To think tandems are naff and embarassing and to not want to go on one?

[skirt]

I like cycling for fun and my dh likes cycling competitively. He's really encouraging though and will happily cycle along with me on my lady bike for an afternoon. We've always wanted to cycle round Holland (nice and flat, you see) but last night he came home from work, full of excitement. His friend has offered to lend us a tandem. I think I would die of embarrassment.

I get that I cycle slower and I like to look at the scenery etc. I get that he likes to go a bit faster and I may hold him back a bit. But a tandem?

Would you get on such a shameful item, behind your dh?

YABU and take yourself waaaay too seriously.

I'd love it. I would go on the back and sup spritzers while DH did the pedalling.

It is a bit of an adjustment - I found it very stressful at first, as I couldn't control the bike, and couldn't see where we were going. Although I'm a much more experienced cyclist, MrNQC is bigger, so he went on the front.

If he braked sharply, I would slam into his back.

But I got used to it, and it was nice. You do have to talk quite a bit, even if it's just 'wait, I'm stopping pedalling for a moment'.

I loathe being on the back of the tandem because I feel like I'm going to fall off, I can't relax & trust DH (or whoever is pilot) not to make us crash.

But there's nothing dorky about it otherwise, tandem pairs go faster on average than singletons (except in mountaneous areas). DH & I did a 100 mile ride once, DH & I both pilot tandems with DC on back fairly often.

I do not get why it is shameful. Is there some sort of sexual association with tandem bikes that I'm missing?

No. I would not get on a tandem. Look on Amazon and you will see that "People who bought a tandem also bought: Bagpipes, Morris dancing kit, and a Pipe rack."

We're getting a tandem AND putting DS's seat on.

SO THERE

I'm not desperately uncool

Oi, Morris dancing is dull cool!

DH and I once hired a tandem on a family bike ride. We had a massive row about 100m down the road and had to take it back for two normal bikes.

The people in the bike hire shop had two bikes primed and ready for us and said it always happens and that they ran a book about how long it would take each couple to ride back to the shop, arguing and wobbling.

Tandems are cool.

That is all.

Where do triplets & quads rate on the Nafftastic scale?

:o @ Roxy

Yabu for saying "lady bike"

What a crock.

For myself, I'd go for the tandem and ditch Facebook!

I think tandems are awesome and would love to have a go! That said, I also play the bagpipes and like watching morris dancing, so maybe I'm even more deeply sad than I thought I was . . .

Give it a try-if it´s not right, take/hire a bike each.

We hired a rickshaw type thing a Centre Parcs once & it was great fun-but no good for more than a few hours.

plantsitter I did exactly the same except we lasted about an hour.

I hated it, felt sick as you can't see where your going, don't know when dh was going to brake, turn or start going faster.

It was hellish

You have been warned OP

Sorry for typos

I love tandems - I have some lovely friends who used to live in Oxford & ride a tandem, being picked up from the station on a tandem rocks! Its definitely only more fun if (a) its not your OH that you're riding with (well maybe other people's OHs would pedal more than mine ) and (b) the other person is used to riding a tandem.

I have to ride a tricycle. You want embarrassing ? I'll swap you.

It's not embarrassing but it's not enjoyable either, unless you reckon looking at a sweaty back is more fun than a view of the countryside, and you don't mind your feet whizzing round on the pedals much faster than you'd normally go.

I've done it for half an hour for a laugh but would never contemplate it for any longer than that.

Has Angelina Jolie got a tandem? Has James Bond ever picked up a bird and taken her to a hotel suite on the back of a tandem? Are there tandem races around the streets of Monaco? Remember when the Tour De France was won by Henry and Janet on their tandem? No. Because they're rubbish.

Excellent fun, but the person on the back has to trust the driver.

I suspect most people who ride tandems don't really care what other people, especially people they don't know think of them. If you get stressed out by people looking at you or love being a sheep and having no individuality then avoid tandems.

We have as cool a tandem as you can get - a lightweight aluminium mtb type. It's adjustable so any combination of adults or dc could ride it from the age of about 10. Twas perfect in Center Parcs as dd had broken her wrist just before we went, so wouldn't have been able to cycle on her own.

When it's me and dh, he goes on the front. It means we can chat, which is harder on 2 single bikes .. But it does take some getting used to.

The only time we have fallen out was when he decided to try to set off a speed camera... If you're on the back, you have no control at all! We didn't set it off btw, and I was screaming at him.