What a fun ride it’s been! We even left our wedding reception on a tandem bicycle:
(Yes, we changed clothes before riding away.) My sister did a great job decorating the tandem, didn’t she? We borrowed the tandem from one of my coworkers, who happened to live only a couple of miles from our reception venue. Robert and I simply rode from the reception to my coworker’s house, where we had parked our car. I had to talk Robert into the tandem idea (like I do with many of my ideas!), but he was glad we did it.
For years we thought about getting our own tandem, and we finally did about nine years ago. We got a Burley Rivazza:
Burley quit making tandems about the time we got ours. In fact, ours was on the production line when all of the tandem constructors were laid off. Management had to come in and finish our order. Robert and I have the distinction of having the last Burley Rivazza ever made.
Although we mostly ride our single bikes, we enjoy the tandem a lot, too. One of our favorite tandem events is the Georgia Tandem Rally (GTR). Held in mid to late May, GTR draws over 100 tandem teams from several dozen states. It’s a long weekend of great riding and fun social events. The host city varies each year. Robert and I are really looking forward to GTR 2015 in a few weeks, which will be in Macon this year.
This past Sunday I had 75 miles on my RAAM training schedule. With all the miles I’m putting in, I’m trying to visit some new and interesting places on my rides. I decided to ride to Rock Hawk, the perfect distance fit for my plans. Then, I realized that it was also time for us to take the tandem out for a spin in preparation for the upcoming GTR. Robert gamely agreed to join me on a tandem ride to Rock Hawk.
Rock Hawk is an effigy created by Native Americans thousands of years ago. It’s actually one of two effigies in neighboring Putnam County. The other, better-known effigy is Rock Eagle. Both are piles of rocks placed in roughly bird shapes. I had been to Rock Eagle a number of times, but this was my first visit to Rock Hawk.
An interpretive trail leads to Rock Hawk. Signs along the trail give some natural history of the area. An observation tower provides an overall view of Rock Hawk. Even from the top of the tower, however, it’s difficult to photograph the entire effigy:
What a beautiful afternoon! This is my favorite time of year. Everything is so green and lush, and many of the seasonal flowers are white. This yucca, the first one we’ve noticed blooming this year, particularly caught our eye:
I love white flowers. We used all white flowers in our wedding, which were lovely amidst our other wedding color, emerald green. One way we celebrate our anniversary each year is by providing the flowers at church on the first Sunday in May. This year I wanted to do something extra special, and so I had the local florist make an arrangement of 20 white tulips, commemorating one of the signature flowers in my bridal bouquet:
All these white flowers and our tandem ride gave us an early start to this year’s anniversary celebration!
When we ride the tandem, Robert is the captain (the front rider), and I’m the stoker (the back rider). Although it’s not an exact parallel – we certainly view ourselves as equals! – riding the tandem is kind of like being married. When we got our tandem, the first thing we had to learn was simply how to coordinate our balance. You have to adjust your focus from being completely independent on a single bicycle to working together on the tandem. Robert said that it felt like he was driving a cattle trailer (ha ha!). He didn’t mean that unkindly; he grew up on a farm and knows what it feels like to drive a shifting, live load. As for me, I had to get used to not having any steering, gears, or brakes because Robert does all of that from the front. I soon learned, however, that that freed me up to do a lot more sightseeing than I get to do on my single bike.
Pooling our resources on the tandem has other advantages, too. Because one tandem weighs less than two single bicycles, we can go faster with the same power output. In geek terms, the tandem gives us a better power-to-weight ratio.
It helps to have similar preferences. Both of us start with our left foot clipped in, and we have similar cadences. If such things were wildly different between us, it would make for a much more difficult ride.
One thing we practiced over time was standing together on the tandem. Standing makes climbing hills easier. At first, Robert would stand while I remained seated. This worked OK, but we couldn’t generate the power and rhythm we wanted. It seemed like we weren’t making much progress, but then one day it kind of clicked. We finally were able to stand together. These days, I can usually anticipate when Robert will signal he’s ready to climb. He counts down, “Three, two, one,” and – smooth as silk – we stand in unison. He sits when he’s ready, and I simply follow suit. It’s a good system. Furthermore, we’ve learned how to hold onto the tandem while we’re standing. We can’t be too tense, but we also can’t hold on so loosely that we throw the bike around too much.
I love my tandem/life partner. Ride on!
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