Filled up our tandem-hauler and camper-tow-er the other day … in our case a 2000 Dodge full size van.  Cost $85, (update 4/23 - $100 this time!), and it wasn’t even on empty yet!  And they say it’s going to get even worse by the summer!

You would think with this much of an increase happening this fast that the number of people commuting or doing short trips by bicycle would dramatically increase.

Well, not in this country!  This is the second time in my life that gas has been ridiculously expensive and/or simply unavailable.  In 1973 they had us waiting in lines to buy gas on alternating days according to tag numbers!  As it happened, I was managing a shop called Lancaster’s Bikeways in downtown St. Pete at the time.

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I ran across this article by Alan Snel, (http://tinyurl.com/4yf4mz), while surfing over the mornings RSS feeds.  I’ve been riding in this state since 1972 and never knew about this road!  Sounds like Maggi and I are just going to have to ride it sometime this year! 

Even sounds like a good route to plan a regional tandem ride!  We tried that last year with a Suncoast Trail ride but had to postpone it twice, once due to weather and a second time due to illness.  After that, everyone lost interest.  But we’ll try again.  Maybe this time we can get something going!

Naturally, we’ll post whatever we come up with on the TandemRides RideBoard.

Bill

I know it’s not specifically a tandem topic, but hey!  This is *OUR* blog! 

TandemRides is finally done and at least functional enough to let me quit spending my every spare minute on it!  Boy, did I ever underestimate the work  with both the new forums and the blogs!  I mean *nothing* worked the way I needed it too, and I had to give myself a crash course in PhP.

Still, the only tool in my PhP tool box is a baseball bat, but at least I’m not afraid to use it!  I could *never* be a programmer!

So.  What do I have planned for this space.  I really am going to get around to writing a review on the BlueAnt Interphone comm systems.  The short of it is we really like them.  Even rode them in the rain the other day … no baggies or any of that hoo-hah.  They were designed to be on the side of a motorcycle helmet at 80mph in a pouring rain.

Our setup makes us look like the Borg from Star Trek, though!  WE ARE BORG.  RESISTANCE IS FUTILE!

We both like the way the InterPhone units are small and light enough to simply be velcroed onto our helmets, which puts everything there … unit, earpiece and mike, etc.  Take your helmet off, and off comes the comm system.  No wires down your back, nothing!

We mounted them towards the back like this to try and move them out of the airstream, although at the speeds I ride these days, it hardly matters!

I don’t know if you can see it, but I have a makeshift neckband on this one.  That’s the only part I’m not happy with yet.  It’s not designed to be a “worn” headset.  It’s supposed to be mounted semi-permanently inside a motorcycle helmet.  So I’ll let everyone know when I figure out a system that anyone can make up on their kitchen table with nothing more than a knife and SuperGlue!

Bill

Wow! I don’t know where to start! I went from finding cycling a little scary to I LOVE CYCLING!

We have 8 bicycles in our garage right now. Of those 3 are tandems. The tandems are really cool because the stoker and the captain are riding the same distance. This way your boyfriend or husband can’t take off and leave you! :)  I guess this can be good but you should really have a good relationship before becoming tandem riders. It can make or break a relationship!

It takes a while to be able to give someone that much control. It can be scary at first, but if you trust the person captaining then it gets easier the more you ride.  This is a picture of myself and my very own captain! (AKA my husband,Bill)

We have ridden a bunch of organized rides but also like to just get out by ourselves. We ride on the tandem most times together but occasionally we ride our singles.

I ride my single a lot with my best friend Ronda. She happens to be the mom of my daughter’s best friend, Reina. We all ride sometimes!

Maggi