50 whether I could come to a halt smoothly and perfectly upright. Calling out for MOAR POWER up short hills is good fun.

Was glad to have the brief off-road tandeming experience from the last-but-one Epping Forest Honey Badgers ride. I missed @platypus 's afterburner watts as stoker though! Like riding an e-bike

I told her to remember to steer.

Surely not to steer? Traditional start for novice stokers is to hold the bars in the middle next to the stem so that any steering inputs they make are mitigated.

No, I mean when she got back on her own bike

Would people be up for a little ride in Spring? I'm thinking we meet at a tandem-friendly station just outside London, ride something like 25km to a pub, lunch, ride back to station, home. Late start and early finish, nothing serious but an excuse to get out on the tandem and meet some of you.

I'm happy to volunteer to look at routes and planning and all, we should wait a couple of months until the weather is better but these things alway take ages to plan anyway. It's probably best to discuss details over group message, but a show of hands would be a good start to see who thinks this is not a stupid idea.

@6pt , @hamrack , @umop3pisdn , @skinny , @TvH , @MisterMikkel , someone else?

I reckon it's a great idea, providing Great Arse Anglia let us travel with the bike from Norwich if the new trains are in service by then.

Top notch idea, but we’ve got a new arrival appearing in about 3 weeks and I reckon she’ll be too young to pedal (or sit in a trailer) for a while. Plus my stoker in her current state is unlikely to be able to bend over far enough to reach the bars :)

@Hovis just so he knows people still ride tandems. But he’s in the same state as me, just a few months ahead.

I have a tandem that isn't getting used enough, I'm up for a group ride

New arrival due April so pass for us!

My tandem is in Wiltshire so, lovely idea though it is, we'll have to pass.

Interested!

It's very considerate of you to include me, but we're based in Denmark and don't have S&S-couplers on ours.

Is there some correlation between getting a tandem and having a kid!

Wish youd warned me before I bought it!

Maybe.
Snowed under with final year uni work. But I do need to get out sometimes.

Is that an announcement?!

If so, we're still waiting on ours :D

Sooooo keen!
Avoided the tandem curse, although our two pairs of tandem friends have both succumbed recently...

The days of taking the tandem out, enjoying scenery, and arguing on our way home feel like a lifetime ago :*(