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!
