Cycle touring mainland Europe on a tandem – downsides?

Inspired by a combination of that other tandem thread just now and idle Friday afternoon skiving working very hard, I’ve been perusing tandems for touring.

Other than not being able to get on a train or a plane with a tandem, are there any other downsides? Has anyone used one for a 2 week tour? They look jolly civilised for touring – the stoker being responsible for navigation and feeding the pilot snacks all the while not having a yo-yo effect of differing speeds bringing on frustration…

No real downsides – I have done it. Parking a long vehicle in tiny low countries towns can be fun – especially if you tow a trailer.

I confess I’ve only done one week of touring with ours, although I’m going again for a few days later this month. No major downsides, really. Obviously a laden tandem weighs about as much as a small house, so you have to be careful leaning it up against things because once it starts rolling or falling over it’s going. Climbing is largely an exercise in trying to keep your internal organs on the inside, and it’ll go downhill like a runaway freight train, so all your hard-earned altitude is lost in about three seconds. People will point at you, talk to you, and ask whether he/she’s pulling their weight at the back. (They’re generally not, of course, bless ’em—but that’s probably the most common reason for buying a tandem: without it you’d be waiting at the top of the hill enjoying the view while your spouse/offspring is having an emotional breakdown about a mile back and resolving to stab you with a steak knife once you finally make it to the hotel. Being on the same bike means you can arrive together, and that they can try to have a nice chat with you whilst you’re furiously pretending that you have enough spare capacity in your lungs to be able to make intelligible noises.) Plan to do at most half the distance you’d do on a solo and you’ll be alright. And try not to fart too much.

Oh, and they do fit on trains IME. But probably not all trains.

People will point at you, talk to you, and ask whether he/she’s pulling their weight at the back. (They’re generally not, of course, bless ’em—but that’s probably the most common reason for buying a tandem: without it you’d be waiting at the top of the hill enjoying the view while your spouse/offspring is having an emotional breakdown about a mile back and resolving to stab you with a steak knife once you finally make it to the hotel. Being on the same bike means you can arrive together, and that they can try to have a nice chat with you whilst you’re furiously pretending that you have enough spare capacity in your lungs to be able to make intelligible noises.)

Best description ever!

There’s a company that take a coach and trailer down from York to Spain with various drop off points along the way that take tandems if you want to do a one way trip. Ferries are good for travelling too. A parking brake on a touring tandem is a great addition. Carrying capacity is not as good as with two bikes unless you opt for a trailer but otherwise its a great way for two to travel – we managed 860miles in 10days last year including nearly a century on the last day 👍

As well as arriving together there is the added bonus of unexpected fondling while on the flat. Or is that just Mrs Sandwich?

I wouldn’t know, I’ve never had Mrs Sandwich on the back of my tandem.

Does “arriving together” take on its alternative meaning in this context? (On a crudely related—and relatedly crude—note, I assume there’s no euphemistic backstory behind the epithet “Mrs Sandwich”…?)

Thanks all – not using a train doesn’t necessarily bother me (I think). The last two French tours we’ve done we have driven from Edinburgh to the south coast ferry port on one occasion and another parked up in Dunkirk then toured from there to avoid UK trains. The prospect to drive a few hours further then do a circular tour doesn’t seem like that much extra faff.

In the past we’ve used 6 panniers – me 4, Mrs Scruff 2 so loosing the capacity for 2 could be interesting, but potentially not a show stopper.

We’re loosely planning to do the Velodysee from St Malo to Bilbao / Santander as a back up holiday if the weather is looking too gash for sailing in the hebrides in July. In that case leaving the car at Portsmouth would be easy.

I’ve seen a few tandems with drum / hub brake on the rear – what are these like? v brakes sufficient or are big disks the way forward? My wife is a strong cyclist in her own right, but I can’t see us touring in the mountains tbh.

Will do some more pondering…

🙂

Weight – we put us and ours on a weighbridge – approaching 1/4 tonne. Getoutofmywaaaaaaay!

V brakes are Ok but big discs are the way forward IMO. We have used a trailer when touring in rural areas to get extra capacity and improved handling ( no panniers on the bike) but that makes it an utter pain in towns and transporting it. Custom frame bags get you a lot of space as well – we have a couple. We have gone with just 4 panniers as well – a bit tight with comfy camping kit. On balance I prefer the trailer.

One thing I have heard said that for couples “Wherever your relationship is going you will get there quicker on a tandem” Its brought me and t’missis closer but some folk fight!

For Scotland
DSC_0436 by TandemJeremy[/url], on Flickr
For mainland Europe
42 Windmills bicycle and us by TandemJeremy[/url], on Flickr

Downsides we found:
Numb undercarriage as you spend more time sat down, and standing up needs a bit more thought / communication.

Heavy when loaded.

Loaded camping touring anywhere with really steep hills was pretty miserable and felt like glacial progress.

Due to above, Welsh farm dogs had more chance to catch and chomp you, and twice as much choice to bite.

Occasional pedal tug of war / imbalance in techy stuff or downhill if you have a different lead leg to you partner.

Captain ideally needs to be a good chunk heavier than the stoker – equal weights made it quite hard to handle, especially off road.

We eventually sold ours 🙂

200mm discs front and rear for us, with additional voice activated rear vee brake/parking brake for us. So far only done gitte/b & b/Hotel touring… but Mrs dB likes to camp

Also read up a bit and look closely at what you are buying.

A lot of older steel ones had quite short rear top tubes (Reynolds didn’t make a long enough butted tube so Dawes etc can be quite cramped).

We tested a few back to back and found ones with single piece front to back top / diagonal tubes were a lot less flexy (Cannondale did one piece tubes plus maybe Burley and Swallow).

https://viewsfromtheback.com/

Folks I know just got back from nearly a year touring on a tandem. I’ve really enjoyed the photos coming back- it may give you some ideas?

Bez, there’s a proper Mrs Sandwich. Innuendo may or may not be implied with my phrasing. <house of cards> You may think that, I couldn’t possibly say</house of cards

We’re planning a trip on the continent in early autumn on our tandem. We’re have a custom built Landescape tandem, my wife is quite tall, and all the odd the peg options were too short in the top tube for her. 200mm discs, Hope vTwin 4 piston brakes give all the strong power we need. We’ve been over Ventoux, so this seems to be powerful enough!

Logistics for getting to and from the continent with a tandem appear complicated. Trains are hit and miss, planes…… so, we are travelling out to Montpellier on the European Bike Bus Express and riding back to Amsterdam. Overnight ferry back to Newcastle, then train back to the Highlands. LNER are tandem friendly on some services, including their Inverness train.

We’ve done a tonne of tandem touring both in Europe and almost everywhere else.

Two things; there’s no such thing as too low gearing or too much braking. We run 20/34 lowest front/rear and 3 vee brakes plus a drum. The drum is on a ratchet lever and is ace for long descents or as a parking brake stopping the beast from rolling away.

We cycle camp and also use whatever accommodation is available depending on circumstances i.e. weather or facilities – some Countries/Regions don’t really cater for camping e.g. parts of Asia.

We only take 4 panniers even when camping but use super light camping kit and are ruthless with everything else.

Non cycling transport is probably the biggest bug bear though easily fixed with that universal tool – the credit card.

Our longest tour to date was 4 months and we haven’t killed each other (yet).

Plan to do at most half the distance you’d do on a solo and you’ll be alright.

I’m intrigued and surprised. Tell us more. I’d have expected it to be fast, efficient and good for high mileage…

I’d read that for larger hills, v-brakes resist heat build up far better than disk brakes, and are thus preferable – is that not the case? Fully laden up going down a big hill there’s a lot of energy to convert into heat

I guess you can always use both without too much faff.

I’m intrigued and surprised. Tell us more. I’d have expected it to be fast, efficient and good for high mileage…

Well, it depends. If you stick two pros on it it’ll probably go better than two solos, but many people (certainly me) buy them because the pilot is a keen/fit rider and the stoker—in our case either my wife or my 9yo son—isn’t so much. So it balances things up, but (speaking purely from the pilot’s perspective) it’s harder work. Stick a week’s luggage on it and you’ve doubled the problem.

Once you get up to speed and both people are chipping in, it flies. But when the speed drops (and on the slightest gradient it will) it’s hard work.

YMMV.

I have. 90% built tandem and was wondering about the third brake thing. Not sure I would like to have someone pulling a brake when it expected.

Also re flying, I would expect you could fly with a tandem but may need two bag. One for wheens and bits and another just for frame and a few odd and ends. After all the frame, especially if forks are removed could pack up to be less than surfboard in size.

I’d read that for larger hills, v-brakes resist heat build up far better than disk brakes, and are thus preferable – is that not the case? Fully laden up going down a big hill there’s a lot of energy to convert into heat

Isn’t that the point of the drum brake? – see boblo’s post.

I’m a bit late to the conversation but bookmarking to upload some photos later as spent 1/2 of last summer touring from Toulouse to Venice on a Tandem with my fiancé. We took it sueor slow (20-50km days when riding, riding 5 in 7 days) Will do a longer write up later, but in summary it’s great!

Touring yes, camping no. Never been a fan of camping anyway, so we just cycle from B&B to B&B. Two panniers at the back, rack pack and handlebar bag is plenty room for two people for a week. Most of the points I’d raise have been covered above. Done Hull-Zebrugge for a tour of Belgium, toured around the Irish Sea last year (Anglesey – Dublin, down to Roasslare and over to Fishguard then back uyp Cardigan Bay). Illness meant we were support vehicle for the tandems and solos on a tour of the outer hebrides / skye / arndmurchan. Tour of the inner hebrides planned, also Aberdeen up to Orkney and back on the ferry. Love it. Just bought a new tandem, 2 big disks (trp spyres @ 203mm) and a parking v-brake operated by a bar end shifter on the pilot’s drops.