Hope this does not go to the tandem section as it is a question for the general cycling people. Curious as to how many have never, or have ridden a tandem? And what is your experience, opinion? Good or bad?
I know it took the wife and I about 6 months to get rolling. At first it was like fighting one another, then once we got rolling, we were pretty slow. Lots of coordinating with one another to get a good stroke that was good for both of us as I am a spinner and she was a masher.
Amazing feeling once you get synchronized.
I remember after about a month on the bike, we were passed by a group of about 10 riders doing 20 MPH. We hopped on the back thinking we could hold the pace but after 1/4, we were done.
Kept at it, just doing our thing and our styles started to mesh. Few months later, we're at the front pulling a group at about 24 MPH. Such an amazing feeling once the team gets with it!
Some say it will make or break a relationship. I will say we have been riding our tandem as well as singles for 22 years. Still plenty of fun!
We've done 4 organized centuries on the tandem, pretty cool but most rides are 40'ish.
After a 3 mile 5% grade, she wants to stretch. One thing is that we climb faster on the tandem than she does on her single. But I'm slower on the tandem than I am on my single. But the fun factor makes up for the loss of speed. Little local midweek course, we hit the hill 3 times for a good amount of midweek climbing.
Night rides are great. Plenty of lights and hard to miss on the road.
Nice rolling on the flats and downhills.
Climbing on a hot day, she needs a break ha ha! I want to do a local 8 mile climb with 2300 ft gain, 6% grade but she's not crazy about the idea but still trying to talk her into it. Though I am not too happy about having to come down. Get rolling pretty fast on the downhills.
Totally fun IMO!