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

[stoatsngroats]

Had one for 4 years, including aGuersney tour, and many local rides in Sussex. Never had any strops from the stoker, just the occasional realisation that she was not holding on as she was using a camera!
The tandem effect for us was to balance our strength, so she was always close by, rather than me slowing or waiting to keep close.
It was fantastic fun, even on the days I would have to lift it over an occasional stile Ona favourite ride home.
We travelled from Sussex to South Wales to pick ours up, travelled home, and rode 30 mile s that first day.
I would have another, without too much thought, if space allowed.
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[dantheman]

I'd love to try a tandem, I often bring it up to the wife (she won't cycle). She would just sit with her feet of pedalling, and I'd fart in her face for doing it hahaha.

Obviously being the big fat windbreak that I am I'd be in front.

They're so expensive though, due to demand/numbers I suppose, so same reason as why I don't have a recumbent trike (oh yes they looklikefun)

 

[fuboab]

[QUOTE 5261612, member: 10119"]Horses for courses, innit

I have one mate who always said there was only one seat for her on a tandem, and it was the front one. Assorted kids on the back over the years, I believe.

Then she met her current partner and they discovered that she trusted him (as a cyclist, rather than as a hooman bean iyswim) sufficiently to give it a go, and liked it. They ended up LELing and BPBing on it! You do need to be confident that the person at the controls is _at least_ as good a cyclist as you, I think. Of course for me that includes pretty much everyone [/QUOTE]

Are my ears burning?

Transport: we bought a van. Storage: That's what the garage is for. It's no more difficult to store two tandems than in is the other 9 bikes we're not riding today.

 

[User10119]

Are my ears burning?

Perhaps a touch warm

I was the opposite - there was no way I could imagine piloting, because that requires actual competence. But cycling with my kids made me a MUCH more assertive cyclist, and experimentation with a tagalong showed me that the littly stoking was A Good Plan for us, although the mtb+tagalong wasn't ideal because it tended to need more upper body strength to control, which my once-bust elbow objected to. The ultra-stable Helios is much more comfortable, and handles fine with nobody on the back too.

 

[stoatsngroats]

I'd love to try a tandem..../...They're so expensive though, due to demand/numbers I suppose, so same reason as why I don't have a recumbent trike (oh yes they looklikefun)

Ours was used and £400 or thereabouts, which is cheap for a tandem, although a new Viking isn’t much more.
Good enough to start with maybe? If you like it and it works for you both, you can then buy a more expensive one

 

[User10119]

Facebook 'memories' inform me that it was 8 years ago that I first had a go on the back of a tandem

 

[Tim Hall]

I'd love to try a tandem, I often bring it up to the wife (she won't cycle). She would just sit with her feet of pedalling, and I'd fart in her face for doing it hahaha.

Obviously being the big fat windbreak that I am I'd be in front.

They're so expensive though, due to demand/numbers I suppose, so same reason as why I don't have a recumbent trike (oh yes they looklikefun)

The last tandem I bought was a Dawes Super Galaxy from a nice woman on Gumtree for four hundred and fifty notes. Not ever so expensive.

 

[dantheman]

I realise that isn't a lot of money to a lot of people, but when your wages disappear each month, yet you don't go out/drink/smoke or even drive a car, then it's hard to spend that amount for what is basically another bike (it's also more than any of my 3 current bikes cost me)

Hopefully things will change and in the future I can have a tandem and a recumbant, as I've found with my other bikes, if you know what you want and are willing to wait then bargain secondhand steeds do come up.

Also, I actually meant they're expensive by comparison to a regular bike - for a given spec etc..

 

[Milzy]

Are my ears burning?

Transport: we bought a van. Storage: That's what the garage is for. It's no more difficult to store two tandems than in is the other 9 bikes we're not riding today.

Sell the bikes on here.

 

[mistyoptic]

Only way to travel. We can have a conversation without having to be side-by-side on today's roads. She always keeps up and never goes the wrong way unless I chose it
Transport is a bit tricky yes but we have a Pendle carrier and that works well although it's a two person lift onto the roof (hang on, there ARE two of us - how convenient). Have carried it confidently at motorway speeds for up to 200 miles.

 

[saoirse50]

I ride a tandem at Herne Hill Velodrome with partially sighted stokers. Great fun.

 

[swansonj]

The last tandem I bought was a Dawes Super Galaxy from a nice woman on Gumtree for four hundred and fifty notes. Not ever so expensive.

Were the notes five pound, ten pound or twenty pound notes?

 

[Time Waster]

My take on this is for touring with a young child it's possible to go further with a tandem. That makes issues like where to camp less stressful because you can do those longer days where you have no choice due to lack of campsites closer together.

 

[FLYINGGATER]

I had a Claude Butler SWB as a teenager was very fast on all terrains including hills. Would share F and R positions when riding with mates. Also covered many miles with a Blind stoker. She was very light and Strong. Other than a holiday in Jersey before we were married, my other half has not been so interested. Took my Tandem Trike along to the Village fate and gave rides at a pound a time, that was very hard work

 

[FolderBeholder]

The Missus and I had one. Through some form of (perceived) natural selection I was always the Capt.
With great title comes great responsibility. Planning one's turns was the rule, not the exception.

I nicknamed it the "Tantanic".

It's lonnng gone and I don' miss it.