happiness is a childback tandem

At least my daughter thinks so...

Hi all... Long-time users may remember me; I posted here alot until
about 5.5 years ago, when I had my first child, Ellen. Now she is
(surprise, surprise) 5.5 years old, and we have a 2 year old boy as
well (Luke).

We live fairly close to school, a bit less than 1.5 miles away. Too
far to walk (for me anyway, I find walking way too slow), but I don't
want to use the car the for school run. Last year when she was in
reception, I had them both in the child trailer, and I'd drop Ellen
off at school, Luke off at the childminder, then continue on into
work. But it's getting a little crowded in there, and it was getting
difficult to pull them both. Ellen hasn't learned to ride her bike yet
without stabilisers, and anyway the route involves going along
Huntingdon Road, a 40mph high-traffic road, and we don't want her
riding along that until she's bigger.

A tag-along bike is out of the question, since we need to take Luke in
the trailer, so childback tandem it was. The Thorn Voyager is one of
the few options, so we got one, with the thorn stoker bars mounted
backwards so she could easily reach them, and with the double drilled
(115 & 140mm) rear cranks.

She loves it! I'm amazed at how quickly she took to it. She really
contributes to the pedalling, so now it's so uch easier to get up the
small inclines along the route (can't really call them hills; this is
Cambridge after all). She says we're a good team, and I have to agree
with her.

Some pics can be found he

http://simon.trinhall.cam.ac.uk/swmp...8-09-06-Tandem

-Myra

wrote in message
...
At least my daughter thinks so...

Hi all... Long-time users may remember me; I posted here alot until
about 5.5 years ago, when I had my first child, Ellen. Now she is
(surprise, surprise) 5.5 years old, and we have a 2 year old boy as
well (Luke).


Welcome back! Long time no postee and it's heartening to see you back here!

We live fairly close to school, a bit less than 1.5 miles away. Too
far to walk (for me anyway, I find walking way too slow), but I don't
want to use the car the for school run. Last year when she was in
reception, I had them both in the child trailer, and I'd drop Ellen
off at school, Luke off at the childminder, then continue on into
work. But it's getting a little crowded in there, and it was getting
difficult to pull them both. Ellen hasn't learned to ride her bike yet
without stabilisers, and anyway the route involves going along
Huntingdon Road, a 40mph high-traffic road, and we don't want her
riding along that until she's bigger.

A tag-along bike is out of the question, since we need to take Luke in
the trailer, so childback tandem it was. The Thorn Voyager is one of
the few options, so we got one, with the thorn stoker bars mounted
backwards so she could easily reach them, and with the double drilled
(115 & 140mm) rear cranks.

She loves it! I'm amazed at how quickly she took to it. She really
contributes to the pedalling, so now it's so uch easier to get up the
small inclines along the route (can't really call them hills; this is
Cambridge after all). She says we're a good team, and I have to agree
with her.

Some pics can be found he

http://simon.trinhall.cam.ac.uk/swmp...8-09-06-Tandem

It looks like some serious fun is being had there! Most excellent!


Cheers, helen s


-Myra

On Sep 8, 11:15*am, wrote:
At least my daughter thinks so...

Hi all... Long-time users may remember me; I posted here alot until
about 5.5 years ago, when I had my first child, Ellen. Now she is
(surprise, surprise) 5.5 years old, and we have a 2 year old boy as
well (Luke).

We live fairly close to school, a bit less than 1.5 miles away. Too
far to walk (for me anyway, I find walking way too slow), but I don't
want to use the car the for school run. Last year when she was in
reception, I had them both in the child trailer, and I'd drop Ellen
off at school, Luke off at the childminder, then continue on into
work. But it's getting a little crowded in there, and it was getting
difficult to pull them both. Ellen hasn't learned to ride her bike yet
without stabilisers, and anyway the route involves going along
Huntingdon Road, a 40mph high-traffic road, and we don't want her
riding along that until she's bigger.

A tag-along bike is out of the question, since we need to take Luke in
the trailer, so childback tandem it was. The Thorn Voyager is one of
the few options, so we got one, with the thorn stoker bars mounted
backwards so she could easily reach them, and with the double drilled
(115 & 140mm) rear cranks.

She loves it! I'm amazed at how quickly she took to it. She really
contributes to the pedalling, so now it's so uch easier to get up the
small inclines along the route (can't really call them hills; this is
Cambridge after all). She says we're a good team, and I have to agree
with her.

Lovely pics.. My kids absolutely love the tandem. My youngest is 6,
the oldest 11 and being dropped off at secondary school by tandem is
not yet 'uncool' (OK, it only happens infrequently, she has legs and
can walk the mile to school). Kids can happily cope with riding a
tandem from about the age of 4 - one of my former colleagues did her
first century on the back of a tandem, aged 5.

...d

"David Martin" wrote in message
...

Lovely pics.. My kids absolutely love the tandem. My youngest is 6,
the oldest 11 and being dropped off at secondary school by tandem is
not yet 'uncool'

A colleague takes his teenage daughter to school by tandem - she's
apparently not complaining about being uncool. (11 miles or so. It's
Cambridge though, so driving is out of the question except on special
occasions.)

cheers,
clive

wrote:
At least my daughter thinks so...

Hi all... Long-time users may remember me; I posted here alot until
about 5.5 years ago, when I had my first child, Ellen. Now she is
(surprise, surprise) 5.5 years old, and we have a 2 year old boy as
well (Luke).

Good to see you back. I remember one of your last posts was about cycling
when very pregnant!

~PB

wrote in message
...
At least my daughter thinks so...

Hi all... Long-time users may remember me; I posted here alot until
about 5.5 years ago, when I had my first child, Ellen. Now she is
(surprise, surprise) 5.5 years old, and we have a 2 year old boy as
well (Luke).

We live fairly close to school, a bit less than 1.5 miles away. Too
far to walk (for me anyway, I find walking way too slow), but I don't
want to use the car the for school run. Last year when she was in
reception, I had them both in the child trailer, and I'd drop Ellen
off at school, Luke off at the childminder, then continue on into
work. But it's getting a little crowded in there, and it was getting
difficult to pull them both. Ellen hasn't learned to ride her bike yet
without stabilisers, and anyway the route involves going along
Huntingdon Road, a 40mph high-traffic road, and we don't want her
riding along that until she's bigger.

A tag-along bike is out of the question, since we need to take Luke in
the trailer, so childback tandem it was. The Thorn Voyager is one of
the few options, so we got one, with the thorn stoker bars mounted
backwards so she could easily reach them, and with the double drilled
(115 & 140mm) rear cranks.

She loves it! I'm amazed at how quickly she took to it. She really
contributes to the pedalling, so now it's so uch easier to get up the
small inclines along the route (can't really call them hills; this is
Cambridge after all). She says we're a good team, and I have to agree
with her.

Some pics can be found he

http://simon.trinhall.cam.ac.uk/swmp...8-09-06-Tandem

-Myra

Did you stay in the Red Caboose Motel by the Strasburg Railway?

Thanks for the welcome back. I will try to stick around and post on
relevant topics.

One thing I should mention is that we got the tandem through the gov't
Cycle to Work tax-free bike scheme. Although the bike was alot more
expensive than most bikes bought through this scheme (I guess) it's
going to be used for exactly the purpose the scheme was set up for:
allowing me to continue to cycle despite needing to transport more
than one non-cycling kid.

Pete: when I stopped contributing regularly here I was pregnant with
Ellen. I had to stop cycling 3 weeks before I was due because of bad
pregnancy-related carpal tunnel syndrome. But for pregnancy #2 (Luke)
I didn't get that at all and continued to cycle to work every day, and
into town on weekends, up until the day I gave birth! Here are some
piccies of me the weekend before I had Luke:

http://simon.trinhall.cam.ac.uk/swmp...onths-pregnant

-Myra

Did you stay in the Red Caboose Motel by the Strasburg Railway?

Wow, that certainly is off-topic! I'm trying desperately to find a way
to relate our trip to Strasburg with cycling, and I have utterly
failed. Which is strange, because I can manage to relate most things
to cycling...

Let's see, you followed the link the for tandem piccies, then found
our piccies of the Strasburg Railway?

Anyway, no, we stayed with our friends who are also in the piccies.
They live near Harrisburg PA.

-Myra

wrote in message
...
At least my daughter thinks so...

Hi all... Long-time users may remember me; I posted here alot until
about 5.5 years ago, when I had my first child, Ellen. Now she is
(surprise, surprise) 5.5 years old, and we have a 2 year old boy as
well (Luke).

We live fairly close to school, a bit less than 1.5 miles away. Too
far to walk (for me anyway, I find walking way too slow), but I don't
want to use the car the for school run. Last year when she was in
reception, I had them both in the child trailer, and I'd drop Ellen
off at school, Luke off at the childminder, then continue on into
work. But it's getting a little crowded in there, and it was getting
difficult to pull them both. Ellen hasn't learned to ride her bike yet
without stabilisers, and anyway the route involves going along
Huntingdon Road, a 40mph high-traffic road, and we don't want her
riding along that until she's bigger.

A tag-along bike is out of the question, since we need to take Luke in
the trailer, so childback tandem it was. The Thorn Voyager is one of
the few options, so we got one, with the thorn stoker bars mounted
backwards so she could easily reach them, and with the double drilled
(115 & 140mm) rear cranks.

She loves it! I'm amazed at how quickly she took to it. She really
contributes to the pedalling, so now it's so uch easier to get up the
small inclines along the route (can't really call them hills; this is
Cambridge after all). She says we're a good team, and I have to agree
with her.

Some pics can be found he

http://simon.trinhall.cam.ac.uk/swmp...8-09-06-Tandem

-Myra

I started at 3months in Sidecar of parents tandem and progressed to seat on
back, then my own bike.

I took my daughter out on full sized old Claud Butler tandem with a child
adaptor.
That is a bottom bracket with cranks fitted to the seat tube the chainwheel
connected by chain to a sprocket
on the tandem bottom bracket.axle.

She now breeds BMX racers. They are the 4th generation to have a NCU / BCF /
British
Cycling racing licence

On Mon, 8 Sep 2008 08:01:21 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

Thanks for the welcome back. I will try to stick around and post on
relevant topics.


Welcome back - you had better not query the mafia over something like
the merits of wearing cycle helmets which most people think is
sensible otherwise you will be labeled as a troll.

(There have been one or two so labeled recently - but don't let it
stop you expressing your views)