Just had a fitting for a Rodriguez tandem!

[lauraelmore1033]

I've been reading with jealous interest of various purchases of custom built bling mobiles on this forum for years, and I never would have thought we would be in the market for such a thing ourselves. Ever! But Dh proposed that a tandem would be just the thing to enhance our marital bliss this spring and we decided that we would get one as a combined birthday, anniversary,birthday (all happen within the same week) gift to ourselves. After some research we decided on Rodriguez, since they make a damn fine bike and will customize it for chunky mamma touring needs and they are local!

Went in today and had a fitting with a seriously cool guy named Smiley which turned out to be more fun than I thought it would be since he clearly loves his job and loves putting people onto tandem bicycles. He had some good pointers about posture, hand positions and pedal strokes while we were on the trainer which were right on. It was really interesting how he could spin some nobs and change the configuration of the bike while was being ridden, step back and observe, twiddle dials some more and arrive at a perfect set up for each of us. we picked out colors and goodies and watched over his shoulder as he "built" our bike on the computer. We then went on a tour of the "factory" which, amazingly, consisted of a couple of rooms in the basement. I don't know why I was surprised that such snazzy bikes start out as piles of unpainted, straight tubes and blocks of aluminum. Dh is usually very cautious about making big purchases, but the whole process really appealed to his engineer's sensibilities and he agreed to plunk down the whole balance right there and then. Our beautiful custom built bike will be ready in 6 weeks. Then we can take it through their tandem 101 class. Can I wait that long?! I guess I'll have to;)

[murielalex]

Congratulations! You definitely must post pics when you get it. What color(s) did you choose?

[SadieKate]

Way cool awesome! :D

[lauraelmore1033]

We chose sky blue with silver accents

[lauraelmore1033]

You're so lucky to have someone wonderful to share cycling with.

:)

Indeed!:D

[TigerMom]

Custom Tandem and marital cycling....AWESOME!!!
______________

2012 Specialized Amira Elite, upgraded carbon handle bars, Jett saddle 143mm switched to 145mm 2012 Selle Italia Max SLR Gel Flow saddle

2011 Specialized Ariel Sport,suspension post,Serfas Rx Women's Microfiber saddle

[roo4]

Sounds wonderful! We will need some updates. :)

[lauraelmore1033]

Definitely will update! 6 weeks is such a long wait!

[lauraelmore1033]

Was up all night, too excited to sleep! We picked up our beauuuutiful tandem yesterday. Today we ride it! We had a brief lesson at the shop which was a little scary because we were trying out something so new and different on a very busy
Seattle street (Ravenna) in rush hour traffic. We were a little shakey, but we're going to work that out this afternoon with an easy, straight-shot trail ride. eeeeeeee!
I lost my camera in Montana on our tour, so it might be a while before I can post pictures (still devistated about losing all my tour pics:()

[MM_QFC!]

Congratulations! Wishing you many happy miles on it. Yes, Smiley is terrific, isn't he? I worked with the previous co-owner (and x-country tandem recordholder, Estelle) for my first bike purchase - a custom steel Rodriguez and loved being able to stop in and see the progress of my bike being built, then painted. My friends chuckled at me telling them watching the progress from plain steel tubes, to a beautifully welded frame, etc...fun!
You'll be tandem-proficient in no time, I'm sure; have tons o' fun!
Mary

[Biciclista]

my son is getting a bike there too. congrats. His is to replace his father's stolen bike.

[lauraelmore1033]

my son is getting a bike there too. congrats. His is to replace his father's stolen bike.

That has to be so bittersweet. It will be a beautiful bike, to be sure, but not the one with the enormous sentimental value.

[lauraelmore1033]

Congratulations! Wishing you many happy miles on it. Yes, Smiley is terrific, isn't he? I worked with the previous co-owner (and x-country tandem recordholder, Estelle) for my first bike purchase - a custom steel Rodriguez and loved being able to stop in and see the progress of my bike being built, then painted. My friends chuckled at me telling them watching the progress from plain steel tubes, to a beautifully welded frame, etc...fun!
You'll be tandem-proficient in no time, I'm sure; have tons o' fun!
Mary

Love that guy...
We had a customer stop and ask us about our new bike on the way out and he sighed and said he loved his Rodriguez tandem so much that he now hated riding his "half bike" (which he was straddling at the time). We were tickled by the notion of a regular bike being only half a bike. I hope we feel the same some day. I have to say that my half of the bike was super comfy:D

[Biciclista]

That has to be so bittersweet. It will be a beautiful bike, to be sure, but not the one with the enormous sentimental value.

I guess my son will have to build his own memories on it. Bottom line, he'd never been able to get a bike like this without his father's gift of a bike. Yes, it is bittersweet. But Katrina couldn't bear to be without Donald, so she left too.

I look forward to your photos and your joy.

[maillotpois]

But Katrina couldn't bear to be without Donald, so she left too.

Beautiful and profound spin on this.

[Charlieggo]

Glad to hear the good things about Rodriguez bikes. I've been eyeballing their Rainier model. Not local for me, so I have just been daydreaming about it so far. Maybe an excuse to bike tour to Washington. The tandem sounds awesome - happy riding!

[Kiwi Stoker]

Congratulations and welcome to the tandem club! I have been happily married and riding the tandem for 6 years now. We asked for contributions towards a tandem as our wedding gift.

[lauraelmore1033]

Our first ride went great! I am so surprised. We just did an easy, flat,straight 20 mile trail ride on the Centenial trail up to Lake Cassidy. We were a little shakey starting up, and we quickly decided that the method of starting out that Smiley showed us, with the stoker clipped in, just wasn't going to work for us. I am just way too heavy to feel comfortable with my skinny hubby holding me up while he simultaniously shifts up onto the seat to push off. We worked out our own way, with both of us starting out with one food on the ground and pushing when Brian said, "go" that was a lot smoother than our efforts the other way. It was unsettling at first and I had the sensation that we were "fishtailing" a lot (Brian said we weren't). Every steering effort felt shakey and jumpy for the first couple of miles, but soon smoothed out. First efforts at breaking seemed especially unstable, but that smoothed out as well and we did make a couple of stops with me still clipped in. I was terrified as we passed through seemingly endless sets of bollards because that seemed to heighten my awareness that I was not in control (and they just scare me anyway...). After about 10 sets, I had an epiphany that my husband had never actually given me any reason not to trust him on any dimension of our life together and, even though his driving and riding styles sometimes seem a little sketchy from my perspective, he's never had an accident (except for that one time when he slid on a patch of moss...) and I was able to heed Smiley's advice about just going limp when something felt scary. That's probably when we started riding smoothly. We reached the lake feeling slightly triumphant and snapped a photo (which I will find soon) and turned around and headed back feeling like pros. On the way we heard lots of exclamations about our big bike and compliments on how cool it was. It does seem very flashy and beautiful to me...

I was worried that we would have a terrible time learning how to ride this bike since Dh and I have such different riding styles; he's a spinner and I'm a masher, but I think we've managed to find a way to meet in the middle. He started out riding as he was accustomed to doing but this bike is geared exactly like my bike is; compact front rings and a casette the size of a serving platter. I spun along for a while, but then realized I was going to have to ask him to shift up because I was bouncing on the seat. No biggie. Click, click and we're motoring on somewhere in the middle. A hill or two will be our next challenge...

I'm feeling fairly confident that we can be planning to ride this bike on next year's tour (we're thinking TRIRI). I can even see myself thinking of my single bike as my "half bike".

[lauraelmore1033]

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/picture.php?albumid=107&pictureid=359

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/picture.php?albumid=107&pictureid=358