Why do people have tandems? what are their advantages etc?

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Dave7

Legendary Member
Location
Cheshire
Serious question that. My friend raised the question on our ride today so I promised I would put the question on here.
Thanks
 

biggs682

Itching to get back on my bike's
Location
Northamptonshire
Serious question that. My friend raised the question on our ride today so I promised I would put the question on here.
Thanks

Easy answer from me , we bought ours when my daughter was about 8 years old and i got fed up of stopping every couple of hundred yards when she rode a normal bike for one reason or another , with the tandem the only time we stopped was junctions or obstacles we had so much dad and daughter time on it .

Once she got to teenage years it wasn't cool , so now it's used by me and the other half and we enjoy it .

Great fun to ride once you get use to them , i would love to do more miles on our's
 

welsh dragon

Thanks but no thanks. I think I'll pass.
I quite often see an elderly couple on a tandem round here. They are out every day no matter the weather. It gets you out of the house. There are a lot of hills here, so for elderly people 2 are better than 1. And they use it to do their shopping. They seem to enjoy it so why not?

Not my cup of tea, but each to his own sort of thing.
 

screenman

Legendary Member
I quite often see an elderly couple on a tandem round here. They are out every day no matter the weather. It gets you out of the house. There are a lot of hills here, so for elderly people 2 are better than 1. And they use it to do their shopping. They seem to enjoy it so why not?

Not my cup of tea, but each to his own sort of thing.

Oddly they are often harder to get up hills on them if my memory serves me correctly.
 

cisamcgu

Legendary Member
Location
Merseyside-ish
By definition you travel at the same speed; communication is easy; you have a shared accomplishment and is brilliant fun.

Climbing hills is harder, or at least slower, but that is the only downside; we adore ours.
 
I have never ridden tandem myself but I can see the many advantages of having one - several have already been mentioned there are however disadvantages to having one also.
Storage,transportation when needed are just two of those that I can easily identify.
 

Soltydog

Legendary Member
Location
near Hornsea
I often thought about getting one, so the better half could tag along, but when looking at 'cheaper' ones they were bought by someone hoping their partner would join them, they had little or no use, so were selling them on. I thought I'd be in same position so didn't buy one, until a couple of years ago when my wife suggested it. We bought a used one & rode it once, it scared her to death & she didn't want to ride it again. Was planning on selling it this year, then at the weekend, she asked to go out on it :eek: Been out last couple of days, just a short 7.5 mile ride, but it's a start. Takes a bit of getting used to & wouldn't fancy any hills on it just yet, but it's flat as a pancake round here, so until she's ready for a 50 miler we wont have to worry about hills :laugh:
We've averaged 14 & 15 mph on the tandem, not sure my wife would be upto those speeds on her own at the moment, so it keeps us together on rides, maybe not always a good thing :blush:
 

Ian H

Ancient randonneur
[QUOTE 5259755, member: 45"]Much faster downhill, faster on the flat, slower uphill.

They're fun.[/QUOTE]
Not always slower uphill. I know a few well-matched tandem partners who can lamp it uphill at least as fast as solos.
 

srw

It's a bit more complicated than that...
[QUOTE 5259765, member: 10119"]It's all about the bickering, isn't it?[/QUOTE]
Only if you bicker off the bike. We managed a three-week, 1100 mile ride with only one serious strop.

Others have explained as well as I can the advantages. Yes, there are disadvantages - cost, transport issues, increased wear and tear on components, slight trickiness to set up - and in groups you take longer to set off after a break, but overall they're a great way of equalising unequal partners.
 
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