Commuting on a tandem?

[Becky]

Anyone commute with another rider on a tandem? DH and I work in the same building, and it occurred to me that a tandem might almost make sense since we're going to the same place every day. (OK, I'm really just looking for justification to buy another bike ;) ) We could probably generate some killer speed working together, but I have no idea if a tandem is practical for urban riding.

Any thoughts?

[Tuckervill]

Why not? You could take the lane and go the speed limit! :)

Karen

[Aggie_Ama]

Someone on here works with a co-worker who commutes with his wife on a tandem. Maybe they will pop in but I know someone mentioned it.

[divingbiker]

Someone on here works with a co-worker who commutes with his wife on a tandem. Maybe they will pop in but I know someone mentioned it.

That would be me! Yes, a guy in my building and his wife ride in every day year-round. He's very tall, and she's very short, so the tandem is the only way they can ride together at a reasonable speed. Here's (http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showpost.php?p=343055&postcount=11) their bike.

[Becky]

Hmmmm...this may be more feasible than I thought from a bike perspective... But I just looked up tandem costs....:eek: I'll be retired before I can afford a tandem!

DB, that's so cool that your co-workers commute together! Thanks for sharing the bike pic!

[jsdilks]

Hello - I can chime in here about commuting on a tandem. We live over in Arlington and both work just off the Mall, so it's an easy ride, mostly on paths for us. The panniers are packed to the gills, however, so you'll need to take into consideration what you need to bring in with you and what you can already have at work, etc. We're on the street for just a couple blocks of Independence, which I'm not crazy about, but we manage that, and have a different route home to do a loop through Haines Point. I'm not a single biker at all, so the tandem was a good choice for us as I don't feel compelled to steer, brake, or change gears. And I hardly ever yell any more when we go to fast around corners or down a hill (which I *did* do when we first started...) I'd be happy to answer any more questions too - show you the bike loaded up, etc. Just let us know.

[salsabike]

Becky, you can easily get used tandems. We got ours, a '91 Burley Duet--I grant we were lucky--for $350 at an LBS that sells both used and new bikes. If you have a local bike club with want ads on their site, I am sure tandems will show up. We can't commute together, but have put 5,000 miles or so on that bike over the last four years.

[Eden]

That would be me! Yes, a guy in my building and his wife ride in every day year-round. He's very tall, and she's very short, so the tandem is the only way they can ride together at a reasonable speed. Here's (http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showpost.php?p=343055&postcount=11) their bike.

Eh.... I'm 5 feet and my husband is 6'4". We do not ride a tandem and I keep up with him just fine (in fact it is likely that sometime soon I will surpass him at hill climbs and steady TT efforts, though I don't know if I'll ever be able to accelerate/sprint quite as fast).... Unlike running where a taller person's stride does make a difference, bikes take away the advantage of being taller. She may not be able to keep up with him, but her height doesn't have anything to do with it.

[divingbiker]

Eh.... I'm 5 feet and my husband is 6'4". We do not ride a tandem and I keep up with him just fine (in fact it is likely that sometime soon I will surpass him at hill climbs and steady TT efforts, though I don't know if I'll ever be able to accelerate/sprint quite as fast).... Unlike running where a taller person's stride does make a difference, bikes take away the advantage of being taller. She may not be able to keep up with him, but her height doesn't have anything to do with it.

He's the one who told me that, I think. Or I might be remembering my friend and her husband, who ride separately in rural areas but on a tandem in the city, because he was always losing her at stop lights since he was more aggressive.

[singletrackmind]

I commute by tandem with my son, taking him to school and then going on to work. After work I pick him up from school and we go on home. As long as I don't try to stand in the pedals it's not too much different (he's 38#).

Surprisingly nobody's yet joked about my "lost" stoker!
Last time he insisted on tying Stinky Baby (a baby doll) onto the top of the BOB trailer bag we kept getting stopped by people who wanted to make sure it wasn't real. :eek: :o :D

My husband's Trek Doubletrack was from Ebay for $500 and I've since seen another of the same on Craigslist for $300. Just make sure you get the right size or a reasonable facsimile thereof.

[Eden]

He's the one who told me that, I think. Or I might be remembering my friend and her husband, who ride separately in rural areas but on a tandem in the city, because he was always losing her at stop lights since he was more aggressive.

It very well may be that she can't keep up. I'm only disputing that it is because he is tall and she is short.

[TahoeDirtGirl]

You know, I thought of something immediately when I saw this. I read an article on couples that cook together stay together. I wonder ...will someone do a study on couples that tandem commute together stay together? :)

[jsdilks]

The standard line on tandems and relationships seems to be that tandeming gets a relationship wherever it's going faster than otherwise

[malkin]

I have too much fun on the tandem; I'd never want to get off and go to work.

[Jaclyn]

Malkin - I so totally agree. My partner and I love riding our tandem together. If we commuted to work on it, we'd just keep pedaling past the office and beyond. We'd quickly be unemployed together!

Becky - Create a saved search on eBay for tandems and be patient. There are often some very good deals on gently used tandems. I'm surprised by how many people invest $5,000 and up on beautiful Santanas, Burleys, Co-motions and the like ... only to have them collect dust in the garage. Eventually they are for sale and you'll get a great bike.

TahoeDirtGirl - There was a feature on NPR about a Buddhist couple that did 100% of everything together, within about 15 feet of each other, for going on 8 years now. The Slate reporter and his wife decided to give it a go for 24 hours. My partner and I were doing the National 24 Hour Challenge bike ride at the time and thought we're doing it one better - we'll never be more than 15 inches apart from each other. Oh, we won the tandem division this year!

[ilima]

I think it'd be a great idea. Plus, think of the days when one of you is tired--knowing the other one is going to help you pedal home would be a relief.

[Bootyscadoodle]

My husband and I love our tandem!

Kind of a newbie lurker here, but I just can't resist responding to this thread!

We found our tandem on Craigslist for $500 and the owner threw in handlebar and rack bags, and a tandem carrier for the yakima rack. It's a Kuwahara from about 15 years ago(?) and it was set up for week-end tours in CA wine country. It had been sitting in the previous owners' garage until the husband finally decided he could let it go.

We updated a few things and are very happy with it. We laughingly named it The Albatross because we are not very graceful in our starts and stops, but once we're cruising, we're fine! Hubby is 6'2" and I am 5'4" and although the frame fits him fine, it's larger than I would ever get for me in a solo bike. I think it's 19" for me in the stoker position, and normally I ride a 15"or 17",depending on the frame. My road bike is a 51cm.

The larger tandem frame is fine while I'm riding but I can't touch the ground easily when stopped. And, at this point, that's okay since mounting and dismounting are different for tandems as opposed to solo bikes. It is not the tandem of our dreams, but it has shown us that we really like riding together. We like it so much that we are looking forward to commuting together to the university where he works and I am a grad student. It's a little over 8 miles each way in very little traffic, with a bit of an uphill at each end.

I second the above comments re. watching Craigslist and eBay for used tandems. They don't have to be fancy to see if you like them. I have my eye on the Trek 900 for our next tandem, but we'll see how things go this year. I am hoping it goes well enough to attend the Pacific Northwest Tandem Rally up in Victoria BC next July. Has anybody been to any of these rallies? What are they like? We are total newbies to all of this.

Sorry for the long post, but I think you should go ahead bite the bullet. If one for a reasonable price comes along, just do it, even if all the specs are not perfect. Even an imperfect, but workable, bike at a reasonable price will give you a really good idea if you want to pursue tandem riding or not.

Good luck, and keep us posted!

Kate

[shootingstar]

Great when tandems do work for a duo.

He does cycle to my stopover midpoint during my daily work commute where I pick up my bike from a bike locker and we ride homeward.

But a tandem will probably get me in a more sour mood :(after certain wierd work days. I'm 5'1" and he is 5'10". Tandem just doesn't jive well with us...we did try it-- once.

[Becky]

But a tandem will probably get me in a more sour mood :(after certain wierd work days. I'm 5'1" and he is 5'10". Tandem just doesn't jive well with us...we did try it-- once.

Y'know, it's interesting that you mention this. We had one of "those rides" on the way in yesterday. The kind of ride where I just wanted to clobber him for no apparent reason (and I'm sure that he felt the same way about me!). There's no riding further apart to gain some thinking room on a tandem.....

I think i'm going to start searching Ebay, just to see what I can find. Maybe this will be our Christmas gift to each other this year :)

[indigoiis]

I commute by tandem with my son, taking him to school and then going on to work. After work I pick him up from school and we go on home. As long as I don't try to stand in the pedals it's not too much different (he's 38#).

Surprisingly nobody's yet joked about my "lost" stoker!
Last time he insisted on tying Stinky Baby (a baby doll) onto the top of the BOB trailer bag we kept getting stopped by people who wanted to make sure it wasn't real. :eek: :o :D

My husband's Trek Doubletrack was from Ebay for $500 and I've since seen another of the same on Craigslist for $300. Just make sure you get the right size or a reasonable facsimile thereof.

I have been considering doing this with my 15 year old daughter. But I have a dumb question - can I ride the tandem by myself after dropping her at her drop point?

[Eden]

I have been considering doing this with my 15 year old daughter. But I have a dumb question - can I ride the tandem by myself after dropping her at her drop point?

I have seen people ride a tandem solo, so it is physically possible - though I'm not sure how stable this is, how difficult it is (they are heavy compared to a single bike...) and how far you would want to go....

[Grog]

I have been considering doing this with my 15 year old daughter. But I have a dumb question - can I ride the tandem by myself after dropping her at her drop point?

A guy I know often rides a tandem by himself for hundreds of kilometers after dropping his daughters to summer camp or something. Actually, it's a "tri-dem": a tandem with a trailer bike at the back.

He's a pretty strong rider, and an experienced one. But I'm sure that if it's not a very long distance, and not too hilly, you'll be fine..

[indigoiis]

Speaking of hills, how are they on hills? I've got nothing but hills.
The reason I thought tandum is I am not sure she can handle the hills on her own... although I probably underestimate her strength.

But then, she's fifteen... so she's got that whole slacker "it's too haaaaard" thing going these days...

[Blueberry]

They're fast downhill and slow uphill. You can spin, but they're generally slower going up than a single. But, it will (at least somewhat) balance out your cycling abilities. I guess it depends on how steep your hills are...

CA

[singletrackmind]

I have been considering doing this with my 15 year old daughter. But I have a dumb question - can I ride the tandem by myself after dropping her at her drop point?

My son's a lot smaller so it doesn't feel a whole lot different unless I stand up, then it's squirrelly. He rarely helps so pedaling the 45# bike feels about the same. My husband notices a bigger difference with vs. without his 13 year old daughter but so long as he stays in the saddle it's not too bad.

[jsdilks]

I'm going to reference my DH's response to a query on another TE thread that is going about our "mini-tour" It's over in Touring and titled Our First Tour - Sort of. There have been questions about the panniers and such, but he's got a good response about how the tandem handles and that kind of thing. I wanted to speak up again about being bikers not only of different heights, but different abilities. As I've said before, I'm not a strong biker, but rather a happy toodler. Communication is really key when you're on a tandem. He lets me know when anything is going to occur, because I can't see to anticipate things - bumps, hills, turns, slowing down, gear shifts - any of it. It's all communicated back to me. We're close enough that I can hear him fine - in all but the windiest weather. And I communicate back to him - if I'm going to poop out on him, he deserves to know ahead of time that he's going to have to pull us up the hill and that my feet are really only virtual reality. And I will second the point that the bike is heavy and slow to get going. But it really zooms on the flats once we get going. We've long since reached the point where we've "used all the gears we have" (I'll pretend I know what that really means) and we may decide to upgrade the bike so that we can do more with the same or less effort. (*that* part I got...) Anyway - enough rambling. Oh - one more thing. There is a tandem forum if you want to read - they are VERY helpful and supportive about ALL things Tandem (for newbies looking to folks looking to upgrade crankshafts and other fancy things) www.bikeforums.net (One of the categories is Tandem Cycling)

[malkin]

Be careful over there at the bikeforums tandem board! There are a bunch of nice folks, but look out for swarms of sharks!

Maybe we need our own tandem place at TE.

We struggled on hills on the tandem, until the captain read about hill climbing here on TE. Start spinning at the bottom and keep spinning. I'm not sure what he was thinking before, but now that he's thinking 'spin' everything is better.

[malkin]

As for riding the tandem without a stoker, of course it's long, heavy, and awkward, but the biggest thing is to be aware that the rear brake is mostly useless, because there's not much weight back there.