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So my wife has her birthday today, and the other day decided it would be nice to go for a long bike ride, have lunch at the pub, and home again, to celebrate the occasion. Which I readily agreed to. Then yesterday she came home with a tandem that she'd borrowed from some old boy in the village, from the rafters of his garage. An old Peugeot thing from the 1920's by the look of it, with handlebars about as wide as a hammer. What a debacle that turned out to be. We barely made it round the village without going off one side of the road or the other, or under the bus, or down a ditch. If we'd gone any further we'd be divorced by now. She kept demanding a running commentary regarding turning and stopping which was impossible as all brain function was dedicated to not crashing the bastard thing. I tried to break the ice by standing up and farting which did make her giggle. For a second or two. When I made her have a go on the front she drove us immediately through a hedge. So we put it back in the garage and went on our normal bikes. Will the more modern MTB tandem that she is now proposing we borrow from the local bike shop be a more agreeable experience?
It was a considerably less erotic experience than my childhood led me to expect
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It was a considerably less erotic experience than my childhood led me to expect
Unfortunately, your opportunity has passed due to the untimely death of Gorden Kaye.
Today just gets worse.
Ha! A tandem is on my list and my good lady is all for it. Neither of us have ever tried riding one. I think your experience has me even more intrigued by the idea. Sounded like a proper laugh, maybe more so for any spectators.
I'll be honest, when I read the thread title and who the poster was , I imagined this......
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Worst Episode of CHiPs ever.
In your head it should have been this;
reality
That picture has been used before for work related piss taking pp 🙂
Jef, we certainly managed to time it for when half the village were out. And definitely nearly worse than Ikea.
I loved riding a tandem round the FoD with my missus, brilliant fun. I want one, a proper FS one.
Try tandem crit racing, that's bonkers
as is doing a 1 lap TT at the the "carbon graveyard" with a Paralympian stoker doing a full effort, how we got around the first right hander I don't know
We will give it another go. But on a different tandem.
quote]
But on a different tandem
[
Trek used to do one that was very good
I think the bike shop one must be an MTB one. She saw a few folk doing 10UTB on them, that's what put the idea i her head. I'll take her down Nessie on it (not a euphemism) - that'll remove the idea from her head I'm sure.
It's been a while, but last time we went out on ours we also had the sprog in a trailer on the back. Makes for a big rig. You get some very surprised looks from people 🙂
[i]You get some very surprised looks from people[/i]
that'll be stoker screaming at you to slow down 😉
Should be riding the Dirty reiver next year on a 29+ SS tandem with a bloody lunatic, the downhill drifty corners are going to be pant pissingly funny
Went on holiday with a friend with a tandem. We were no longer friends by the end of it.
If you are the stronger of the two cyclists, it is blooming knackering and the one who isn't will alternatively be terrified/frustrated by the speed/cadence you are using.
But on the rare occasions it all came together, blimey it could move...
It can make you quite argumentative.
MTB tandems are awesome.
Here's [url=
on a canal side picnic stop.
Everything from getting on to changing gear takes practice, you can't expect it all to go right first time.
A mate and I toured France on a tandem. Both same size and similar power. The tandem properly shifted and just machined through big day after big day. 🙂
But we had problems though, mostly under braking when we regularly snapped spokes. Fine on the drive side, but on the brake side we needed a whopper wrench to get the brake off to get a spoke in. So lots of unscheduled stops at garages to ask for a wrench.
Other than that, amazingly fast n'fun bikes.
If you were nearer, I'd offer to pop round with mine. Mostly I've been on the back, with Fast Young Git doing all the work on the front. You don't have a dag and bark y'self.
I recall the first time behind someone with the absolute confidence, the lightning reactions, the assured rapid healing and the immunity to pain of youth. I was screaming internally. Once he'd comprehended the longer wheelbase and stopped dragging me through bushes it went ok. I think you've missed most of that.
It gets better. It evens out your abilities and is very sociable. That's a rigid c*nn*nd*le, btw. At my age I don't feel the need for suss.
Enjoy.
I love my Ventana, it's seriously fun. Big bars are a must for off reading though, and you get loads of grip. Raced it at Battle on the Beach with a mate and it was awesome!
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Brilliant post tga! I don't need to read any of the following posts. I'm laughing so much 😆
Me and Mrs H hired a tandem last year, blimey it was hard work. We were all over the place, it was a good job it was all off road cycle tracks. The best bit was, coming back, with about a mile to go, the front chain snapped, Mrs H could'nt pedal the both of us from the back, so we swapped places, but she could'nt steer, so we swapped back and she had to pedal and I had to scoot.
T'was a good fun day out though.
Mountain Bike Tandemn you say.
http://singletrackmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/throwback-thursday-tandemania/
I still remember, with equal parts hilarity and terror, the time I was on the back of Schmiken's old tandem and he threw us, without hesitating or warning into a bomb-hole!
That Ventana looks ace though!
is this a ruse to find out Tandemjeremy's new forum name? : )
is this a ruse to find out Tandemjeremy's new forum name? : )
TJAgain
Ahem....
[url= https://www.amazon.co.uk/K%C3%B6k-Tv%C3%A4tt-Through-Scandinavia-Tandem/dp/B0046H9ZA4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1294299673&sr=1-1 ]Kok & Tvatt[/url]
Censorship comes to STW¿¡
Is the word piss that offensive? There must be literally zero children who browse this forum.
OP I felt like I was reading something out of a Jerome K Jerome nice!! Hahaha well done
From Twitter tonight.
GMP Stockport?Verified account
@GMPStockportFollow
More
Have you lost, or had a tandem [b]bycicle[/b] stolen? We have recovered one in the Stockport area.
Get in touch if it might be yoursSgt Phil Lowe
Not his spelin of "BICYCLE"
Censorship comes to STW¿¡
Is the word piss that offensive? There must be literally zero children who browse this forum.
Just not necessary in the title.
No offence intended
I'm surprised a certain mountain bike editor hasn't joined the thread!
None taken GreatApe hence no warning just a tidy up. The forum automatically cleaned the URL up but for some reason not the actual title.
MOrning. Tandems are fun! best fun ever on a bike. We did Ten under on the tandem a few years ago - maybe your wife saw us? there was another tandem team the year we did it as well.
They take some getting used to and a decent bike will help - you are more than welcome to borrow ours if you want another go.
My wife and I hired a nice quality tandem in SanFran when on hols but it didn't work for us. My wife is 4'11".and her face was literally behind my bum. Apart from the obvious real chance of choking on poisonous air it meant she couldn't see anything at all unless she looked at right angles to herself. At least if you are closer in heright the stoker can see over the pilots shoulders - pretty essential on a sight seeing ride!
It was a shame as we were used to the tandem in about half a mile but we went back and swapped it for 2 solo bikes for the ride round the bay.
Cheers Drac.
Thanks TJ, very kind.
@Newrobdob - Mrs dickyboy spends all her time looking around and photographing the view taking bugger all notice of what I'm up to, "did you see the ...." "look at that ..." meanwhile I'm negotiating my way through traffic and trying to miss potholes.
Tandems really are the marmite of the cycling world though, stopped at a cafe with our tandem buddies the other week and a table of cyclists next to us blathered on about how awful a contraption they are 🙄
thegreatape - IIRC you live north of me. What we use it for wandering around the estate roads and its surprisingly good at that - often towing camping kit. The key to smooth riding is to use a lot less bodyweight shift and a lot more steering input. Its a serious offer to borrow it for a weekend if you want a shot.
When you get used to it all you have to do on the back is sit, pedal and look at the scenery on easy trails / roads. You soon get in synch and it allows you to ride at the same speed and chat as you are riding
Love ours, it's great. Different to solo bikes though, harder to handle.
Mrsdickyboy reminds me of myself. As the stoker for nbt, I'm always looking around and saying " ooooh look at that kestrel", or "did you see that tea room", which of course he can't because he's concentrating on keeping the thing on the road and us safe.
Great things tandems, every cyclist should have a blast on one, but choose your partner carefully 🙂
Tandems are great fun - acquired a mates tandem a couple of years ago for a pub crawl - Christmas one year, Halloween the next. The tandem is, errr, a bit old (biopace chainrings...) and knackered. It had a brakes that 'sort of slowed you down a bit', a stick rammed into the front mech to keep it in the middle ring, and a piece of string connected to the rear mech cable for the rear gunner to pull: front rider randomly selected a gear from the (no longer) SIS gear wotsit, which didn't move the rear mech until the rear rider pulled the string, then you ended up with a completely random gear - usually one of 3 of the working gears from the 7 speed cassette...
Funniest moment was when on the RLSCC Halloween pub crawl. Pedalled the bike from Warwick to the meeting point in Leamington. I was on the front, in my 'Zombie Banana' outfit (as yer do...), and my g/f was on the back in a 'Zombie Gorilla' outfit.
We all pedalled slowly down the Leamington Parade, and we heard a girl scream to her friends: 'See - look! I TOLD you I saw a monkey chasing a banana on a bike!' 🙂
Scariest/funniest moment - when we swapped round. Both hilariously funny and terrifying scary at the same time - for about 100 meters before we had to stop as there was no way this was going to end well!
Have now spent some money on it: new gear and brake cables all round, new combined brake/shifters on the front (now have 3x7 again, with no string required...), a new bell (v.important), new chains all round (the f-r chain was so stretched it kept falling off), and new tyres.
Now ready for the next crawl!
But I wouldn't want to take it round Cannock!!
We hired a cheap step through single speed one in china. Riding a super flexible bike in Chinese urban traffic was interesting.
Great fun but you do need to communicate and take the experience with a laugh.
TJ cheers, I'm sure we would like to take you up on that at some point.
I stoked a tandem where the timing chainrings were diferent sizes.
Wobble wobble surge.
Hilarious. I want a tandem
TJ offered to take me on a tandem ride.. I think I'll do it. D'you think it'll end in an argument?
Depends who is steering
Miss my old 80s peugeot tandem. Did stupid speeds on it back int day. Getting another when my kids legs are long enough. Always wanted a cannondale tandem. Hmmmm
Saw some bcf men riding through Leeds last summer on some mental road tandem, I think stoker was blind. They were I think around 45mph on the flat. Mental.! Love tandems.
Blah double post phone thing.....
I can confirm that TJ's steering is exempary. He only put us on the ground once. At a bottleneck with poor visibility. At Hit the North, where spectators had gathered to see people fall off.
Slowoldgit - gaga brings back happy memories.
Molgrips - you really should take up his offer. But don't argue with him when he is captain, wait until he's on the back 😀