Woodland Tulip Loop

Neither one of us wanted to get moving this morning. Looking out the window at the wet roads didn't help. The sun came out and the roads started to dry, so we finally got out the door and rolling at about 10:30 a.m. Once we started riding we both felt great.

Quick Stats Ride Distance: 65.43 miles   Elevation Gain: 3,647 feet   Average Moving Speed: 15.47 mph

Madras Fall Weekend

We compared the Vancouver forecast to the Madras forecast and decided it was time to head to Sunny Central Oregon for the weekend.

TTT + 389th/Spencer

Normally during the week we don't do longer rides. But since Amy has to work Saturday and what with the impending rainy season we decided we better ride while we can. So we did basically a metric century on a Thursday morning.

Quick Stats Ride Distance: 61.88 miles   Elevation Gain: 5110 feet   Average Moving Speed: 14.6 mph

North River Ride

After getting rained out on Saturday and Sunday, when we had planned to ride out to Sauvie Island with friends on Saturday and then do most of the Monster Cookie route (unsupported) in Salem on Sunday, we were happy to get any ride in on Monday at all.

Quick Stats Ride Distance: 74.06 miles   Elevation Gain: 3,500 feet   Average Moving Speed: 15.93 mph

Several Local Rides

After The Tandem Experiment we were both happy to be back on our own bicycles. Not so much because they are not tandem bicycles, per se, but really because they are dialed in for comfort. Home sweet home, in a sense.

The Tandem Experiment

Okay, so we've seriously considered riding a tandem. Before actually riding one there were a few things we figured would be nice on a tandem.

1. We liked the idea of going at the same pace. We actually already ride very similar paces on separate bikes, but of course on one bike the pace is... exactly equal.
2. We also figured that already having a similar overall pace we wouldn't have too much trouble acclimating to the world of riding a tandem.
3. And finally, we hoped that perfect drafting on a tandem would significantly boost our overall speed since we don't draft at all (for various reasons) when riding together on separate bikes.

Those were our pre-conceived ideas. What happened when those ideas were hit by the reality of actually riding a tandem together?