We’re currently on holiday in Maryland, USA visiting my wife’s family. We last visited two years ago, back in the long-forgotten pre-baby era when we could do whatever we wanted. Looking back that free time was clearly wasted on me because all I ever seemed to do was cycle.
This holiday we had a couple of blissful days to ourselves – leaving the little one with her grandma we headed off to the beach. Unimaginatively I steered us towards a bike hire shop at the earliest opportunity.
Tandem beach cruiser
Neither of us had ridden a tandem before and it turned out to be great fun. It was easy to talk to each other and being permanently hitched together removes any potential competitiveness of cycling with another person. In theory a tandem ought to be more efficient than a regular bicycle, but that relies on both people pedalling. If, say, the person on the back was sometimes just letting their feet be turned by the pedals then a tandem could in fact be very hard work for the person on the front. Fortunately American beachfronts aren’t short on refreshment opportunities for hard-worked cyclists.
When the going gets tough, the tough get compensated with ice cream
One of the trickier aspects of tandem cycling was turning. The person on the rear can’t always see the twists and turns ahead but needs to participate to some extent in leaning on sharper bends. The other tricky aspect is starting and stopping. All of this requires a bit of communication but we seemed to get the hang of things and be motoring along quite well.
My other cycling this holiday has been using Pete’s arsenal of bikes in his basement. I took a single-speed out a couple of times but it mostly ended up being a reminder of how fit I used to be when we last visited. Riding up hills on a single-speed is tough work, and I quickly swapped for a bike with gears.
Getting out for some road cycling
I’m glad you shared your experience on the tandem. My wife wants one, bad and I’m tempted… But she generally has a problem with referring to me as “Oh Captain, my Captain” so I’ve thought it wise to refrain and stick with solo bikes.
I’m not sure I could justify buying a tandem, Captain, but I’d like to hire one again. Maybe even a tourer style for an adventure over several days
The tandem ride looked fun. Did you sing, “Daisy, Daisy give me your answer do …………….”.
I definitely felt half-crazy riding around on such a ridiculous contraption!
I have tried to tempt Mrs Tootlepedal onto a tandem but she seems strangely reluctant. She claims looking at my bum all day is not an attractive proposition.