New member with a few Qs about tandems and tandem transportation:
How easy is it to transport a tandem on the roof of an (estate) car?
We are aiming to test and buy a tandem in Spring. Also, we have to update my wife’s mobility car in May and we intend to start our tandeming on gentle trails etc. rather than set off from our home which is in a hilly area. My wife has a brain injury, but we hired a tandem in Cornwall last summer and she really enjoyed it. It was the first time she’d been able to do intense exercise since our (v. bad) car accident (which caused her injury) in 2005.
Can anyone recommend any gentle off road trails in North West England suitable for a hybrid style tandem?
Would something like an Orbit Pegasus Pro be ok for tracks and trails? In Cornwall we rode a clunky Trek Tandem which was very heavy and clumsy. I much prefer drop handlebars so I’m thinking in the direction of a Pegasus Pro or maybe a Dawes Galaxy Twin (always coveted a Galaxy from my old cycle touring days) or maybe a Dawes Double Edge.
Welcome to tandeming, sorry to hear about the accident and hope the tandem works out for you.
We’ve travelled as far as the south of France (and back) with a Dawes Supergalaxy hanging from a tow ball mounted rack on the rear of our Peugeot 405 Estate. We also had the two mountain bikes on the rack coming home as the interior was too full of wine and beer to get the bikes inside
After that holiday, we bought a roofrack and tandem rack to fit it. It causes more wind drag, but it seems more stable than having the weight hanging around at the back, for shorter journeys it’s probably not an issue either way. The roofrack takes some time to fit each time you use it, and causes drag if you leave it on all of the time. There’s no perfect answer here, I would go for a towbar mounted rack for short / medium journeys and a roof rack for longer journeys. On our newer Citroen Picasso, I had a towbar fitted specifically so that I could fit the towbar rack rather than using the roofrack all of the time.
When we changed from the Dawes to a new Landescape in 2005, we bought a hydraulic lift for the roof rack. This makes it possible to get the tandem onto the roof single handed, useful because Karen isn’t tall enough to help me lift the tandem onto the roof of the Picasso without standing on something. The rack is an Altera which we bought from JD Cycles and John fitted for us whilst we had a ride around on the shiny new tandem.
You don’t say whether your wife has any physical problems, if you need to load the tandem single handed without help from your wife then a rear rack our a hydraulic lift might be the best answer, depending on how much you want to spend, both in money and in time preparing for each trip.
It’s also possible to carry the tandme inside the car by removing a small amount of gear. The Dawes fitted inside the Peugeot with just the front wheel removed if we had nothing else in. The Landescape went to Jersey inside the Picasso, along with lots of camping gear, although it was more effort because of removing the front wheel, front handlebars and front seat / stoker bars.
If you haven’t already, suggest you also try the Tandem Club forum. It’s also free and full of good advice for newcomers, and the membership is very reasonable (£10 pa I think), see this link http://www.tandem-club.org.uk/_dboard.htm
Extremely happy with the Landescape, we got it from JD Cycles after talking to Pete Bird and testing one at York Cycle Rally. It’s been a very good bike so far, needed to make a couple of changes from the original spec but only very minor things such as tyres. There’s a bit of a write up about it on our website, see the link in my sig if you want a look.
Have to agree with Dave about the Atera tandem lift,it is the bees knees.It is a bit on the expensive side at about £270 but I don’t know how we would get the Landescape on our VW Golf otherwise.
There was a very acrimonious discussion on the Tandem Club site a while back regarding the carrying of tandems inside cars,it got down to name calling in the end.Worth a read though.
Definately give the Tandem Club site a look and it’s only £10 a couple to join.
