Tandeming
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A Fraidy Cat’s Tale of the Monster Cross 50 Miler
Everybody, I met someone. It happened last week at the Monster Cross 50 Miler in Pocahontas State Park, Virginia (route here). I’m still reeling from our interaction. This person is daring. Roots and gravel roll under her wheels and her face is unruffled. Bring it, her expression seems to say. She has no qualms about… Continue reading
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Randonneur- and Real-Life Spouse
As one of a small group of women who likes to ride long distances, I’m often exposed to conversations about “the wife.” I almost hate to write “the wife,” since I feel so strongly about it, but I’m writing what I hear and there you are. Sometimes “the wife” is referred to in other ways,… Continue reading
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The Highs and Lows of New Bike Day
One year ago, fate and desire intersected to create an opportunity for Felkerino and me to purchase a custom steel tandem. Prior to this tandem, our main brevet bike has been a custom-sized Co-Motion Java that has served us well and I’m not going to say one bad thing about it. Except one thing. We found… Continue reading
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Training for Randonneuring Rides on a Tandem
Those of you who receive American Randonneur– a quarterly publication of Randonneurs USA– may find this article about randonneuring tandem basics familiar, as it is a piece that was recently published in the Summer edition. I’m reprinting it here. Thanks to Mike Wali for the pics in this piece. Continue reading
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Bikes Are Not Family Members, But…
After a month spent in delightful lollygag mode, Felkerino and I pumped up the tires on the Co-Motion Java tandem for our first century ride of 2015. As I rode along looking alternately at Felkerino’s backside and a somewhat snotty top tube resulting from my runny nose, I was wholly grateful for the hours and… Continue reading
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Hilly Billy Roubaix: I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
This is not a joke so please stop smiling What was I thinking when I said it didn’t hurt –Wilco, “I Am Trying To Break Your Heart“ After an exhilarating experience at the 2013 edition of the Hilly Billy Roubaix, Ed Felkerino and I returned to Morgantown this past weekend for another opportunity to ride our Lead Sled tandem… Continue reading
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Co-Motion Tandem Compare and Contrast: Java vs. Speedster
It’s been just over one year and around 5,500 miles since Felkerino and I said goodbye to our Co-Motion Speedster and began riding our Co-Motion Java tandem. Now that we’ve put both of these tandems through their paces, I wanted to compare the two bikes and revisit the choice we made to replace our Speedster… Continue reading
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Lessons Learned From My First Tandem Bicycle Tour
This week I had the opportunity to reflect on my very first tandem bike tour with Felkerino, an eight-day, 775-mile excursion from Rockville, Maryland, to Niagara Falls. I wrote about our 2005 tour experience on The Bicycle Story (an excellent blog, and not just because I have a guest post on it). You can see… Continue reading
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Say My (Bike’s) Name: On Naming Your Bike
Do your bikes have names? If so, how did you name them? Did you give them a name you would give a person, like Betty or Howard or something? Or is the name you gave your bike akin to something you might bestow on a pet, like Pumpkin or Spot or Patches? Did your bike… Continue reading
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Seeing Changes
Instead of riding brevets and doing a 1000K or a 1200K this year, Felkerino and I focused on a weeklong Colorado bike tour, which included two days of riding around Boulder and a seven-day loop rich with hills and mountains. (Felkerino is writing a post of our routes and the gear we took over at… Continue reading
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Trail Ridge Road on Tandem
There’s nothing that kicks off a bike tour better than riding the highest continuous paved road in the United States. Continue reading
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All the King’s Horses, and All the King’s Men: Co-Motion Reassembly
I’m happy to report our tandem reassembly did not end like the tale of Humpty Dumpty. It took some time, but our tandem arrived safely in Boulder, Colorado, and is now a big bike again. It helped that we are staying with cycling friends who have a spacious back porch to spread out the coupler… Continue reading
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Something Old, Something New… Falling (in Love!) with Off-Road Tandeming
Felkerino’s and my years of randonneuring on tandem together combined with our growing interest in off-road riding made the Hilly Billy Roubaix, a 74-mile ride largely on the unpaved gravel and dirt roads in Monongalia County, West Virginia, an intriguing challenge. With the exception of tires (which Felkerino researched and purchased prior to the event)… Continue reading
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From Middletown to Monterey: Two Days, 255 Miles
Felkerino and I have been making the most of our weekend warrior lifestyle with two straight weekends of bike overnights on our Co-Motion tandem. This past weekend we toured with our rando-friends John and Cindy, who also ride a Co-Motion tandem– a 650B Speedster. Isn’t it beautiful? Both days included plenty of climbing and stunning… Continue reading
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Dialing in our New Co-Motion Java Tandem
Earlier this year, Felkerino’s and my new tandem arrived from Co-Motion. Some of you may remember that a crack developed in the stoker seat tube of our previous tandem, a Co-Motion Speedster, which required either a mend or a replacement frame. We ultimately chose to replace the frame and, rather than another Co-Motion Speedster tandem,… Continue reading
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2012 in Review: Variety is the Spice of Life
Another December passes, the sun sets on 2012, and I find myself reflecting about the activities of the past year. While Felkerino and I focused on preparing for and completing Paris-Brest-Paris in 2011, our 2012 cycling proved more varied. We commuted, completed a Super Randonneur series with the D.C. Randonneurs, trained to ride the Colorado… Continue reading
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A Return to the Single Bike Lifestyle
This past year, we retired our custom-fit Co-Motion tandem. It wasn’t by choice. Over the six years we had owned it and an estimated 25,000 miles, it gradually developed a crack in the area near the stoker seat tube. Felkerino wrote a post about it complete with a photo of the crack, here. As you… Continue reading
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Southern Virginia Tandem Bike Tour Lessons Learned and Wrap-Up Post
Writing during the journey is always a bit different than what comes to mind after a bike tour ends. The week has given me time to reflect on the trip we had, and I wanted to throw up some summary observations, assessments, and lessons learned from our recent jaunt around southern Virginia on our Cannondale… Continue reading
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Bike Touring Southern Virginia on the Lead Sled
Felkerino and I are off bike touring in Virginia this week. We began our ride in Waynesboro and are winding our way south to Wytheville. Day 1 we rode to Lexington, a quaint historic town. Yesterday, Day 2, we arrived in Clifton Forge, part of the Alleghany Highlands region. We’ve employed the mountain Cannondale tandem… Continue reading
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Colorado High Country 1200K: A Breathtaking Trip Out West
The Colorado High Country 1200K is a 90-hour, four day jaunt through about 750 miles of the great states of Colorado and Wyoming. Felkerino and I rode it last month and this month I wrote my story about it. Continue reading
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Reviving the Lead Sled: our Cannondale Tandem
Due to unforeseen circumstances (to be discussed in another post), our Co-Motion tandem will not be around for a while. In the meantime, Felkerino and I still want to tandem together so we decided to put our original brevet tandem, a Cannondale mountain frame, back into service for some summer rides and any upcoming fall brevets we do. Because… Continue reading
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Colorado High Country 1200K Photos
Hard for me to believe that the Colorado High Country 1200K is now in the books. Felkerino and I spent the last six months working toward this event, and suddenly it’s back to business as usual. No 1200K on the horizon, just the regular routine. To keep the post-event blues at bay, I’ve been reviewing,… Continue reading
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And We Made It: High Country 1200k
Friends, Felkerino and I officially finished the High Country 1200K yesterday in just under 83 hours. To give you a brief summary (full report and pics later), we had an incredibly good ride. Our bodies held up well, weather was pleasant, and we spent lots of miles chatting and pedaling with some great randonneurs. John… Continue reading
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And We’re Off: High Country 1200K
If you’re reading this, we’re off riding the High Country 1200K!!! Rider updates will happen on the High Country blog as the event unfolds. Felkerino (@dailyrandonneur) and I (@gypsybug) will post updates of our adventure via Twitter, using the hash tag #hc1200. Fellow DC Randonneur Bill (@bicyclic) is riding, too, so be sure to check… Continue reading
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Tandem Cycling: Is She Really Not Pedaling?
Those who have never ridden a tandem have a lot of thoughts about what riding a tandem must be like, and they will often share them with Felkerino and me when they see us out and about. I’m not quite sure why; there’s just something about riding that bike. People say some crazy stuff when… Continue reading
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D.C. Randonneurs Warrenton, VA 300K: In Each Life, Some Rain Must Fall
Now that I’ve caught up on sleep, uploaded my photos, and enjoyed a brilliant sunny warm Sunday I can say I truly enjoyed Saturday’s 300K with the D.C. Randonneurs. Continue reading
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Randonneur Rewind: Another Take on my First Year of Randonneuring
It’s hard for me to believe that I completed my first Super Randonneur series in 2005. That seems so long ago, yet it doesn’t feel like I’ve been randonneuring for that many years. Time is flying! As the brevet season kicked off for Felkerino and me this past weekend, I started feeling a little nostalgic and… Continue reading
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D.C. Randonneurs Urbana 200K: Feels like the First Time
Ride summary: Ride the rollers out of Urbana. Whee! First control in Union Bridge, Maryland. Pedal pedal. Climb 77 in Catoctin National Park. Climb. Climb climb climb. Descend. Grind through the rollers out of Smithsburg. Stop for a couple pics. Pedal through the fragrant countryside. Whoah, stinky! See eight cats in someone’s driveway. Eight! Control… Continue reading
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Paris-Brest-Paris by Tandem
Have you heard enough about PBP yet? Well, hang on just a minute, because I’ve got one more story to share with you. Continue reading
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2011 in Review: The Rides and Photos
January Our neck of the woods did not receive much snow this year, making January a rideable month. We did have below-average temperatures, though, so some rides were chilly. These two shots are from a sub-freezing sunny century Felkerino and I did in early January. My ankles felt so cold that I thought they could… Continue reading
Chasing MailBoxes 