This is way off topic, but since I’d wager that more than 1/2 of the folks who ride tandems have at least one team member who had a model railroad or at least a train set up under their Christmas tree in their youth, I thought this might be of interest to a few of our readers.
The following is the official promo video for Miniatur Wunderland Hamburg, the largest model railway in the world, and one of the most successful tourist attractions in Germany. On the 1.300 m² large layout, far more than a thousand trains, aircrafts, cars and ships move about. Simply mind-boggling…
With a tip of the hat to the tandem gang at BikeForums.net, it would appear that:
(A) Pricing on the individual Gates 2000mm carbon drive belts & 69t pulleys has fallen dramatically over the past year such that you can pick up a pair of rings & new belt for about $150 + shipping & applicable taxes, well under the current MSRP for Gates tandem system @ $210.
For regular, long-time readers or anyone who has been keeping track, you may recall that when first introduced the Gates Carbon Drive 2000mm and 71t pulleys designed to replace tandem sync chain drives was priced around $525 for the belt & 2 pulleys. Back in March of 2010, the pricing dropped to around $450, which still seemed awfully high and not all that cost-effective compared to chain-based systems.
Well, at an MSRP of $210 for the system it’s become a much more attractive option and, as noted, it seems you can now find the belts for as little as $52 vs. the suggested MSRP of ~$75 at places like E Bike Stop. As for the 69t drive cogs / pulleys (which replaced the 71t cog/pulleys), these can be found for as little as $48.99 each at Alfred E. Bike vs. around $165 just a few years back. Checking the fine print, these do appear to be the CDX / CR8041 pulleys with the more expensive carbide coatings vs. the less durable anodized CDC rings. This finally addresses the biggest issue that I’ve had with the system: the cost benefit. At $160 for the entire system, even assuming a 10,000 – 12,000 life for the system it makes it very competitive to the cost of chain-based systems given how the price of the better chains has climbed over the past few years, given the low maintenance and life of the belts.
I’m not sure if Gates has endeared itself to some of the tandem speciality dealers who adopted and stocked these systems over the years where even today you’ll find a complete Gates system for a Santana priced at just under $600 with individual pulleys listed for $265/ea. The smaller 69t pulleys are even carrying a $190/ea price tag with the 2000mm belts listing for as high as $90/ea. Sure seems like a slap in the face if their dealers weren’t provided with a heads-up on the pricing changes.
Again, with a tip of the hat to DubT at BikeForums.net, he shared this note from Steve Pardoe at Gates with forum readers last week:
*The new CenterTrack system for tandem is in design and testing phase. *We are hoping to have it to market by Summer 2012. *We do not have a cost for the system yet. *It should only be slightly more than the current system at $210. *The weight of the entire system is several pounds lighter than your chain system. *I do not have an exact weight with me but will get one soon.
Thanks, Steve Pardoe Gates Corporation
The center track design ‘should’ produce a lighter-weight pulley by eliminating the flange and should also be a bit more forgiving of less that perfect front-to-rear pulley run-out. More to follow, I’m sure.
As for us, we have no plans to change-out our sync drive for a belt system. Chains have served us well and while we enjoyed some of the characteristics of the belt system we experimented with, they didn’t seem to be a ‘must have’ item.
Let me start off with a sincere thanks for the folks who keep us in mind and share their event updates; we love seeing how rallies continue to thrive and being able to share that information with our friends in the tandem cycling community.
So, that said, we’ve been busy collecting updates and searching the web for other rally dates / locations and have actually gotten a pretty good start on our 2012 Rally Calendar hosted on www.thetandemlink.com.
Here are just a couple highlights of some of the more recent updates we’ve received:
ALABAMA TANDEM WEEKEND, 23-25 MARCH – Tim & Bev Presley wrote to let us know that they will be hosting this year’s Alabama Tandem Weekend in Sylacauga, Alabama. Instead of a webpage, they have stood-up a Facebook group page that you can find HERE.
As noted in their Email, the agenda & ride plans are starting to take shape; tenatively:
Friday would be 40 to 50 mile options taking riders north up past the Kymulga Grist Mill. We would arrive back in town early enough to have an ice cream at the Blue Bell Ice Cream Parlor. Blue Bell also offers the opportunity for tours.
Saturday would head east out highway 148 and back around through Hollins and Weogufka with a possible longer option coming through the Marble Valley. We could then all gather at one of several options for dinner together.
Sunday, the route goes west to Cedar Creek, passing over the bridge there with a lovely view of the Coosa River backwater. By taking a figure 8 route, we can incorporate several long downhills that would allow for long fast cruising.
When making reservations at the host hotel, the Jameson Inn in Sylacauga (256-245-4141) remember to ask for the Alabama Tandem Weekend Rate of $55. Local eateries include Giovanni’s Italian Restaurant, The Marble City Grill, Golden Rule Bar-B-Que, Peking Garden, and a host of fast food options.
THE CANADIAN TANDEM RALLY 2012, 25-28 MAY – David & Brenda Vandevelde wrote to let us know that they’d once again be hosting a tandem rally north of the border in Perth Ontario this May. Again, from their Email:
Please join us for The Canadian Tandem Rally on May 25 -28 2012 in Perth Ontario, voted the most picturesque town in the province!
Friday will feature an afternoon ride followed by a Wine & Cheese get together.
Saturday morning we take a ride to Smith’s Falls for a picnic lunch at Victoria Park by the Rideau Canal.We return back to the hotel for a banquet at the nearby Perth Golf & Country Club.
On Sunday we have breakfast together and ride to Lanark for a picnic lunch. For those joining us for the extra day, we ride out to Wheelers Pancake House & Sugar Camp for lunch.
Space is limited this year! Please watch the website for more information and on-line registration soon for this all-inclusive event.
FART XIX – FALL ALLEGANY RALLY FOR TANDEMS, 12-14 OCTOBER - Yes, it’s really called FART and has held every fall for the past 18 years which makes it the longest running off-road tandem rally, at least in the US and perhaps anywhere.
And this year Brian & Karen Managan have also launched a new website for FART: http://www.fartmtb.org where you can find all kinds of neat information, videos, maps, etc. Here’s a brief extract from their Home Page:
Since 1994 when Chuck and Bonnie suggested a weekend campout … with bikes … we’ve been returning to Allegany State Park EVERY Fall to enjoy the forested trails of the Art Roscoe trail system, the Red House Lake area, Thunder Rocks, evening campfires and toasted marshmallows, GREAT dish-to-pass dinners, night rides and a growing list of the coolest tandem mountain bikers on the planet!
We have lots of veterans who return year and year, and we are always welcoming new teams to the fold nearly every year. We’ve been doing this so long, we’ve literally watched some of the stokids grow up on our trails from babies in trailers to captaining their own tandems.
Although the riding isn’t “technical”, we have fun riding opportunities for “Easy-Goers” as well as hard-core bike junkies and everyone in between.
Fear not! If you enjoy a little dirt thrown in with your tandeming, THIS is the weekend for you!
Bring a Dish-to-Pass for Saturday night, and anything else you need for the weekend.
I guess with all of the endorsement deals and appearance fees he’s signed over the years…
… the modern-day Madison Avenue creation we call Santa has been able to pull down some serious dough-ray – me and built himself a car collection that might even make Jay Leno a bit envious…
A pretty far cry from the Saint — Saint Nicholas — upon whom this modern-day marketing miracle is, in part, based.
———————-
As some friends have probably figured-out by now, I’m something of a free agent / agnostic when it comes to religion and have been since my teens. However, having attended Presbyterian Sunday school as a small child and studied theology in college, I understand the stories / history of Christmas, Hanukkah, Saint Nicholas and the other winter solstice celebrations. Through that understanding, I’ve always been able to appreciate and enjoy the spirit of the season and have done my best to enjoy all of what the holiday season has to offer by “playing along” with many of the traditions. For example, Debbie very much enjoys the Christmas holiday and likes to have a tree, lights, music and all of the other things associated with a contemporary, traditional Christmas. I also like holiday get-togethers, parties and the like where friendship is celebrated more than anything else.
Sadly, I’ve not been able to get excited about the holiday season this year and I’ve come to realize it’s the rabid over-emphasis that’s been placed on the materialistic stuff and “showing off” or one-upmanship that’s always front and center as the religious aspects have become too taboo to bring up in the public dialog.
More to the point, I had an interesting discussion with the woman who cuts my hair a few weeks back, noting she is a Muslim from the middle east who immigrated to the U.S. several years back. While making the typical idle chit-chat that stylists do with clients, she asked if I was ready for Christmas. I said I was not, and shared that I was having a hard time getting into the holiday spirit this year given how the “reason for the season” seemed to be of little consequence anymore. She then shared how she finds the season to be a challenge for her and her children. She went on to note that even as a Muslim she had learned the story of Christmas and its importance to Christians… but had never heard of Santa Claus until coming to the states. “What was this Santa Claus thing?” Back home she noted that there was always a modest gifting of money from elders to children around the winter solstice, but the level of avarice and wanting by her son’s school mates and friends here in the states was mind-boggling. Notes were even sent home to all parents letting them know that “Santa” would be coming to the school and that their children should bring their Christmas gift lists to school.
It truly underscored how hard it can be for families who do not celebrate the classic Norman Rockwell Christmas to teach moderation to their children in the face of the annual buying frenzy that has overshadowed the religious and seasonal events upon which the holidays are based. But, even the classic Norman Rockwell Christmas has been tarnished by excessive gift giving where children and even adults quickly become somewhat disappointed as they sit buried in a sea of wrapping paper and gifts there are no more boxes to unwrap, often bemoaning what they didn’t get or anxiously turning their attention to what they might still get from grandparents, parents, other friends and relatives or even Santa as part of their holiday haul, much of which will never be used or appreciated as much as a single, special and thoughtful gift.
So, how much is enough? And why do people feel compelled to buy “stuff” for the sake of buying stuff, much of which is never truly wanted or needed. Interestingly, Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss) and Charles M. Schultz (Peanuts & Charlie Brown) tried to take this head-on in their holiday stories, “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas” and the first Peanuts animated feature film, “A Charlie Brown Christmas”. Ironically, the message got lost in the very marketing that surrounded those important stories, dismissed as children’s stories that were really meant for adults.
Don’t get me wrong, I / we love having the family over for the holidays and gatherings of friends, so perhaps as we spend time with our children and grandkids and other family over the next few days we’ll be able to rekindle the true holiday spirit. That and giving to charities or over-tipping has been another way we find some satisfaction and feel better in tune with the season’s true spirit, but at the end of the day… I’ve really grown weary of this Santa Claus thing. Perhaps its time to get back to remembering the reason for the season.
So, Merry Christmas to those who celebrate the birth of Christ. To those who celebrated Hanukkah, I hope it was a great and satisfying event, and the same goes to everyone else who has found something to celebrate, including the stories and anecdotes of family and friends who have passed and whose memories, lessons and expectations we carry with us into the new year.
This showed-up as a link on one of the motorcycle forums that I frequent and it is probably of as much interest to cycling advocates / facilities designers as it is to motorcyclists. What you’re seeing is a composite view of “road fatalities” that have occurred between 2001 and 2009 in the United States. You can access this map by using the following link: http://map.itoworld.com/road-casualties-usa#
Cyclists are color-coded Green and if you zoom-in closely enough, you will see that each icon includes the age of the decedent, the year they were killed and their gender, e.g, note that a 34-year old male was killed in 2005 at an extremely busy intersection where some 16 different lanes converge to send road users to Costco and several other shopping centers, with very large gas stations on opposite corners of the intersection.
It’s been nearly 5 months since my last installment of my “favorite interviews” from Diane Lees’ weekly show on WJCU, The Outspoken Cyclist, so I figured an update was new. As a reminder, Diane is a long-time friend as well as the producer and host of the Outspoken Cyclist on WJCU in Cleveland, Ohio. Her program airs every Saturday evening at 5:30 and you can download shows after the fact from either the WJCU – Outspoken Cyclist webpage or at the iTunes Store.
However, before providing my latest compendium of “must listen-to shows” I feel compelled to share a link to the complete version of John Lee Hooker’s song “The Healer” that Diane uses as bumper music for her show. Despite having listened to the bumper more times than I can count, I’m still mesmerized by the rhythm section and flute intro. Oh yeah, and that guy Carlos is pretty good on the guitar.
As in my previous updates, the interviews I’ve listed here (with descriptions by sound engineer Greg Priddy) are simply the ones I found to be the most interesting, which is not to say the others weren’t uninteresting… as that’s not the case. In fact, all of the interviews have been interesting and informative but we all have our biases and preferences and I’m a geek, so the bike industry ones resonate with me more so than any others.
So, that said, if you’re looking for something to listen to on your iPod or MP3 player while traveling or cutting the lawn, these might do the trick….
Jim Ochowicz, BMW Racing – 11/05/2011: Our first guest is none other than Jim Ochowicz, cyclist, speed skater, former manager of Team 7-Eleven, and current manager of BMC Racing (you know, Cadel Evans’ team). Jim, or “Och” as he’s known was the catalyst for the first U.S. pro cycling team to have success racing in Europe, and his new book, Team 7-Eleven: How an Unsung Band of American Cyclists Took on the World – and Won has just been released. Jim joins us from Palo Alto, California to talk about how he moved from the road to the ice and back to cycling as a team manager. Play in new window | Download
Ron Burzese, Bicyclingblind.org; Bina Bilenky, BCW & Maynard Hershon – 10/29/2011: We have three guests who are simply wonderful people, each with a great story to tell. Ron Burzese is a competitive cyclist who has raced in numerous Texas state championships, a world championship, and nearly qualified for the Athens Paralympics. And he achieved all this without eyesight! Ron is a blind tandem stoker who works as a certified travel instructor for other blind people. Along with a few other like-minded people, Ron started the U.S. Blind Cycling Connection a little less than two years ago. Bicyclingblind.org helps connect sighted captains with vision-impaired stokers, and opens up a whole new world for folks whose legs and lungs refuse to to obey the limits of their eyes. We have a short, but fun conversation wth Bina Bilenky, who’s the organizer of the Philly Bike Expo, which is happening this weekend in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. And to wrap up the hour is Maynard Hershon who will bring us an amazing story that also happens to be 100% true. Not to be missed! Play in new window | Download
Interbike Interviews: Peter Enright (Phil Wood) & Craig Calfee (Calfee Design), & Nelson Vails – 9/17/2011: It’s mid-September, and that means it’s time for… Interbike. Diane got to conduct Outspoken Cyclist interviews in the official media booth right on the show floor! So this week’s show is all about the guests, and there are plenty of them, so let’s jump right in: Peter & Garrett Enright, of Phil Wood & Co., makers of legendary hubs, bottom brackets, and other bulletproof components (and even some non-bicycle stuff); Craig Calfee of Calfee Design; Nelson Vails, former track cycling great, and one of Diane’s few true heroes. Play in new window | Download
Ross Shafer, Six-Nine Design – 8/27/2011: Diane welcomes one of the true Renaissance people of bicycling. Ross Shafer has done a bunch of cool things in his career, including launching and running Salsa Cycles from 1981 to 1997. These days, Ross runs his own design, fabrication and consulting company calledSix-Nine Design from his home base in Petaluma, California. Play in new window | Download
Tom Kellogg, Spectrum Cycles – 8/6/2011: Tom has raced motorcycles, still races bicycles, and has been a frame builder since 1976, building and designing under his own name, as well as Ross, Merlin, and now Spectrum Cycles. We’re delighted to have Tom on The Outspoken Cyclist this week; we think you’ll be entertained, informed, and inspired. Be sure to stay with us during the second half of the hour for a discussion on high speed bike shimmy. Play in new window | Download
This is actually a three-fer blog entry, in that there three things that piqued my interest from Co-Motion this week from three completely sources. However, as it turns out, they complement each other.
The first is a nice article w/photos from Bike.Portland.org made after paying a visit to Co-Motion that you can find HERE.
The second was a very cool video that popped up on their Blog this week entitled, “What do you do with those big machines?” In the video you get to see Co-Motion’s Mori-Seiki CNC lathe used to miter the internal (aka, lateral) tube for a Speedster tandem. Same same machine is used to other cylindrical parts, such as Co-Motion’s own bottom bracket shells, tandem eccentric shells, head tubes, steerer tubes and some of their PeriScope tandem parts.
OK, now for the third complementary piece. This is actually something I pirated from a posting by a friend to the BikeForums.net tandem discussion forum, wherein he shared a note from Dwan Shepard of Co-Motion. We’d been discussing frame design specifications and stock vs. custom tubing use and along the way our friend took a cue from us to check-in with Co-Motion to fact-check their recollection.
Dwan Shepard of Co-Motion
The note from Dwan was actually quite excellent, in that it provided a very nice and concise history of Co-Motion’s frame and frame component (i.e., tubes, forks, other details) development and the philosophy behind that development history. So, based on the assumption that Dwan would not take exception to me sharing his note, I’m being somewhat bold and re-posting it here. What’s interesting and bears keeping in mind here is that this Email reply by Dwan is very typical of the detailed response he provides to just about every customer question, as I’ve gotten a few of these gems over the years.
Thanks for your note. One of our best strengths in building custom tandems is our ability to select tubes specifically for the couple who will be riding it. We have a broad array of tubes that can be used for a variety of reasons, such as for saving some weight, making a more comfortable ride, or making a more rigid frame for a heavier couple. But it’s not just custom frames that get extra attention here.
When we first started making frames in 1988, we bought tubesets from Reynolds or Columbus, like everyone else. But as we grew picker about how we wanted our tandems (and other bikes) to perform, we grew frustrated with what was available. Around 1992 we began having custom tubes produced. We started with tandem top tubes from Reynolds, then special tandem fork blades from Tange. It was difficult to justify the expense because we were making fewer than 50 bike a year at the time. As we grew we found that having specially produced tubes meant we could further refine the character of our bicycles and really set ourselves apart from the competition. Now, virtually every tube that we use for every bicycle we produce is special, and as you know our range of models and sizes is bigger than ever.
We go several steps further than most bike companies. Not only do we have wonderful custom tubes made for our bikes, but we also design and produce a lot of our other essential frame components. We make our own forks, for one. How many companies still do? Our forks are made from custom-designed, custom-drawn fork blades. We weld them to our own steerer tube and dropouts, both of which we manufacture here on our CNC equipment. We also make our own headtubes, bottom bracket shells, eccentrics, bridges and many other items that you don’t think about as being essential to a good frame. The function and precision of these parts far surpasses what is commonly accepted in most bicycles.
As an example of how designing in house makes a bike better is our tandem disc-ready fork. Steel forks with disc dropouts are still fairly uncommon, and there was a lot of fear about whether they would be adequate for tandems not so many years ago. The fear was justifiable, because many builders assumed they could simply weld a disc mount onto an existing fork. Sadly, a few people had some nasty accidents due to the fact that the action of the disc brake had a tendency to cause the wheel to fulcrum itself out of the dropouts, or to tear a welded-on disc tab off the fork. Not a pretty picture.
We were not the first company to offer front disc brakes on tandem frames or forks. We tested and tested until we were sure we were considering all possible safety concerns, and that we had a system that was consistent for manufacturing as well as for the rider experience. We designed new fork baldest to reduce brake torque effect and we designed special dropouts that integrated the brake mount into the dropout itself. This feature distributes the stress of braking over the entire fork rather than in a small are, the Achilles’ heel of many disc forks. Extra precautions we took include positioning the dropout slots to make “fulcruming” impossible, and capturing the quick release with a raised ridge. We like to be really certain we’re doing things right!
Say hello to [your wife], and keep enjoying your tandems!
The 2012 Southern Tandem Rally is being held in St. Augustine, Florida on 19-21 October and hosted by our friends Rick & Debbie Brackett. In advance of registration opening in early 2012, they’ve now launched their 2012 STR Website and it’s lovely and full of all kinds of features and social networking interfaces.
We were fortunate enough to be included in a special pre-2012 St. Augustine test rally weekend last Spring hosted by Rick, Debbie and some of their cohorts in crime and really had a grand time. If you’re so inclined and missed it first time around, you can find a write-up of that weekend by clicking HERE. So, as you can imagine, we’re really looking forward to what promises to be another great visit to St. Augustine next October.
The “artistic” image in the banner looks to be the 2011 Turner Network MS150 tandem contingent with Team Knecht, Team Rowe, Team Strauss-Kofsky, perhaps being followed by Team Knecht & Team Rowe??? Oh, the miracle of Photoshop!
With a tip of the hat to our reader ‘Steve’ for a comment in our blog entry on tours that alerted us to this….
Dan Towle, owner of R&E Cycles in Seattle, Washington, continues to find new ways to meet the needs, wants and desires of his loyal clients and make R&E a more attractive option for future customers by never accepting status-quo for his business.
The latest changes are pretty exciting. The first is a complete overhaul of the R&E Website, aka, www.rodcycle.com. The new site has all of the latest web-tech and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) that make surfing their site easier and more visually interesting.
R&E has also stood up a Blog and began posting entries in earnest this month (see below) with a must-read History of R&E Cycles… as that’s where you’ll find how Dan is teaming up with Glenn Erickson to put the “E” back in R&E Cycles.
While I don’t know anymore than what I’ve read in the 18 Nov blog entry, it would appear that R&E and Glenn will now be collaborating to resume fabrication of custom frames designed by Glenn. Having had Glenn design and build three Erickson’s since 1998 — two tandems and a single bike — I think this is great news! It reunites Glenn with not only the shop he co-founded with Angel Rodriguez, but with long-time fabricator and friend Dennis Bushnell.
If I’ve kept track correctly, this means R&E can now offer buyers a wide range of tandem frames and bikes under four different philosophies and brandings: Rodriquez, Trillium, Bushnell and now Erickson.
Once again we are pleased to share a Florida Panthers Post-Rally Report from our guest contributor Kathy Foster, the Panther’s publicity chair.
Florida Tandem Rally 2011
By Kathryn W. Foster
Halloween in Florida is when the PANTHERS summon fellow tandem riders to gather for a weekend of pedaling and fun.
My husband, Bill, and I are fortunate to be a part of this great group of tandem riders, based in The Villages in Central Florida but including members who live and ride throughout the state.
The Second Annual Florida Tandem Rally drew 55 teams and was headquartered at the Waterfront Inn in The Villages, a sprawling, pedestrian-friendly retirement community 24 miles south of Ocala.
We had a fabulous weekend of riding, despite an early Saturday rain that dampened the roads.
Bob Thompson, president of the PANTHERS (Partners Aboard Neat Tandems Happily Enjoying Riding Simultaneously), and his wife, Jan, had meticulously mapped out rides taking those of us who rode the 62-mile option into the Ocala National Forest on Saturday. The next morning, the routes explored the rural areas east of The Villages, including the crossing of a just-completed bridge over Crescent Cove on Lake Griffin.
The rally wrapped up on a cool, crisp Sunday after tandem teams completed the rides of 29 or 41 miles. Soon it was time to bid newfound friends goodbye and make plans to return next October for the PANTHERS Third Annual Florida Tandem Rally.
Look for the complete story of the 2011 Florida Tandem Rally in the January issue of DoubleTalk, the magazine mailed to members of the Tandem Club of America.
BUT, if we had a few extra bucks in our pockets and could take off enough time we’d definitely be heading down under with Mel & Barbara Kornbluh from Tandems East for the 2012 New Zealand Tour. They offer this tour every other year or so and from all accounts by friends who have gone, it’s an amazing three-week trip. Given that it’s three-weeks long, the cost per person is also very reasonable as far for a commercial tour. On a cost per day basis, that’s hard to beat.
And, if we happened to win the lottery, we’d also be heading off to Prague to meet up with Bill & Jan McCready for Santana’s 2012 Danube River Tour. While Santana’s tours aren’t inexpensive, they have a very special appeal to folks who have the resources to book Santana tours year after year. You’ll also these “regulars” on most all Santana tours who make for great company since they know the flow of the events and how to get the most out of them.
If neither of these fits your schedule or budget, there are a couple other tandem folks who offer tours of different lengths, locations and price points that are worth checking out:
Our friends Rich Wolf & Ina Thompson at Pennywise Cycle Tours continue to offer at least one tour a year that’s about as good as they get for both the experience and value.
Rob Templin’s Second Summer Tours offers their Maui tour every winter along with tours of the Andes, New Zealand, Oregon & California spread throughout the spring and fall.
Another long-time friend and tandem cycling impresarios Rich Shapiro & Lindy Ellis of Gear-to-Go Tandems continue to offer a couple of intimate (10 couples) tandem tours as well as a tandem rally each summer near their home in upstate New York.
And, for anyone who’s really looking to tour the epic tandem locales in Europe with a zest for challenging rides, there’s always Erickson Cycle Tours. Glenn & Nancy Erickson are offering 7 tours this season, suited for intermediate to strong cyclists and tandem teams.
Well hot damn! Our friends Charlie & Pat Jenkins, owners of Nautilus Bicycle Center in Sherman, Texas, just commissioned Calfee to design and fabricate a custom bamboo enduro tandem to support their unpaved riding habit!
I’ve been lusting after a bamboo Calfee for a couple of years, so this is really pulling at my heart-strings and making our mad-money jar shudder with restless anxiety!
Well, no worries about indulging ourselves on a new tandem: we blew about 2-years of early retirement on our new Harley habit this year so the mad-money jar is pretty much empty… probably why it’s making that rattling sound.
But, getting back to the bamboo Calfee, Pat shot me an Instant Message on Facebook the other night to let me know about their plans and then Charlie followed that up with a Facebook post announcing the new bike on Monday. They plan to design around a pretty robust set of specs, to include having tire clearance for some really meaty 46mm treads. As to why they’ve decided on bamboo for an enduro vs. another carbon Calfee, Pat shared that bamboo is supposed to be smoother on gravel and take rock pings than carbon and will be significantly lighter than the steel Co-Motion Supremo.
I should note, Charlie & Pat have a lot of experience with Calfee tandems, as they acquired one just before their endurance riding habit led them to sign-on with Team JDRF for some epic endurance races, like a RAAM Relay Team. The rode the heck out of that Dragonfly…
Our own love-affair with Calfee frames began a few years back and as regular readers are aware, we now ride nothing but Calfees on the road, Debbie with her Luna Pro, me with my Tetra Pro and us with our custom Tetra travel tandem. As I mentioned, I’ve been lusting over Calfee’s bamboo single and tandem frames since the first one debuted a few years back. I shared my “vision” of our perfect bamboo tandem in a blog item back in August 2010:
That Bamboo Tandem from Calfee? – I still can’t get that out of my head either. It’s not so much that we wantor need a tandem that’s any more comfortable than our composite/graphite Calfee, I think it’s the ‘cool factor’ that would come with having a bamboo tandem fitted with a set of Velocity’s faux wood-grain rimsand some color-coordinated Chris King hubs, a Sella Anatomica tan leather saddle and matching bar tape, and perhaps a carbon fork painted to mimic bamboo… talk about stylin’! From a more practical standpoint, this might also be a wide-tire tandem with provisions for some mud-guards — Woody’s, of course — that would also scratch the itch for a ‘touring’ tandem. Well, maybe I’m over-reaching on that one. Anyway, as you can tell, I’ve been thinking about this rad-ride far more than I should, because it truly is without a doubt a 100% Vanity Trip.
Oh yeah, if anyone is interested in what may have been one of Co-Motion’s first 29er tandems, Charlie & Pat have theirs up for sale! You can find more photos of their beefed-up Speedster HERE.
A lot and not a lot, depends on how you quantify it I guess.
On the bright side, I think we’re over the hump and are about to get back on track for cycling. Debbie spent about 80 minutes on her single bike riding the Kreitler rollers today and felt good afterwards. I had planned to go out for a ride today, but found that my lungs were still crudded-up from spending a couple of hours in the attic yesterday pulling coax cable for a new Infinity/Comcast modem installation. So, perhaps tomorrow… if I can stop hocking-up pieces of lung.
But, underlying it all is a strong desire to get back into a regular outdoor and/or indoor cycling routine so that we’ll be in respectable shape once the spring rallies start. It looks like a great year for rallies in 2012 and we hope to do the Alabama Tandem Weekend, the Georgia Tandem Rally, the Tennessee Tandem Rally and are REALLY looking forward to the Southern Tandem Rally down in St. Augustine, Florida. We had such a good time down there last Spring and just really like the area. It will obviously be a completely different experience as there are some things we were able to do as a group of ~24 that will be hard to do as a group of 100 – 120!! Anyway, there’s just something about visits to Florida!!
On the home front, as noted in the previous posting we’ve ditched our AT&T DSL service and move over to a cable-based internet plan from Comcast / Infinity. At the same time, we also discontinued our home phone service from AT&T, closed-out Debbie’s AT&T wireless phone service and moved Debbie and our home phone number to a new Verizon plan coupled with a Panasonic cordless phone system that syncs with our cell-phones when we’re at home. So, we’ve eliminated one of three phone numbers and about 1/3 of our monthly telecommunication expenses.
As you can tell from this blog entry, I may be drifting back towards maintaining just the one blog and ditching the Riding Two-Up page. As someone once noted, “hey, it’s your blog: post what you want.” So, readers may find some personal interest items like this one back on this blog. The other blog will likely become purely motorcycle & “other” things or may just go away… in which case you may have to suffer through some motorcycle stuff now and again. Oh yeah, we’re still lovin’ the big bike! We had an awesome ride through the mountains two weekends back and really want to do more of that!!
Just posted to the Tandem@Hobbes forum from tandem community icons Dick & Marilyn Powell:
(B) The Gates Centertrack (CDX-CT) belt & pulley system 
The first is a nice article w/photos from Bike.Portland.org made after paying a visit to Co-Motion that you can find 
As you can tell from this blog entry, I may be drifting back towards maintaining just the one blog and ditching the Riding Two-Up page. As someone once noted, “hey, it’s your blog: post what you want.” So, readers may find some personal interest items like this one back on this blog. The other blog will likely become purely motorcycle & “other” things or may just go away… in which case you may have to suffer through some motorcycle stuff now and again. Oh yeah, we’re still lovin’ the big bike! We had an a
The Reason For The Season… Blurred By “Santa” Once Again: A Rant.
December 25, 2011 by TG
I guess with all of the endorsement deals and appearance fees he’s signed over the years…
… the modern-day Madison Avenue creation we call Santa has been able to pull down some serious dough-ray – me and built himself a car collection that might even make Jay Leno a bit envious…
A pretty far cry from the Saint — Saint Nicholas — upon whom this modern-day marketing miracle is, in part, based.
———————-
As some friends have probably figured-out by now, I’m something of a free agent / agnostic when it comes to religion and have been since my teens. However, having attended Presbyterian Sunday school as a small child and studied theology in college, I understand the stories / history of Christmas, Hanukkah, Saint Nicholas and the other winter solstice celebrations. Through that understanding, I’ve always been able to appreciate and enjoy the spirit of the season and have done my best to enjoy all of what the holiday season has to offer by “playing along” with many of the traditions. For example, Debbie very much enjoys the Christmas holiday and likes to have a tree, lights, music and all of the other things associated with a contemporary, traditional Christmas. I also like holiday get-togethers, parties and the like where friendship is celebrated more than anything else.
Sadly, I’ve not been able to get excited about the holiday season this year and I’ve come to realize it’s the rabid over-emphasis that’s been placed on the materialistic stuff and “showing off” or one-upmanship that’s always front and center as the religious aspects have become too taboo to bring up in the public dialog.
More to the point, I had an interesting discussion with the woman who cuts my hair a few weeks back, noting she is a Muslim from the middle east who immigrated to the U.S. several years back. While making the typical idle chit-chat that stylists do with clients, she asked if I was ready for Christmas. I said I was not, and shared that I was having a hard time getting into the holiday spirit this year given how the “reason for the season” seemed to be of little consequence anymore. She then shared how she finds the season to be a challenge for her and her children. She went on to note that even as a Muslim she had learned the story of Christmas and its importance to Christians… but had never heard of Santa Claus until coming to the states. “What was this Santa Claus thing?” Back home she noted that there was always a modest gifting of money from elders to children around the winter solstice, but the level of avarice and wanting by her son’s school mates and friends here in the states was mind-boggling. Notes were even sent home to all parents letting them know that “Santa” would be coming to the school and that their children should bring their Christmas gift lists to school.
It truly underscored how hard it can be for families who do not celebrate the classic Norman Rockwell Christmas to teach moderation to their children in the face of the annual buying frenzy that has overshadowed the religious and seasonal events upon which the holidays are based. But, even the classic Norman Rockwell Christmas has been tarnished by excessive gift giving where children and even adults quickly become somewhat disappointed as they sit buried in a sea of wrapping paper and gifts there are no more boxes to unwrap, often bemoaning what they didn’t get or anxiously turning their attention to what they might still get from grandparents, parents, other friends and relatives or even Santa as part of their holiday haul, much of which will never be used or appreciated as much as a single, special and thoughtful gift.
So, how much is enough? And why do people feel compelled to buy “stuff” for the sake of buying stuff, much of which is never truly wanted or needed. Interestingly, Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss) and Charles M. Schultz (Peanuts & Charlie Brown) tried to take this head-on in their holiday stories, “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas” and the first Peanuts animated feature film, “A Charlie Brown Christmas”. Ironically, the message got lost in the very marketing that surrounded those important stories, dismissed as children’s stories that were really meant for adults.
Don’t get me wrong, I / we love having the family over for the holidays and gatherings of friends, so perhaps as we spend time with our children and grandkids and other family over the next few days we’ll be able to rekindle the true holiday spirit. That and giving to charities or over-tipping has been another way we find some satisfaction and feel better in tune with the season’s true spirit, but at the end of the day… I’ve really grown weary of this Santa Claus thing. Perhaps its time to get back to remembering the reason for the season.
So, Merry Christmas to those who celebrate the birth of Christ. To those who celebrated Hanukkah, I hope it was a great and satisfying event, and the same goes to everyone else who has found something to celebrate, including the stories and anecdotes of family and friends who have passed and whose memories, lessons and expectations we carry with us into the new year.
Posted in Advice & Commentary | 4 Comments »