Wacky Question: Touring with tandems

[mountain tamer]

hey everyone,

just wondering if anyone has had any experience with tandems

although silly, are they viable touring options, or am just being stupid?

cheers,
MT

[kukamunga]

Depends on whether you're riding solo or not

There is a tandem club here in Oz / Vic I think... I'll try and track down some details. I know quite a few tandem riders - some in the MBTC

[il padrone]

Tandem Club of Australia still has their website up, but AFAIK the club folded due to difficulties in maintaining an active commitee several years back

Tandems are fine for touring, as long as you have a good riding relationship with your stoker (no, not like that!!). A well matched pair can be surprisingly efficient on a tandem, but if you both come with different expectations it can destroy a friendship

You need a tandem that has a good touring frame, robust with preferably an extra drum drag brake as well as V-brakes, and good racks to carry gear. They make excellent open road bikes, are disturbingly fast downhill, and generally make you work hard on climbs. Extended touring you may wish to combine front and rear panniers with a BOB trailer to give sufficient luggage space for two, if you intend to camp.

[Tale]

I've met some couples touring on Tandems. An English couple I met near Krakow in Poland were basically on a lap of Europe, going right down into Spain, around into Eastern Europe and back home through Scandinavia.

A tandem attracts a fair bit of attention, so they went with it - huge Union Jack flag on a flexible pole on the back. They both looked very fit by the time we met up, but the bloke complained to me that on a tandem, one person can end up doing most of the work.

Also, if you're old enough to remember The Goodies on TV, there's an amazing book called "Three Men and a Bike" where some guys restored the three-man Goodies bike and rode it the length of Africa.

[il padrone]

Oh yeah, there's also people like this couple, touring the world by tandem

[mountain tamer]

Oh yeah, there's also people like this couple, touring the world by tandem

that bike has more luggage than i can fit into my car

[il padrone]

Oh yeah, there's also people like this couple, touring the world by tandem

that bike has more luggage than i can fit into my car

Yep! Well they were basically living on the bike, and camping out, for some months, riding from the UK to China (and eventually home to NZ). So a bit of gear was needed.

[geoffs]

Tandems are a great way to tour. My wife and I would only ever tour on a tandem and not singles.
Easier to have a chat
You never get left behind
can share the load when one of you isn't feeling great.
the list goes on
Site to look at are http://www.thetandemlink.com/
[email protected] mail list and the tandem section of http://www.bikeforums.net/

I've toured in France, Italy, Austria, New Zealand and Australia.

Cheers

Geoff[/img]

[ledbar]

We'd agree with geoffs that touring on a tandem is a great way to do it as you're always riding together. The stoker can also read the map and take photos while you're cycling (all this while still pedalling!).

Your carrying capacity is less than two singles but you there is still enough space. We've toured on a conventional tandem but they are harder to get onto planes than they used to be so we've bought ourselves a BikeFriday tandem which can pull apart and pack into cases for the flight and then the cases become a trailer while touring.

[geoffs]

Hi Ledbar,

Who are you and where are you from?
There's going to be a tandem tour down the east coast of Tassie at the end of Feb next year if your interested.

Cheers

Geoff

[ledbar]

Hi Geoff,

We think we've met before, via Grahame from Dubbo over coffee in Glebe. At the time we were planning a trip to France on Bike Friday tandem.

Anyway the trip has been and gone, and in short was wonderful. Read more about it at crazyguyonabike. (Couldn't post the link but look for it under tandem journals - Moving forward in southern France.)

Thanks for the heads up about the tandem tour next Feb, unfortunately we have more plans than leave at the moment and are already committed to the BF rally at Halls Gap in March. Hoping to beat last years record of 28 tandems and that didn't include us!

Cheers,
Matthew and Linda