Discussion: NEWTS

What is that? When I googled it, all I got was the animal and scooters.

Not hard to find. New England Wicked Tandem Society. The folks who have the touring company we go with in Europe ride a tandem. Their new one is pedal assist.

Our tandem has pedal assist, too, she sits behind me.

Margi and I rode a tandem bike together before we got married. We still got married, in spite of that experience. But were we to try it again, all bets would be off.

We had one for a while. It was not a satisfying experience.

My brother and I inherited a much older tandem than yours, a Schwinn that was about as old as me, that our parents rode a lot, and that Alan and I both grew up on the back of. We scratched our heads for a while, and decided that it was basically of no further use, and donated it to someplace, but he says the frame had so many problems at that point that it probably got used for sculpture. But we have another tandem that is far older than that one. Dad picked up the frame with a few parts on it somewhere and it just sat in the attic for years, because one of the cranks is broken at the pedal eye, and there's no hope of finding a replacement for that nonstandard antique part. But Alan recently mentioned that he might have an idea for some way to repair the crank (with welding), so there's a possibility that it might eventually be rolling again. He also did some research and identified it: an Orient, made by Waltham Manufacturing, circa 1905.

@PBricker: you mean you are not sure if you would get remarried if you rode a tandem again?

Not sure we would stay married :-) Though our marriage has survived – with difficulty –quite a few two-person kayaking experiences. The problem is: we both like to be in control.

Or at least the illusion of control?

Used to be, tandems were built with the lady's seat in the front. The gentleman sat in the rear, and through a set of pushrods, it was his handlebars that actually turned the front wheel.