Door County Tandem Rally

16 July - 19 July 1998

by Jason Kelly

After a day and a half of travel from Los Angeles, I had finally arrived at Egg Harbour, Door County. A little travel weary, I began to ask myself, "Why had I come all this distance to a tandem rally without a tandem to ride or a partner to ride with?" The feeling was a little familiar as when I first told the travel agent that I wanted to travel to Egg Harbour, he simply asked, "Where?", followed very quickly by, "Why??"

Well, Door County is located in the state of Wisconsin in the United States and rests on the west coast of Lake Michigan. This is roughly one hours commercial flight north of Chicago. Another one and a half hours drive north takes you to the town of Egg Harbour which has a population of less than 1,000 people [as have all the surrounding towns on the Door County peninsula.]

Later that afternoon, as I stepped out of my hotel room into the mid-summer sun to attend the first pre-ride meeting, I was confronted with the sight of a quint [five seat tandem] gliding past with just a single rider on it. I immediately knew for certain why I had come all this distance - to view and hopefully ride "exotic" tandems, to research the possibility of organising a tandem rally in New Zealand and to further examine the possible importation of some of the more exotic tandem models.

The quint was just one of the many "exotic" and unusual tandems out of the approximately 70 tandems in total that attended the rally. The vast majority of tandems were ridden by husbands and wives but there were also triplets [three seat tandems] with the husband and two children riding or the husband, wife and a child riding. There was a recumbent tandem [where both riders are fully seated low to the ground and the pedals are out in front of them], a titanium tandem, a "shade shifter" tandem where the frame colour changes from green to purple [and shades in between] depending on the light striking it, tandems with baby buggies attached, a tandem with a half bike and a baby buggy  attached, "soft rider" seats, suspension seat posts, helmet mirrors, child stoker kits for children who cannot reach the normal pedals, full size tandems [700cm wheels] with couplets that allow them to be pulled apart and freighted in specially made "suitcases" and perhaps most remarkably -  a 20 inch wheel "Blinkey" brand tandem that also had couplets. This particular tandem was most remarkable, not for its wheel size, but for its riders - the combined age of the husband and wife team was 159 years! i.e. the husband was 79 years young and his wife was 80 years young.

With all this technology in front of me and so many people to ask questions about their particular tandem, the fact that I didn't manage a ride on Thursday's 28 mile ride paled into insignificance. This first ride was not without its difficulties though. One couple had biked from Green Bay to Egg Harbour [about 70 miles / 112km] after putting their "suitcase"  tandem together in a hotel room. They were quite glad to make it as they had seen the airline baggage crew throw their tandem case from 3 metres away to the plane ................................................................... and miss! The suitcase bounced off the ground but no serious damage was incurred. They had budgeted on the first ride being the fourteen miles advertised in the pre-ride literature. Unfortunately, this was slightly wrong [the ride was in fact 14 miles / 22km out and 14 miles / 22km back - twice the expected distance!] so they ended up, slightly wearily, almost cracking the "magical" 100 mile ride in a day barrier. These riders were not amused!

The entire tandem rally was advertised as "positively flat." This first ride soon defined exactly what "flat meant" - it certainly had many definitions! The steepest "hill" was about a two hundred metre long climb of moderate to harsh steepness. This was basically "the hill" with everywhere else being gentle rolling to flat country. For those from dead flat States, this countryside represented enormous hills and there was gentle ribbing about the "positively flat" course! For others used to a few hills, the countryside was basically flat except for the odd little, short, upward "bump".

The Friday long ride was a 53 mile / 85km jaunt around the county [alternatively, riders could complete the short course of 30 miles / 48 km]. By the time the riders reached lunch in a small town park, many of them were struggling and inquiries about the spare rider from New Zealand started to come in. I was offered a mountain bike tandem, complete with fat knobbly tyres, to ride the following day as the couple had brought both their road tandem and their mountain bike tandem to the rally. Unfortunately, with this offer, I still needed to find a partner! After lunch, with a short, flat 9 miles / 14 km ride to return to the hotel, all the riders pushed on to try and complete the day. Most of them made it.

Returning in the mechanics vehicle to the hotel, we passed his wife who had been riding a tandem with one daughter on the back, another on a half bike joined to the tandem and another in a buggy behind this. A further daughter was being towed in another buggy behind a single bike by a family friend. The oldest daughter was about 10 years old. When we caught up to them, they were walking up one of the "hills". After an extremely short consultation, we all exchanged places and the mechanic rode the tandem with all of its attachments while I rode the single bike with the buggy. The true steepness of the "hill" can probably be judged by the fact that I went over the top of it in sand-shoes doing just over 20 miles an hour [32 km/h]. The mechanic offered to ride with me that afternoon on his Trek tandem and this offer was readily accepted. In about ten minutes, he adjusted the pedals back to full size on the back, adjusted the back seat height with the quick release height adjuster and we were off. We covered most of the mornings ride in just over an hour and returned in time for the evening meal.

The scheduled long ride for the next day was 65 miles / 104km and many people took the opportunity that night to offer me a ride the following day! In the end, I said the first one with a definite ride opportunity would be accepted. That did not take long! It was agreed that the wife would ride the first 25 miles / 40km and I would drive their vehicle to meet them at that point and ride from there for the rest of the day. Their vehicle turned out to be a huge four wheel beast and this, combined with navigation [keep the lake on the left!], and driving on the wrong side of the road to usual, I decided to head out shortly after they did on the tandem. A quirk of Door County readily appeared - the speed limit changed literally every 1km or so - 20mph then 35mph then 25mph and so on. Not exactly a good place to take a first drive in a big vehicle on the wrong side of the road! Despite the unusual driving challenges, I managed to arrive in good time and sat in the sun to watch the tandems roll by. Shortly after the agreed meeting time, my ride arrived and we exchanged places as arranged.

We then rode the next 7 or so miles to the Washington Island Ferry and crossed over, complete with tandems, to the island. On riding around the island, we were turning around a corner, at a reasonable speed, when my co-rider saw a stone right in his line and he decided unilaterally to swerve around it. Sitting on the back, I just closed my eyes and thought, "Here comes the road!" Thankfully, this did not eventuate and we successfully completed the turn. I discovered later that my co-rider is a church minister!

Without further hijinks, we crossed back over on the ferry and rode to a smorgasbord lunch. One hundred and fifty or so cyclists turning up over two hours for lunch must have certainly given the restaurant a run for their money - especially when most riders requested copious quantities of cold water to refill their drink bottles!

After lunch, we set off on the balance of the set course. However, my co-rider decided to take a short cut as he had agreed to meet his wife earlier than we were going to get back to the hotel on this course. One faulty turn saw us visit bays in Door County that are off the beaten track - as was indicated by the dirt road we were riding on! We quickly realised our error and back tracked to the main road and made a beeline for the hotel. By the time we went through the front gate of the hotel, my co-rider had ridden 92 miles [147km] and declared that he could go no further. I had managed 67 miles [107km] and felt remarkably good given that it was my longest ride since Taupo last year!

On the Sunday morning, the last day, many riders were tired and had had enough cycling. Through being in the right place at the right time, I managed to ride a 700cm titanium tandem complete with suspension seatposts which has a retail price of US$8,495! We started out last on the ride and I was again on the back. The bike just flew along and we passed tandem after tandem until we reached the end point. At this time, we changed places and I was finally riding from the front. The bike also has a computer which shows you all the usual things plus which gear you are in, the gear ratio and your "virtual" cadence [i.e. the cadence required to achieve the speed you are travelling at, even if you are rolling downhill. This feature is reportedly used on downhill sections so you can judge when it is safe to start pedalling again!] We rolled effortlessly along back to the hotel, hitting a top speed of about 30mp/h [48km/h], wondering why it was taking all the other cyclists so long to get back. The total ride was around 20 miles / 32km and we did this very easily in well under an hour. We also rode up the "killer" Egg Harbour "hill" and never even thought of using any of the smallest chain ring gears and still managed to hit the top at over 10mp/h [16km/h].

On the way to the last riders get together, I finally caught up with the owner of the quint [5 seat tandem]. It transpires that there are only four or five modern day quints in the world. The owner informed me that they struggle badly up hills [he normally rides with his wife, two daughters and a son], can be ridden anywhere you can drive a car as they are about the same size and are high maintenance in that they keep breaking componentry due to the stresses put on them. Some of the pedals have been offset at 90 degrees to reduce this problem. Naturally, this tandem comes with a third disc brake to help in the stopping!

The tandem rally was organised by Santana Cycles Inc. of California. They are reportedly the largest manufacturer of tandems in the USA. They make only tandems and these include road, all terrain and mountain bike [including full front and back suspension] models with steel, aluminium or titanium frames, along with road triplets, quads and quints [three, four and five seat tandems]. With the current exchange rate, none of their bikes come cheap in New Zealand but they are a well respected company and from all accounts, manufacture very high quality bikes. All tandems come with a lifetime frame warranty to the original owner.

The rally was a get together of tandem enthusiasts for a four day cycling holiday. As such, the riding pace was gentile and relaxing. There was plenty of time to take in the sights and visit any attractions that took your fancy along the way. For a husband and wife, even with children, it proved to be a unique and enjoyable holiday break. Santana are considering holding a tandem rally in New Zealand in the year 2000 - time will tell if this becomes a reality.

If anyone is interested in a back seat ride on a racing tandem, our unique Cannondale Tandem is back on the road. It has a jade green coloured frame, even though to the naked eye it may appear red, orange and yellow - the reason for this is another story [and no, we do not have shade shifter paint!]  From November, we intend offering short 5-10 km rides [10-20 minutes] to those young and young at heart, who just wish to ride a tandem, not only to taste the unique adventure a tandem can give, but also to boast that, "I've ridden a racing tandem!" To members of the general public, there will be a moderate charge for this to help cover costs. For any Ramblers riders or Hastings Cycles group riders who wish to take a short ride or perhaps undertake something a little more adventurous, feel free to contact us to see what we can do. For those people who think a tandem is perfect for them and their partner, come for a test ride and just do it - it will be the best joint investment you will ever make!