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| Our Cannondale gave us many years of faithful service, including riding in England in 1993. |
The End
Somehow I suspect that you’d like a few more details than that! Rightly so. Let’s face it – The National Enquirer wouldn’t sell very many copies if they didn’t put a little extra verbiage into each article. So like them, I’ll throw you a little more substance. However, unlike the Enquirer, the details in the following story are actually true.
We were both in the middle of our respective divorces at the time: hers civil, mine anything but. In spite of that turmoil, we had a feeling we were heading for a long term relationship and found ourselves at a local bike shop one day. They carried a few different brands of bikes (as most bike shops are apt to do); one of their offerings was from Cannondale bikes, and among Cannodale’s lineup in 1991 was a road tandem.
I made it clear that I’d always wanted a tandem; she made it clear that she had more beauty than brains when she immediately agreed to the plan. We pooled what little resources we had, gambling that we’d actually stay together so the tandem would have a constant pair of riders and together we made our first major purchase.
Not a good plan, by most standards – but surprisingly it worked for us! In fact, when we look back at it, this was probably the smartest purchase we’ve ever made. We’ve been riding together for 24 years, and have no desire to stop doing so for the next 24.
There are a variety of riding styles when it comes to cycling on a tandem. Some people communicate every little detail. “Left pedal up.” “Coast, 3, 2, 1…” “Pedal!” “Turning right.” And so the list goes on, with a command or warning for each and every action that’s about to occur.
There wasn’t anyone around to teach us the nuances of tandem riding when we started, so when we took the bike out for the first time there wasn’t any communication to speak of. We just got on and figured it out as we went.
We learned quickly that when we’re at a standstill, the “stoker” (the person on the back, oft times called the rear admiral) remains seated and the “captain” (the one up front) holds the bike up for both of them. We found that Valerie is very intuitive at feeling when we’re going to pedal, and when we’re going to coast and that I don’t need to communicate this to her. She feels what I’m doing and reacts immediately.
We (or should I say I?) found out that calling out a warning for a bump before we hit it saves the captain from the stoker’s wrath. (Bumps seem to be intensified through the seat on the back of a tandem, and for some odd reason stokers don’t like it when you hit a major rut without a verbal warning so they can rise up off of the saddle just in the knick of time.)
All-in-all, we were very lucky with the outcome of our purchase, considering we went into it with NO knowledge of what the heck we were getting ourselves into! We didn’t have the opportunity for a test ride as the dealer didn’t have any tandems in stock. He simply told us that he thought the Cannondale was a good, solid bike and suggested which size would work best for us. It wasn’t until he had ordered the bike and set it up for us that we took our first tandem ride together. Not the greatest plan… but it worked for us.
Today we ride a Santana Beyondand the Cannodale has gone on to find a new home elsewhere. We drove from Idaho to a couple of different shops in California (who had several tandems in stock and available for sale) specifically to test-ride various models before we made a decision as to which model would be our next “baby”. No more buying “sight unseen” for us! In fact, had we simply relied on the construction information about each bike, I would have chosen a different model than the one we’re now riding. But having been able to test ride the different models all in the same afternoon we soon came to understand that our initial impression would have been a bad call!
The moral of this story is two-fold: don’t rely on The National Enquirer for the truth, and try and seek out a shop that will allow you to test ride tandems before buying! Internet searches are a great tool for tandem clubs in your area, members of which are usually quite happy to answer questions about tandem riding, and to find shops that actually have some inventory on the floor. Don’t be hesitant to travel to a city where there’s a shop who has a tandem inventory; in the end it’s well worth the time and effort to find the perfect tandem that fits and feels right for you.
Or you could rely on ignorant dumb-luck like we did back in 1991 and just buy one sight unseen! (But that wouldn’t be my first choice today!)
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