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MARCH 28th UPDATE

Slow news week.... so, now for something completely different!


Bicycle Quarterly; Oh The Joy - As mentioned late last year, I gave myself a Christmas gift of a Vintage Bicycle Quarterly library, inclusive of all back issues, a current subscription and both Jan Heine's The Golden Age of Handbuilt Bicycles and his latest book, The Competition Bicycle ­ A Photographic History. Today, the Spring 2009 issue arrived and as always it was chock-full of interesting articles and wonderful images, to include the ubiquitous presence of tandem bicycles.

The Spring '09 edition focuses on cycling in Europe during the 1930's and 40's and features a still photo of a tandem taxi racing team. The wealth of information in the back issues of VBQ regarding tandems and tandeming has been well worth the cost of the library alone, particularly for an enthusiast who has a deep affinity for the more simple times when bicycles were more common than the automobiles. Again, well worth a look for anyone looking for a restrospective on historic cycling, technology or current studies and book reviews.


Speaking of Retrospectives - One of the forums I frequent has been all a buzz about the risks associated with cycling ever since Lance Armstrong broke his collarbone. While tempted to weigh in I have, instead, elected to reminisce about the early days of cycling in my youth. This was a time when just about every kid rode a bike to school, families would go out for rides around their neighborhood and nearly all the local newspapers were delivered by kids like me who ride bikes. Funny how today the bikes have been long gone and now so too are most of the local newspapers: I believe this is called progress?

Anyway, lest I digress further...

As I pondered the past and cycling's rightful place in history I was reminded that helmets, risk and the other current trappings of 'cycling' just weren't a part of my memory. We rode our bikes in street clothes and knew how to ride with traffic, just as we all knew how to walk against traffic. Our bikes all had mud guards and kickstands and in the Northeast we nervously anticipated that annual safety check the local police would perform at the Tisdale Elementary School before they would trade our registration card for a brand new, shiny reflective registration decal.

As I leafed through and pre-scanned my Spring '09 Bicycle Quarterly I saw several photos of tandems from the 30's that reinforced my recollection of cycling in Europe and urban centers in the Northeast US... Yes, people rode bikes! Cyclists were, in fact, the exception and not the rule as it was rare to see someone training on a bicycle outside the confines of a velodrome. In fact, and with this in mind, I did a Google image search on the phrase, people riding bicycles and found images of, well, people riding bikes. These were all kinds of people riding all kinds of bike and for a variety of different reasons but most in street clothes and not wearing helmets with a few helmeted cyclists dotted about and, yes, even a photo of naked people riding bikes (be forewarned). However, when I searched on images using just the term cyclists I was both shocked and surprised to find the results were dominated by helmeted racers, club riders and naked people riding bikes with just a few 'civilian cyclists' represented. There were far more cartoons and, well, just a lot of naked people riding bikes.

In an effort to shake off both the images of body-painted and nude cyclists and as well as the packs of helmet-clad cyclists, I sought refuge at You Tube with a two-part video reproduction of a 1955 movie produced by the British Rail film board entitled "Cyclists Special." What would it be like to hold a tandem rally like this!?

Cyclists Special, Part I

Cyclists Special, Part II

Of course, as fate would have it I also stumbled across another interesting video that chronicled cycling in all of its various forms during pre and post-war Europe, where tandems, recumbents and even semi-recumbents were all in evidence as were a few other more bizarre cycling creations: not much has changed aside at least in the variety department.

Cycling in its many forms

Thinking back on the Bicycle Quarterly I decided to build a small collage of cycling images from the 30's 60's and 70's, the latter all pulled from Bob Hufford's exceptional collection of Schwinn Lightweight Bicycle information, including scanned images of every consumer catalog from the 60's through the late 70's. For your enjoyment that is, if you're old enough to remember. Click on the smaller images to see larger ones and be sure to check out the prices on those tandems!!


And, lets not forget what the prototypical mountain biker looked like in Marin County, circa 1976..

From Charlie Kelly's Website

circa 1977.. with the likes of Joe Breeze & Gary Fisher

 


MARCH 21st UPDATE

REMINDER!!! It's Open House Season

SUNDAY March 22 - Mt Airy Spring Demo Days (MD)


SATURDAY & SUNDAY March 28 & 29 - Tandems East / Tandem Expo (NJ)


Tandems East Introduces Hokitika - Tandems East is introducing its own house-branded line of tandems to fill the gap left when Burley Design began to implode a few years back now.From the TandemsEast.com website, "With the departure of Burley Design Coop Tandems in 2006 a void was left in the steel tandem marketplace for tandems in the $2000 - $3000 price range. We believe the Hokitika 2-BE-ONE fills this void. A good quality American made tandem for the first time tandem buyers." You can find additional details HERE.


MTBTandems Introduces US-Made Twenty-Niner - Good friend and mountain tandem bike empesario Alex Nutt of MTBTandems.com in Canton, Georgia, has been associated with Sherwood Gibson of Ventana USA for several years as one of Ventana's top tandem dealers. Along the way, Alex has become a big fan of 29" wheeled hardtail bikes and recently collaborated with Ventana to bring design & fabrication of MTBTandems' Fandango branded frames back to the US with their new 29" hardtail model. You can find additional details and pricing HERE. CLICK on the thumbnail photo to see a high-res photo of the first production model.


Dave Porter Turns His Attention Back To Tandems & Cycling - Before moving into classic automotive car restoration Dave Porter made some very exciting frames including a national record-setting track tandem. Dave recently decided to see if he couldn't replicate his success and has embarked on a new track tandem project that you can read about HERE. His Tandem Project web page is quite comprehensive in that it takes you back to the late 80's and gives you the back story on his first tandem, through the entire frame fabrication process of the new tandem and as of yesterday reports on the maiden test ride. Pretty exciting stuff for the geeks among you. Sponsorship Opportunities: As a self-funded project, Dave would welcome offers of sponsorship and/or donations from component manufactures or enthusiasts for the planned Tandem Hour Record attempt in Colorado Springs later this year. The riders are to be John Frey (50) a former amateur Hour record holder and Josh Reddoch.


Sebring Tandem Rally (Florida) Canceled - We learned through frequent T@H & BF contributor Bill Cotney that the 2009 edition of the annual Sebring Tandem Rally was canceled. Some of the regulars may still gather for unsupported group rides from the Kenilworth on April 4th and 5th.


Covered Bridges Tandem Weekend (Ohio) - Doug Crush recently wrote to let us know he will once again host the Covered Bridges Tandem Weekend on September 12 and 13 in Northeast Ohio.  No website but you can download the information sheet HERE.



Co-Motion Offering Topolino Wheel Option on Racing Tandems - Co-Motion recently announced that it would begin to offer the Topolino AX3.0T tandem-specific wheelset as an upgrade option on its race-level Robusta, Supremo & Macchiato tandems. Although pricing wasn't posted to their Web site just yet, I suspect the up charge would be a a couple hundred dollars as the Topolino wheelset MSRP is about $400 more than the Rolf Prima-Vigor tandem model that they would replace. The added cost nets buyers a set of wheels that are 300 grams lighter than the already fairly light Rolf's and what I would characterize as a much more plush ride based on our past year's experience riding both the Topolino AX3.0Ts and Rolf's on our personal tandems.

Editorial: We thoroughly enjoy and appreciate the performance and ride qualities of our Topolino and Rolf wheels -- they look awesome too -- and would encourage anyone looking for these types of wheels to consider putting a set on their tandem. Just recognize that beyond the marketing there is reality. In this regard, the caveat I would apply to folks who are interested in high-end racing wheels but who will use them for daily use and training is, if you ride them every day they're no longer 'racing' wheels in that any performance benefit they might offer on race day will be lost since, well, that benefit will have been assimilated into your daily riding effort. Additionally, high-end racing wheels from folks at Rolf, Topolino, Bontrager and Shimano-Santana are expensive to buy, expensive to repair and must be returned to the manufacturer or an authorized dealer in most cases for any type of service. Therefore, hitting a pot hole on a recreational ride where a conventional set of wheels would have been more than adequate and appropriate can become a costly experience and put you off your tandem for a week or so UNLESS you happen to have that second set of conventional wheels as a back-up. Just some food for thought. We have a lovely set of White Ind / Velocity Deep-V wheels as well... Just in case.


A visit to Calfee Design - Ben Marks recently took a tour of the Calfee facility at LaSelva Beach, California. You can read the article HERE and see a slide show where you'll find Craig in his jumpsuit hard at work on a tandem, underscoring that you're as likely to find Craig in the shop working on YOUR tandem (e.g., he's had his hands on ours a couple times), teaching folks how to build tandems in Ghana, visiting bamboo suppliers in Taiwan or meeting with consumers at the NAHBS or other shows around the world: Yes, I think quite highly of Craig. Now, speaking of Calfee the business, one of the things you'll read in Ben's article speaks volumes about Calfee and the depth of their expertise with composites, "Much of the activity revolves around the arrival of as many as half a dozen broken carbon frames per day. In fact, Calfee has quite a good side business going repairing the frames of its competitors. The fact that so many cyclists look to Calfee Design to get the job done right should tell you something." Like I said, this speaks volumes about Calfee.


The Geek's Weekly Potpourri of Bloggishness


Four more weeks in the walking cast = 10 weeks off the bike. Not good. In other news, I'm continually amazed at the lack of objective 'reporting' that seems to come across the Blogs. I swear, "I read it on the internet so it must be true" will be the downfall of civilization as we know it. Print reporters, love 'em or hate 'em, have always been the front line for the truth and were held to a standard for gathering facts and reporting the truth. While they may not always gather or present all of the facts, what they do print is usually fact-based and fact-checked by an editorial staff. With Blogs, it's hit or miss and I'm sorry, there are just too many folks -- young and old, liberal and conservative, agnostic or devout -- who prefer 'truthiness' of things to the truth, particularly when the truth may take some time and effort to ascertain. The latter just doesn't cut it in an instant-gratification / short attention span world where everyone is in such a hurry to get to the 'end' that they forget to enjoy the journey.


MARCH 14th UPDATE

Registration Opens for Tennessee Tandem Rally on Monday, March 16 - Albeit a bit later than usual, registration for the Tennessee Tandem Rally will officially open on March 16th (EST) with the posting of the downloadable registration form to the TTR Website which you can find HERE. As in past years, attendance will be limited to 50 teams. If you're interested I wouldn't dawdle too long: GTR sold out in about a week or so this year, once you factor in the pre-registration window with open registration for the balance of the remaining slots filled in about 2 days. A lot of the folks who missed out have already been tapping on the box office windows for TTR and last year's attendees have been given a heads-up to look for the form being posted on March 16. Fair warning, that's all.


Bamboosero Bikes Now A Reality - Craig Calfee recently launched a new enterprise called Bamboosera Bikes to advance the production of bamboo bicycles in places of Ghana and anywhere else where inexpensive, easy to assembly transportation can improve peoples lives through both industry and the movement of people and commerce.  Check it out HERE.


Tandem Folks in the Bloggosphere: Seth & Kathy Krieger, FLA - Seth and Kathy are tandem enthusiasts who are doing a cross country tour on the installment plan. You can learn more about them on their blog which you can find HERE.


Dancing Bear Bicycle Bash, April 3-5 Townsend, TN - Matt Alexander and Tennessee Tandem Rally gluttons for punishment Tim & Sharon Patterson have teamed up once again to put on a posh weekend of cycling in Townsend, Tennessee, Gateway to the Smokey Mountains National Park.  You can read a great article about the weekend HERE or check out their Website HERE.


Celeb Matt Damon = Ace Stoker?  Yup, fellow tandem-geek Henry Able forward a link to a SkyNews article where Matt Damon took out from filing in South Africa to participate in a 110k cycling event call the Cape Argus Cycle Tour to raise money for the Make a Difference Charity.  You can read more about it and see photos of Damon stoking for his brother HERE.


MTB Tandem World Championship @ Cool, California, Oct '09 - I think we may have already posted an item on this new event but it bears repeating because it's, well, pretty cool.  The event will be held in conjunction with the Mountain Unicycle and Single Speed Championships in NorCal the weekend of October 9-10, offer cash prizes for for the Co-Ed Class, and also provide awards and prizes for Male & Female teams as well. You can learn more about it HERE.


How Tandem Cycling Changes Lives - It's no secret that a tandem can allow people to cycle who might not otherwise be able to ride due to various handicaps.  Here's one story about just such a person, Peter Quaiattini of Calgary who has been sight impaired his entire life and a tandem enthusiast since age 8.  More importantly, it was though tandem cycling that he met his wife who was a volunteer tandem pilot with the Trailblazers Tandem Cycling Club in Toronto.  You can read his entire story HERE.


HEY! That's a photo of US?! -  The internet is a strange place in that every now and again a digital image of you hosted on someone's public photo album will show up in someone's Blog, personal website, discussion forum or even a commercial site... and often times in violation of copyright laws, i.e., without the permission of the photo's owner or a model release from the subjects of the photos.  Sometimes it's harmless, sometimes it's not but it's always a bit disconcerting when you first make the discovery.   Such a discovery occurred this week when a Bicycle Radar posting about a bike shop in the UK used a photo of some friends in just such a way. I first saw it in my daily search engine feed and shortly thereafter saw a posting on Facebook from a friend and one of the subjects in the photo who was equally surprised when they became cycling icons in the UK. Thankfully, it was a nice photo used in a positive vane; however, it's still a no-no given the commercial nature of the site and business being promoted. 


The Geek's Weekly Potpourri of Bloggishness

WooHoo..  I've been able to get around pretty well without crutches in my walking cast this past week and have even taken to moving about the house without the cast in an effort to get some mobility back into my ankle. My calf muscle did not take kindly to the rude awaking after 6 weeks of Zero use and the ligaments are also complaining.  However, it feels like progress just the same.  Still haven't decided if I want to keep my knee-walker as insurance against a future injury because sure as the sun rises, if I sell it I'll probably need it.  Seriously though, if you ever have a lower leg injury or surgery where you cannot put weight on your foot and would like to avoid the loss of your hands due to crutches, the iWalkFree is worth investigating.  It draws strange looks and comments, but it really allows you to function without feeling like an invalid.   End of pitch and, no, I have no financial interest in the firm.  I'm just appreciative for having been able to keep walking on my 'peg leg' and not be a burden to my wife as I was able to take care of my chores and do most of the things I normally do about the house and at at work.



MARCH 7th UPDATE

It's Open House Season At Tandem Dealers - If you've been thinking about tandems and wanted to learn more, see some hardware and perhaps take some meaningful test rides, now's the time to do it.  Unfortunately, tandem speciality dealers are far and few between and only a couple put forth the effort to host these events and, in that regard, it's the folks who live within a few hours of Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., who are best served:

March 22 - Mt Airy Spring Demo Days (MD):  - Larry Black at Mt. Airy Cyclery in Maryland will host his 18th annual Spring Demo Day featuring bicycle rides, food, displays, demos, and fun. There will be group rides, recumbent and tandem bikes on display and available to test ride, special needs equipment, local cycling club members on hand to offer tips, and plenty of food. Although a bit thin on details compared to their newsletter, you can find more details at their Website HERE.


March 28 & 29 - Tandems East / Tandem Expo (NJ): A must-do event with guest speakers from Co-Motion (Dwan Shepard), Rolf Wheels (Rolf Deitrich), daVinci (Brian Davis), Seven Cycles (Joe Wignall), Cane Creek (Eric Smith), Your Cycling Italia (Bill Speckman) and master personal trainer Jeff Baker from Vineland, NJ.  As always, your host and co-owner of Tandems East, Mel Kornbluh, will kick things off with his Tandeming 101.   Oh yeah, and there will also be more tandems on display than you'll ever see in one place short of a very large tandem rally, refreshments and test rides are encouraged. You can read my post-expo report from last year at this URL and find more details regarding the Expo at Tandem East's Website HERE.


Friends Don't Let Friends Ride Alone - Here's a great story out of Tucson, Arizona that speaks volumes about the value of true friendship and how, once again, a tandem can have a tremendous impact on someone's life.  You'll find the story entitled Quite a ride with compassionate friends HERE.


Canadian Triathletes Undeterred by Sight Impairment - The Blind Guys Tri Team is made up of 30 Canadians who range in age from 16 to 66 with varying degrees of sight impairment.   While training in competing in triathlons is hard enough -- with or without sight impairment -- finding 30 tandem bicycles was yet another challenge this team had to meet. You can read their story HERE.


NWTandemRacing.com Makes VeloNews - Regular readers may recall an early item here at thetandemlink.com regarding Henry Abel's new tandem bicycle racing website, NWTandemRacing.com. Well, word keeps getting around and Henry got a HUGE boost in exposure on March 3 when VeloNews ran a comprehensive article on the site.  You can find it HERE


North American Handmade Bicycle Show Winners! - CyclingNews ran a very comprehensive series of articles on the NAHBS held in Indianapolis, IN back on Feb 27 - Mar 1 and in Part 3 focused on the winners of the "Best ____" awards. Taking top honors for the tandems was Stephen Bilenky's lugged homage to the Jack Taylor tandems of years gone by; resplendent in its deep red and cream colors.  The CyclingNews Gallery can be found HERE and the tandem gallery from the NAHBS show is HERE. However, there was actually a second best tandem, but this one stole the Best Titanium Bike category.  Kent Eriksen's coupled somehow eluded a few cameras but some diligent searching by yours truly has uncovered a few photos HERE and HERE.


Tandem Folks in the News: Michael Armstrong, Portland OR - Michael Armstrong manages the City of Portland, Oregon's climate protection agency but, more importantly, he's a tandem enthusiast of the first order.  He's also one of this year's Alice B. Toeclip Award nominees.  You can read about and see photos of Michael and his family HERE.


Big Ass Chard from Adler Fels Winery - I've got to give credit where credit is due to Gary Koenig whose column is carried by the Denver Examiner for this discovery... and it's a Big Ass find, literally. Adler Fels Winery apparently has a brand called Big Ass wines -- full-bodied, robust, soft, warm California wines -- that features some brilliant labels. Their Big Ass Chard (as in Chardonnay) label makes this the ideal gift for your next social, off-bike dinner party with your tandeming friends. We'll have to see if it's carried locally as the only thing we can buy direct from Adler Fels is the poster as direct alcohol sales are a no-no to Georgia residents.


The Geek's Weekly Potpourri of Bloggishness

Well, it's weight-on-wheels, er leg this week and by golly it feels good to waddle; walking is next... albeit in my walking cast. Debbie rode off to enjoy a beautiful afternoon ride today whilst I didn't and, well, that's tough. With any luck I'll be able to soft pedal a stationary bike this week (unbeknownst to my ortho) and that will hopefully give me an indication of how long rehab / recovery is going to take.


FEBRUARY 28th UPDATE

What to know where the Stimulus $$ Might Be Going? Long-time, good friend Hank passed a long a pretty slick Website URL that allows you to search a data base of potential spending stimulus projects. It's pretty interesting to see how funds could be used in our area. Just searching on "bike" and "bicycle" I was able to find 240 projects totaling about $863,395,288 allocated to 33 different states. For perspective, that's about 0.11% of the $787B stimulus package. You can find the Stimuluswatch.org Website HERE.

Note: Be sure to read the disclaimers and FAQs regarding this any any other site related to stimulus spending, e.g., from StimulusWatch.org:

"StimulusWatch.org was built to help the new administration keep its pledge to invest stimulus money smartly, and to hold public officials to account for the taxpayer money they spend. We do this by allowing you, citizens around the country with local knowledge about the proposed "shovel-ready" projects in your city, to find, discuss and rate those projects. These projects are not part of the stimulus bill. They are candidates for funding by federal grant programs once the bill passes. Learn more by reading the FAQs."

FAQ Example: "The data on this site comes from the U.S. Conference of Mayors' MainStreet Economic Recovery Report. If a city did not include its "shovel-ready" projects on that list, you won't find it here. However, this does not mean that cities that are not included here do not have projects they'd like to see funded. Once the stimulus bill passes, cites will make requests for federal grants, and we will likely see grants to projects not listed on this site."


North American Handmade Bicycle Show @ Indianapolis, IN on Feb 27 - Mar 1: If you love bicycles and live any where near Indianapolis, IN, you owe it to yourself to attend this year's North American Handmade Bicycle Show. This is a show for anyone who appreciates or wants to learn more about the art of hand-made bicycle frames and to see some of the most amazing bicycles you've ever seen as some 100 artisans gather to show and discuss their craft. You can find all kinds of great articles and find photos at the NAHBS Website HERE. Attendance at Friday's show was 1,700, far exceeding last year's 1,230 or so at Portland, OR. For those who can't make it to the show, be sure to search out some of the coverage and photos that will pop-up on the Web over the next several days, like the ones you'll find at Urban Velo's Web site HERE, HERE and HERE


Interested in Being A Tandem Pilot For Sight Impaired Stokers? The United States Association of Blind Athletes (USABA) is working in partnership with the Blind Center Veterans Administration Hospital in Palo Alto, California to match up local tandem owners from the South Bay area with sight impaired vets. You can read more about the program and find contact information in this article posted HERE.


What Comes To Mind When You Hear "Custom Paint Job?" - One of the joys of having a love-affair with bicycles is taking the time and investing a few bucks (or sweat equity for those with the skills) to differentiate your machine from all of the others in the world. As it is with all other wheeled vehicles, a custom paint scheme is certainly a great way to do that. Of course, custom paint is a fairly wide-open field, ranging from simply picking a special color, specifying a multi-color or fade paint scheme, or in the case of a Co-Motion Roadster recently delivered by Jim's Bicycle Shop in Cincinnati, Ohio.... it could be a tandem where the front half was painted to mimic a Holstein cow while the back is covered with a field of sunflowers. You can see a photo of this eye-catching machine HERE.


Iowa Considers New Law To Protect Cyclists - While some states have adopted 3-foot laws in an effort to protect cyclists from passing motorists, Iowa's Senate pass a new bill this week by a vote of 30-17 that mandates a 5-foot clear zone and other provisions. The bill is now in the House for consideration. You can read more about it HERE.


No Job To Big - OK, this is yet another entry that's not specific to tandems but that may be of interest to tandem enthusiasts since getting a proper fit for non-standard sized teams is often times a challenge. You can find a nice little article on Co-Motion's Blog about one of their customers, a 7' tall, 325 gentleman HERE.


Tandem Folks in the News: David & Marcia Sykuta of Springfield, IL - David & Marcia are recumbent tandem enthusiasts who live and ride throughout the Midwest. They are now working with other cycling enthusiasts in their community to develop a permanent bicycle advisory group for their community. You can read about their efforts HERE.


Redlands Rotary Ride Offers Tandem-Friendly Pricing! WooHoo, yet another event where the organizers are reaching out to families by offering discounted registration rates for tandems as well as a family pack. This year's Redlands Rotary Ride in Redlands, California will be held on March 28th in conjunction with what will be the 25th running of the Redlands Bike Classic, California's oldest professional stage race. You can read the short article in the Redlands Daily Facts HERE, visit the Redlands Rotary Ride website HERE, and learn more about the Redlands Classic HERE.


Tandems and Weddings: A Classic - While there are all kinds of stories about couples who have incorporated tandem bicycles into their wedding plans, I believe this may be the first time I've ever seen a couple ride a tandem into their indoor wedding reception as the MC introduces the new couple to their guests! Just plain fun and you can find the video HERE.


Tandem Club of America Continues Its Slide Into Obscurity - I received my 2009 TCA Membership Roster and, as I have done for the last six years, I thought I'd share a quick look at the Tandem Club of America's (TCA) demographics. As always, my hand-tabulated counts from the membership listing were entered into my spreadsheets and looked at on a state-by-state basis as in comparison to data from last year's Membership Roster and, where noted, to the first analysis I conducted back in 2002. You can find my highly unscientific analysis HERE.

In summary, and based on what was published in this year's 2009 Membership List, TCA membership at approx 914 is down about 9% compared to last year, with a net reduction of 92 members. In fact, the drop-off in 2008 is nearly the same as last year where we saw a net reduction of 91 members.

Looking back and comparing membership to 2002 when I first started following the data, overall TCA membership has fallen by 543 or about 37%: States like Texas have dropped dramatically from 71 members in 2002 to just 37 in this year's Membership roster.California has gone from a very healthy 111 members in 2002 to 68 members this year.Florida and New York have also seen quite a drop-off in membership during the past year.

Editorial: Given there have been almost no changes in TCA staff, sans the folks who maintain the membership and hospitality homes lists up to date, and that there have been no changes in the way that TCA promotes itself or the services / value it offers membership, there is no reason to believe the net downward trend or the short-lived new membership trends will be reversed. TCA continues to cling to a model for enthusiast clubs that has not changed in over a decade and only survives because of long-term membership loyalty which, frankly, may also be tested in the next year. After all, even the nominal $15 membership fee may start to look excessive in terms of the value it delivers as members re-evaluate their household budgets and expenditures.


The Geek's Weekly Potpourri of Bloggishness

Although I'm still grumpy, on the whole it's been a good week if only because I'm now allowed to put some weight on my broken leg. It will be hard to resist the temptation to over do it, but I'm mindful that I must as the last step I want to take is a step backwards. I am, however, tempted to spend some time soft pedaling on my stationary training bicycle just to get some range of motion back in my ankle and to remind my calf how it works.

Facebook... I don't really get it. I've signed up and continue to collect and connect with friends in a way that somewhat mirrors my address book. I made the mistake the other night of building some photo albums without realizing I was sharing out those photos 'real time' until I started to almost immediately receive feedback. Once I realized how it worked I quickly purged just about anything that wasn't just a photo of us. Anyway, like I said.. I don't get it but it's good to see some faces that I haven't seen in a while and I will continue to check in when I find myself with absolutely nothing else to do. Also, don't expect to get any beads from me unless you're a gal who flashes your tee-otts in the true spirit of Mardi Gras.


Archives: 2001 - 2002 - 2003 - 2004 - 2005 - 2006- 2007 - 2008 - 2009

 Events
May - Jun '09

COWs Spring Gathering
May 15-17, Delafield, WI
 
Prairie State Tandem Rally
Mid-May, Illinios
 
Georgia Tandem Rally
May 22-24, Athens, GA
 
Canadian Tandem Rally
May 22-25, Leamington, Ontario
 
UK National Tandem Rally
May 23-30, TBA
 
Tennessee Tandem Rally
Jun 5-7, Alcoa, TN
 
UK Family Camping Weekend
Jun 19 - 21, Langport, Somerset, England
 
More Rally Dates Here


 Recall Notices


Elsewhere On Our Web Site 

Clubs

The location, contact information and links to Web sites (if they have one) for every tandem cycling club in the World, to include all of the Clubs that make up Tandem Club UK and all of the Clubs in the United States of America.


Events

Locator maps and calendar listings of all the major tandem rallies and events throughout the world, including links to Web sites with additional information and registration forms.


Links

What is perhaps the most comprehensive collection of links to tandem related information on the Internet. This is the heart of TheTandemLink.com.


Learning

A huge collection of links for the beginner looking to learn more about tandems and tandeming as well as a plethora of links to information on bicycle fitting, bicycle sciences, safety & advocacy, how-to Web sites and discussion forums where you can learn more or interact with other enthusiasts.


Tandems

The basics for beginners who are just starting their search for a first tandem, links to many of the tandem dealers who cater to tandem shoppers, links to all tandem builders in the World, as well as Web sites where you can find classified ads for used tandems to meet your needs. This page also features links to our exclusive Used Tandem Tandem Price Estimating Tool


Traveling

Links to Web sites of tour operators who cater to tandem enthusiasts, links to other very large tour operator indices, travel logs, information on S&S couplers -- perhaps the greatest innovation in bicycle travel technology to date --, and links to resources for transporting your tandems such as car racks, trailers and shipping cases.


Tandem Magazines

Links to a few of the publications currently in print that cater to the tandem enthusiast. There aren't many links here because tandems are such a small niche market; however, for the publications that are available we'd encourage you to consider subscribing to that these few survivors can continue to serve our needs.


Tandem@Hobbes

Information and subscription information for what is the largest Web-based Mailing List dedicated to the discussion of tandems and tandeming. If you yearn to know what's happening in the Tandem world, have tandem-specific questions, or just want to get to know hundreds of other tandem enthusiasts who share your interests this is the list you'll want to subscribe to.


Double Forte

Information and subscription information to a discussion forum for an even smaller collection of tandem enthusiasts who ride off-road tandems. There are approximately 240 members of this list and the discussions cover the range of topics that you'd expect to hear at the trail head -- everything from hard-core technical talk to recommendations for a great micro-brew.


Captain Bike

Everything you could ever want to know about cycling....

Sheldon Brown, before his passing in 2008, WAS Captain Bike and his Web site contains information and links to information that will answer 95% of the questions you could conceive of regarding all things bicycle: and in several different languages (French, Russian & English).



 


 About This Web Site

TheTandemLink.com is basically a non-commercial, personal web site that we (that would be me) keep up and running for the benefit of tandem enthusiasts. It was developed as a free and easy to navigate resource for folks searching the Internet to learn more about tandems, tandem clubs, tours, events, and the like. It was developed as a direct result of my own efforts to learn more about tandems and tandemings back in the late 1990's, a time when finding good information was a challenge... which is still true today.

The site is essentially a collection of over 2,000 links to other Web sites that have been categorized on approximately 18 different web pages to allow visitors to "drill-down" for additional information and links. The only organic materials on the site are the bulletin board entries which I compose based on whatever comes across my computer and tweaks my interest, a used tandem pricing tool and a variety of articles that I have cobbled together over the years. At the time of its creation and to this day, we believe it to be the most comprehensive tandem-specific Web site on the Internet. I am presently rethinking the content of this site and may begin to add more organic content to provide one-stop-shopping, so to speak.

Perhaps most important of all, your visits to the site are just that; your visits. We do not collect data on our visitors, sell advertising nor collect fees from the Web sites we link to. Yes, there are now Google ads on most of the pages because, well, it helps to defray some of the costs to keep this site up and running; however, those are the only revenue generators... the rest of the links on our site don't generate any income. While perhaps this is short-sighted on my part, it does allow me to remain objective with regard to what I post to my site.

Although some articles of my own are linked off of this site, the vast majority of my writings can be found in the archives of Tandem@Hobbes under my own name and BikeForums.net where I post under a nom de plume. A search of those repositories will yield thousands of detailed articles that address a variety of tandem related subjects.... enough to fill a few books.

Thanks for visiting.



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