Tandem with kids?

[AuntPetunia]

Anybody have a tandem?
I have fantasies about riding a tandem with my 10 y.o. DD on some longer rides
Has anyone gotten a tandem so they can ride with children? Has it worked out?
Thanks!!

[limewave]

Some good friends of mine have tandems that they ride with their kids for fun, on tours and centuries. Their kids are now 13 and 16, but I think they've been doing it for a couple of years. I say go for it! It gives you good quality time together and you can teach them good riding & safety tips.
We plan to give it a try when our kids get older.

[SalsaMTB]

I don't have a tandem but have been longing for one for some time for DH and I. One you should check out (but $$) is the daVinci design. It has an independant drive so the captain and stoker can independantly coast. This may be nice with your DD who may not be as experienced as you. Like I said though, they're lots of $$. I have never tried it, but I like the concept.

[Veronica]

Tandeming is great fun. We have one and another (custom!) on order. Communication is very important though. The stoker needs to know what the captain is doing. The captain needs to know when the stoker is planning on moving around.

V.

[SadieKate]

Several years ago on a trip to Idaho, we met a couple who were doing a 400 mile "just for kicks" ride on their tandem. The previous summer they had ridden across the USA, the wife on a single while hubby and 9 yr old daughter rode a tandem.

Of course, the wife didn't lose any weight on that cross country trip and the husband turned into a bag of bones. He had to buy new shoes he lost so much weight and he wasn't overweight to begin with!

[Irulan]

my neighbors did lots of rail trails with a kid on the back of the tandem. They put crank extensions on it for short legs; I forget what those are called.

Irulan

[Grog]

A guy I know has a tandem. He rides in the front, his 10 year-old daughter rides in the back... PLUS he has a trail-a-bike with his 5 year-old second daughter on it! And he does serious climbing with this setup, and with the two of them more than a thousand km per year. So it is totally do-able. Not sure how you get the tandem to fit two people of very different sizes, but I guess that's what they are designed for...

[DeniseGoldberg]

Another option to look at is a Bike Friday tandem or triple. I just looked on their web site, and here's part of the description for one of their tandems: "The Family Tandem is fun for the whole family! It easily adjust to riders from 4'10" to 6'5" (front) and 36" (w/ the optional child adapter) to 6'2" (rear). "

They also make bikes (their Q models) that convert from a tandem to a single or from a triple to a tandem.

--- Denise

[AuntPetunia]

Thanks everyone!
I will do some reading
Thanks for the link!

[MomOnBike]

This

http://www.bilenky.com/viewpnt.html

looks like it might be a good tandem for a parent & child, if only because communication is so much easier. I think I read somewhere that a father/son pair did a Southern tier tour on one.

Odd looking bike, though.

[tomgrrrl]

I recently got a tandem for my 7 year old and me to ride.... We love it. I got a Burley Zydeco since the rear bar is dropped and she can ride it with the seat lowered and no other setups....It will also fit an adult and is quite light so I can get it on top of my van using a Yakima Sidewinder rack which works well. Also, it was only about $1200, which, for a tandem, is pretty good. We ride it at least once a week and usually go 15-20 miles....when she wants to take a break, she removes her feet from the toeclips and rests them on the bar...

I recommend it to anyone who likes cycling and wants to spend fun time with their kid(s).

Ellen