Originally Posted by
Carbonfiberboy
Seeing indyfabz post up there reminded me that a big chunk of my cycling history involves tandeming and touring. Good grief. Brain is aging out, too.
The tandeming started as I was easing out of rando, so that was in 2007. At that point, I switched from being a 100% singles rider to a 10% singles rider, at least on the road. I still put a lot of miles on my rollers, but seldom ride my singles outdoors, preferring the tandem. As we got stronger on the tandem, we also knew were both aging. We started touring before it was too late, at first in the US. That was an immensely fun period, culminating in my many decades long dream of doing a cycling and drinking tour of the Czech Republic, now on the tandem.
Long story, but I speak a little Czech and know how good their beer is. I spent a couple months planning and we did a 3 week solo tour on the tandem. That was the most fun I ever had on a bicycle. The Czech people are interesting because they've been conquered so many times they've had to adapt. They have a fabulous sense of humor and the best beer in the world. Our most memorable stop was a couple days we accidentally spent camping in a nudist camp. That was in 2012.
Random scene:
You just reminded me of when my wife of 20+ years and I first got together. She loved the same sports as me: cycling, hiking, downhill skiing, running, travel, politics and religon and so we hit it off. The only point we really differed on was cycling strength and that’s where the tandem came in handy. After she learned to trust me and she stopped leaning the opposite way on turns the majority of our cycling was together on that bike. I called it, “the great equalizer” except when it came to long climbs, which would consistently just about kill me. Her favorite thing was chasing down other cyclists, since she also has a competitive bent (thankfully not in the relationship. BTDT). We loved cycling together so much we packed up our bike and shipped it to Milan for a four week bike riding adventure. Our bike got lost for four days by either the airline or incompetent baggage handlers. We missed all our reservations since we only planned on spending two days in Milan to acclimate. We were going to start our cycling adventure at Lake Como (of George Clooney fame) but an early investigative trip to the train depot were told “No bichis” allowed on the train to Como. So we made arrangements with then hotel to hold onto our bike, after a 20 minute shouting argument between the hotel staff. So we rented single bikes where we could and rode that way as the tandem sat in Milan. So we got some good riding in and were so impressed by how the Italian drivers were so good and courteous to cyclists. When we returned to Milan, we packed up the bike, only ridden one kilometer and shipped it home. Still had a good time but were disappointed that the Information desk lied about no bicycles on the train, because we went the next day to catch the train it had a complete car dedicated to bikes - I asked the conductor about bringing a bike and he said with a big grin and motioning to the empty car, “No problemo signore”.