Learning The Tandem Dance

Still making modifications to the tandem device.......

There is this thing called a tandem bicycle. I wanted one so that I could introduce my bicycle resistant daughter to the joys of cycling. She wasn't too thrilled about solo travel, but sitting behind Dad? She was okay with that idea after I sold her on the "you just have to sit there and pedal" deal. Trouble was, I didn't have a tandem.

That got solved last year when a very gracious and kind gentleman by the name of Bruce Brown stepped up and offered a Raleigh tandem to me on a "permanent loan" basis to further the cause of getting my daughter to the point that she could enjoy cycling with the family. So far, it has been a success story.

But we're still working on it.

There is a certain "dance" to tandem riding. Tandem owners all over that are reading this are probably all wagging their heads at my realization of this fact. You simply do not just "ride" a tandem. I can see the meme for that clearly! Anyway, it has been a revelatory experience for me. My daughter? She doesn't know anything else. For her, everything is "normal". Ha! If she only knew!

The first thing, as a "captain", that you need to do is to communicate. Yep. Got that right away. Shifting! Bump coming! Stopping! Coasting! Pedal! ......On and on. My daughter is really great at following my lead.

But I figured out something else just the other day. I was coming out of a tight corner with my daughter on the tandem while we were testing out a new saddle for her. The kind of slow speed corner that kills your momentum and might cause you to dab a foot type of thing. We were coasting. I thought, like a single rider, "Whoops! Too slow, too high a gear. Gonna be tough not to dab.....". Then I thought, "Pedal!". Oh yeah.....PEDAL! I called out the command. The "turbo boost" from my daughter righted the ship and we powered out of that corner like a motorcycle. That was fun.

I had us do it about six more times before calling it a night.

Learning The Tandem Dance

Still making modifications to the tandem device.......

There is this thing called a tandem bicycle. I wanted one so that I could introduce my bicycle resistant daughter to the joys of cycling. She wasn't too thrilled about solo travel, but sitting behind Dad? She was okay with that idea after I sold her on the "you just have to sit there and pedal" deal. Trouble was, I didn't have a tandem.

That got solved last year when a very gracious and kind gentleman by the name of Bruce Brown stepped up and offered a Raleigh tandem to me on a "permanent loan" basis to further the cause of getting my daughter to the point that she could enjoy cycling with the family. So far, it has been a success story.

But we're still working on it.

There is a certain "dance" to tandem riding. Tandem owners all over that are reading this are probably all wagging their heads at my realization of this fact. You simply do not just "ride" a tandem. I can see the meme for that clearly! Anyway, it has been a revelatory experience for me. My daughter? She doesn't know anything else. For her, everything is "normal". Ha! If she only knew!

The first thing, as a "captain", that you need to do is to communicate. Yep. Got that right away. Shifting! Bump coming! Stopping! Coasting! Pedal! ......On and on. My daughter is really great at following my lead.

But I figured out something else just the other day. I was coming out of a tight corner with my daughter on the tandem while we were testing out a new saddle for her. The kind of slow speed corner that kills your momentum and might cause you to dab a foot type of thing. We were coasting. I thought, like a single rider, "Whoops! Too slow, too high a gear. Gonna be tough not to dab.....". Then I thought, "Pedal!". Oh yeah.....PEDAL! I called out the command. The "turbo boost" from my daughter righted the ship and we powered out of that corner like a motorcycle. That was fun.

I had us do it about six more times before calling it a night.

Tandem Update

Making a few changes and tuning it up.

I made the news known a few weeks back that I had obtained a tandem bicycle from a generous individual who reads the blog here. This bike's  purpose is to bring my reluctant daughter into the world of riding a bicycle. That is something the rest of the family would love to see, by the way, not just myself. Anyway, the litmus test would be if she was going to be able to deal with the concept and actually take a test ride with me as the captain.

Happily, I can report that she took to it alright. I cannot say she is super excited, but she's open to the experience. I think that showing her that she is safe and won't fail will be paramount to her future as a possible solo cyclist. That's waaaay down the road, but the foundation is being laid with this bicycle right here.

So, with that test passed I got the green light to modify the bike to work for us. I swapped out the bars, stem, and grips. Then I put on a different saddle on the stoker's post, but this may be a work in progress depending upon how my daughter adjusts to riding more. I also tuned up the derailleurs and flushed out the RapidFire shifter pods to get the pawls and springs freed up. I also adjusted up the brakes and replaced the front noodle for the linear pull brake with a good used one. Mechanically, it's in top notch shape now.

Well, I should flip the front wheel back around!

Other than that, we're ready for several short, acclimatization rides to get my daughter into some semblance of "cycling shape" so her body doesn't hate on her after a longer ride. I'll hopefully have some good updates on our progress as Fall continues. Stay tuned.......

Tandem Update

Making a few changes and tuning it up.

I made the news known a few weeks back that I had obtained a tandem bicycle from a generous individual who reads the blog here. This bike's  purpose is to bring my reluctant daughter into the world of riding a bicycle. That is something the rest of the family would love to see, by the way, not just myself. Anyway, the litmus test would be if she was going to be able to deal with the concept and actually take a test ride with me as the captain.

Happily, I can report that she took to it alright. I cannot say she is super excited, but she's open to the experience. I think that showing her that she is safe and won't fail will be paramount to her future as a possible solo cyclist. That's waaaay down the road, but the foundation is being laid with this bicycle right here.

So, with that test passed I got the green light to modify the bike to work for us. I swapped out the bars, stem, and grips. Then I put on a different saddle on the stoker's post, but this may be a work in progress depending upon how my daughter adjusts to riding more. I also tuned up the derailleurs and flushed out the RapidFire shifter pods to get the pawls and springs freed up. I also adjusted up the brakes and replaced the front noodle for the linear pull brake with a good used one. Mechanically, it's in top notch shape now.

Well, I should flip the front wheel back around!

Other than that, we're ready for several short, acclimatization rides to get my daughter into some semblance of "cycling shape" so her body doesn't hate on her after a longer ride. I'll hopefully have some good updates on our progress as Fall continues. Stay tuned.......

Weekend Report: A Short Vacation

I know that the following may come as a surprise to some folks out there, but not everything I do revolves around cycling. Yeah......shocking, right? I know that I have contributed to that perception by keeping a pretty straight party line here on the blog, but it just ain't so, in reality. So, here is a bit of a diversion for your Monday reading and pixel peeping pleasure.

The family enjoying roaming the Rollins Mansion grounds

I worked with a fellow named Brian at the shop for a time. Sharper readers of this blog might remember that it was he that passed down the 1X1 frame to me. Anyway, he got married to a long time friend of mine's daughter, whom I've known since she was born. The wedding gig was at a place called the Rollins Mansion in Des Moines and it was a pretty cool venue. Only one issue with attending that service was that we missed it.

Yep. I completely blew the time of the service. It happened at 4:00pm and we didn't get there until just past 5:00pm. Oh well........ If you knew anything about my history concerning weddings, funerals, graduations and the like, you wouldn't be surprised. I have had a knack for getting times, places, and other things wrong. Well, this time it wasn't a total miscue. There was to be a dinner and after party held there, so we had that to look forward to. When we arrived, we snuck in the back way, (yes, the entire family), and mingled about the various folk there as if we had been there the entire time. Somewhat saving face and all, I guess.......

Anyway, the wedding party was getting photographed and someone wandering about informed us that we were encouraged to explore the mansion and grounds in the meantime. so, we did just that. Here are some random shots from the place.

Wedding party photo time

My daughter was enamored of the place.

I always feel like someone is watching me.....

Railing detail.

The two shall become as one.....

So, another thing y'all know about me is that I like flowers. Well, of course, there were flowers at this wedding. But since it was outside, I saw a couple of live flowers that also caught my attention.

Then there are people at weddings. Since I was real familiar with both sides of this deal, I knew a lot of people there. In fact, I saw some folks there I have not seen in a long, long time. This made for a lot of conversations and a very, very late night. Good thing I do Trans Iowa sleep deprivations every year, because I was up until 4:00am in the morning! All totally worth it though.

Former co-worker Jonathan (L) and Mike, a customer of the shop.

Wedding dance revelry.

Probably my favorite image of the weekend- Mrs. Guitar Ted lulling a young reveler to sleep.

There was one thing that was directly related to bicycling that came out of this trip. That was an offer to me by a reader of this blog who was willing to part ways with a tandem to help me fulfill my dream of having a tandem to get the family out together on bicycle rides. "BB" lived just 20 minutes away from the motel where we were staying so I made Saturday the rendezvous time to meet him and pick the rig up.

My son with the new to us tandem

 So, we picked up this Raleigh "Coupe" tandem and took it home. (Thanks BB!) It's already been test ridden by my son and I. so I am sure it will work out just fine for what I wanted it for. Hopefully it will work out that my daughter will finally be able to join the rest of us on family cycling outings. With a few tweaks, I hope to try that out soon.

The entire weekend was something of a vacation for us all. Especially for me. I "unplugged" from just about everything. I resisted checking e-mails and Facebook. (I did a few times) I focused on the people I was with, as much as I could. As I said, many of the people I chatted with I haven't seen in ten years or more. It was good to reconnect. Really good. It was also good to take a break from all the cycling-centric stuff I do. No testing, reviewing, writing, or training. The only time I was on a bicycle all weekend was for the two lap test ride of the tandem around the motel we stayed at with my son.

I even took a vacation from everything Trans Iowa. Maybe that concerned a few of you that sent in post cards and didn't see your name come up on the pages on the site. Well, I have done one update last evening and will do another today to get myself caught back up. If you haven't seen your name, now you know why.

So, that was a great weekend and I am tired and relaxed and ready to go back to the routine with a fresher outlook. It was a good time for the family, and we got a new tool that will hopefully become a thing that will allow us to do an activity I love together. That would be great if it works out that way. We will see. My son thinks he wants to be "Captain" with my daughter on the back. I'm not sure that would work out so well, but you never know.

Weekend Report: A Short Vacation

I know that the following may come as a surprise to some folks out there, but not everything I do revolves around cycling. Yeah......shocking, right? I know that I have contributed to that perception by keeping a pretty straight party line here on the blog, but it just ain't so, in reality. So, here is a bit of a diversion for your Monday reading and pixel peeping pleasure.

The family enjoying roaming the Rollins Mansion grounds

I worked with a fellow named Brian at the shop for a time. Sharper readers of this blog might remember that it was he that passed down the 1X1 frame to me. Anyway, he got married to a long time friend of mine's daughter, whom I've known since she was born. The wedding gig was at a place called the Rollins Mansion in Des Moines and it was a pretty cool venue. Only one issue with attending that service was that we missed it.

Yep. I completely blew the time of the service. It happened at 4:00pm and we didn't get there until just past 5:00pm. Oh well........ If you knew anything about my history concerning weddings, funerals, graduations and the like, you wouldn't be surprised. I have had a knack for getting times, places, and other things wrong. Well, this time it wasn't a total miscue. There was to be a dinner and after party held there, so we had that to look forward to. When we arrived, we snuck in the back way, (yes, the entire family), and mingled about the various folk there as if we had been there the entire time. Somewhat saving face and all, I guess.......

Anyway, the wedding party was getting photographed and someone wandering about informed us that we were encouraged to explore the mansion and grounds in the meantime. so, we did just that. Here are some random shots from the place.

Wedding party photo time

My daughter was enamored of the place.

I always feel like someone is watching me.....

Railing detail.

The two shall become as one.....

So, another thing y'all know about me is that I like flowers. Well, of course, there were flowers at this wedding. But since it was outside, I saw a couple of live flowers that also caught my attention.

Then there are people at weddings. Since I was real familiar with both sides of this deal, I knew a lot of people there. In fact, I saw some folks there I have not seen in a long, long time. This made for a lot of conversations and a very, very late night. Good thing I do Trans Iowa sleep deprivations every year, because I was up until 4:00am in the morning! All totally worth it though.

Former co-worker Jonathan (L) and Mike, a customer of the shop.

Wedding dance revelry.

Probably my favorite image of the weekend- Mrs. Guitar Ted lulling a young reveler to sleep.

There was one thing that was directly related to bicycling that came out of this trip. That was an offer to me by a reader of this blog who was willing to part ways with a tandem to help me fulfill my dream of having a tandem to get the family out together on bicycle rides. "BB" lived just 20 minutes away from the motel where we were staying so I made Saturday the rendezvous time to meet him and pick the rig up.

My son with the new to us tandem

 So, we picked up this Raleigh "Coupe" tandem and took it home. (Thanks BB!) It's already been test ridden by my son and I. so I am sure it will work out just fine for what I wanted it for. Hopefully it will work out that my daughter will finally be able to join the rest of us on family cycling outings. With a few tweaks, I hope to try that out soon.

The entire weekend was something of a vacation for us all. Especially for me. I "unplugged" from just about everything. I resisted checking e-mails and Facebook. (I did a few times) I focused on the people I was with, as much as I could. As I said, many of the people I chatted with I haven't seen in ten years or more. It was good to reconnect. Really good. It was also good to take a break from all the cycling-centric stuff I do. No testing, reviewing, writing, or training. The only time I was on a bicycle all weekend was for the two lap test ride of the tandem around the motel we stayed at with my son.

I even took a vacation from everything Trans Iowa. Maybe that concerned a few of you that sent in post cards and didn't see your name come up on the pages on the site. Well, I have done one update last evening and will do another today to get myself caught back up. If you haven't seen your name, now you know why.

So, that was a great weekend and I am tired and relaxed and ready to go back to the routine with a fresher outlook. It was a good time for the family, and we got a new tool that will hopefully become a thing that will allow us to do an activity I love together. That would be great if it works out that way. We will see. My son thinks he wants to be "Captain" with my daughter on the back. I'm not sure that would work out so well, but you never know.