Paul wrote:
I'm sure we have had a few "moments" but overall, the tandem does amplify what's going on in the relationship. If I'm having a bad day, sharing that on a tandem is not fun. We try to have good days and share them.
****************** Paul is quite right..not good to ride tandem on a bad day. But, if you do, that bad day can, sometimes, turn into a good day.
This nice thread about tandems put me in mind of this post, from my wife Carmen..when we were well-committed, but not married yet...After the experience she relates below, I feel lucky she decided I was still ok to hang with...
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My girlfriend and tandem-partner, Carmen, wanted to give her take on our recently concluded ride to Baldy Village (for my report, check the archives)--vintage content: we did the ride on our 1980s Jack Taylor tandem, TA cranks, Duopar derailleur. It performed flawlessly, as it always does--here's Carmen's take:
Mt. Baldy uphill comments: The weather was pleasant. The air was crisp and cool. Birds sang and played in the rocks and trees that were left black from previous fires. The view was magnificent. The quiet was calming with intermittent, light conversation. The ride was hard. But when you go 3mph, itâ?Ts doable. Toward the end of the uphill, I noticed we were really up there and what goes up, must come down. Uh, oh!
Mt. Baldy downhill comments: If you think careening down a mountain at speeds that will give you a face lift is fun, then I must be the luckiest girl alive. Oh, that reminds me. Several questions flashed through my head, seconds after we started our descent and in between all the screaming from the back of the tandem â?" Is our life insurance paid up? What's my underwear situation? Is my head still attached to my body? How do they scrape bodies off the side of a mountain? If I kill Charles, would anyone blame me?
I used to think I had guts. I mean, I've eaten menudo more than once. But after 4:00 pm on 11/10/06, I now know what guts is, and I ain't got it by choice! If it's true that turkeys' faces change color when they're excited, then that day, I became a turkey. And not the oh boy, letâ?Ts do it again kind of excitement. More like, oh boy, how can I get out of this, on-the-verge-of-hysteria kind of excitement. I went from a pale pink, to cheap copy paper white. You know, the transparent kind with lots of grey?
At some point Charles was yelling out, Isn't this great? Look how beautiful it is! I don't know. It's really hard to see vistas through eyelids shut so tight, the Jaws of Life contraption thingy would be useless in prying them open. I managed to peek now and then to make sure Charles was still there and to know which way to lean through the turns that I was told WOULD NOT BE THERE!
Would I do it again? Gladly as long as I get helicoptered out before the downhill.
So, now that we know who wears the guts in our family, here's my plea. If any of you on the CR list notices that I've shown up for a ride that includes a downhill portion that's comparable to the downhill ride I just managed to live through on 11/10/06 , please, TELL ME, so I can run like a bat outta hell. Because, frankly, too much fun can kill a girl.
--Carmen is too modest. She rode flawlessly on that downhill, as she always does, and I did more whining than she did on a ride that was very tough, and longer than either of us intended it to be...she's a pearl among women--I will also maintain that a relationship that can survivea tandem ride down baldy road at top speed, can survive anything--***********Carmen is still a pearl among women...even if she'll never ride down Baldy road with me ever again! Can't say I blame her on that one.We still ride our tandems regularly. It's an exercise in team-work thatI'm quite sure has contributed to our relationship in a very positiveway...I recommend it to anyone here who would like to involve theirsignificant other in their cycling passion.And that Baldy downhill did have at least one positive outcome: there isno hill we can descend that can faze Carmen now! Charles Andrews SoCal
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"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee."
John Donne
Meditation 1624