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.
nice. Long may they prosper/pedal on.
Have often thought that you need a particularly good relationship to tandem - praps that chimp was on to something - the litmus test - met a nice person on a recent cchat ride who picked up a tandem particularly cheap as the couple of riders were getting divorced.
edit - a less nice impression of tandems - was once cycling on hire bikes with a then gf in the peak district on one of the traffic free cycle trails (forget which of thw two linked ones) and a couple on a tandem appeared at speed around a shallow bend and crashed into us bending her wheel and making the bike unrideable. Disgraceful. They should have been shot by the Universal Tandem Authority if such a thing exists. Only nice thing about the abandoned trip was that the bike hire outfit on the trail didn't charge us any excess for the trashed wheel.
edit edit (and it must be in this bit of the forum anyway)
the clip
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqNnPrxzm3g
remembered from my childhood
caution - have it on mute - clip has not been checked by the gender police.