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Tandem
Tour Companies & Tandem Friendly Accommodations
One's We Can Vouch For.....
PennyWise Cycle Tours
Operated by long time friends
Rich Wolf, and his wife, Ina Thompson of La Jolla, CA. These
tours get very high marks for quality and value.
Erickson Cycle Tours:
Operated by our Frame Builder
and friends Glenn Erickson & Nancy Bruce.
One of Glenn's tours was
included in Bicycling Magazines 10 most challenging tours; if
you're looking for a two-week tandem tour that will offer a challenging
ride through some of the most scenic places in Europe with great
accommodations, this is it.
Santana Tandem Tours
Operated by Bill &
Jan McCready of Santana.
We've attended one of the
Santana Rallies and it was first class. Not the least expensive,
but certainly one of the most complete vacations we've ever taken....
kinda like a cruise but on land. You do not need to be a Santana
owner to attend one of their rallies or tours.
Bent Creek Lodge, Asheville, NC
Operated by Doug &
Jodee Sellers and Kathy Courtney. We had an outstanding weekend
stay at the Bent Creek Lodge in conjuction with an off-road tandem
event hosted by David Lee of Asheville, NC.
For Complete details on
the weekend just read
our post-event write up.
The Ones On Our "Wish
List".....
Tandem Tours Ireland
Operated by the McQuaid
family -- legends in Irish cycling -- Tandem Tours Ireland is
a sister company of Celtic Trails and the only tandem tour operator
in Ireland. The McQuaid's have put all their experience and knowledge
gained in the years of running successful cycling holidays in
the west of Ireland with Celtic Trails into coming up with several
very special tandem cycling holidays that appeal to both beginner
and experienced tandem riders alike.
Second Summer Tours
Operated by Rob Templin
who makes his home in Eugene, Oregon, where the cold and dreary
Northwest winters drove him to "discover" exotic locales
in South America, New Zealand and Maui, Hawaii where it is, indeed,
summer in January and February. And that's the genesis of Second
Summer Tours.
A Very Large Collection
of Personal Tour Reviews by Actual Cycle Tourists
One's Someone Else is Vouching
For....
Karl Brodowsky's Tour Reviews
Interactive Database
for Cue Sheets, Route Maps & Club Info in the US
BikeThisWay.com
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Tour Companies &
Search Engines
Tandem Tours
Tandems Welcome On Tours
Tour Company Lists at Other WebSites
- Bike
Barn - Splash Page for Bike Barn,
featuring an expansive web site with a very, very comprehensive
series of links list. Go to the site's Home Page and then use
the "Where Do You Want To Go" menu to select "Bike
Related Links". Then, select "Ride/Touring-Information".
- Bicycle Outfitter's Tour Operators List - A comprehensive list of links to bicycle tour
operators.
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Tandem Tours For The
Sight Impaired
A group of off-road tandem enthusiasts
with sight impaired stokers who travel the mountains of Israel.
Contact Gilad Goraly
via Email for additional information: Tandem_Webmaster@hotmail.com
Mountain Biking Tour
Companies
B&B's Catering to
Cyclists
Travel Logs, Diaries
& Photo Collections
Other Great Sites To Visit
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S
& S Machine Couplers for Travel Tandems
Posted on [T@H] October
10, 2002 (with some minor edits/addenda)
- The most important first
step is to practice packing and unpacking your tandem before
you actually travel when you're not in a hurry or pressed for
time. This will help to ensure you've got it figured out.
- It's also important
to note that there are a lot of packing variations between different
brands, models and sizes of tandems so what works for one tandem
may not always work for another.
- Once you have your tandem
packed you'll want to be sure that it won't shift around in your
case when it's handled by real people. To do this you'll want
to close it, stand it up on its end, turn it over a few times
and "bounce" it on the ground a little bit to simulate
what will happen to it when you and the baggage handlers lug
it out of cars, [and onto] conveyor belts, luggage carts and
airplanes. When you open it back up you'll hopefully find it
didn't shift around too much. If it does, consider adding clothing,
additional padding or other dunnage to fill in the gaps so that
it doesn't shift. You tandem is more likely to sustain damage
from things moving around in the case during handling than from
being bent by a crushing blow that deforms the shell of an S&S
hard case and/or soft cases.
- Also, be sure to figure
out how to pack your bike with any accessories that you'll want
to take along (e.g., rear rack, mud-guards). I perfected my system
under the premise that I'd be using a seat-post mounted rear
rack. However, when I realized I needed to take along a full-size
rack that could handle panniers I found that I had to completely
re-think how to pack the tandem to make room.
- Once you have figured
it out consider packing the tandem one more time and photo-documenting
your "system" as you unpack it, one layer at a time.
Keep the photos with your case so you can refer to them whenever
you pack or unpack your tandem. The photos
that are on our Web site were actually created for that purpose
and a color copy of the packing sequence and notes are in a clear
protector sheet taped to the inside lid of our hard case. It's
nice not having to think about how everything fit together since
just a minor mistake can throw everything off and leave you scratching
your head.
Other fine points:
- 1. Consider putting
old hubs or sections of 1/4" Schedule 40 PVC in your front
& rear drop-outs (held in place by your skewers) to protect
your fork and rear triangle.
- 2. Make sure all the
components, tools, etc... are wrapped in something that will
keep them from moving around and [use] some padding to prevent
both the components and other things in the case from getting
marred.
- 3. Consider taking along
a lightweight white drop cloth (plastic-backed paper ones are
cheap and pack flat) and some rags. The drop cloth could come
in handy if you have to assemble or disassemble your tandem on
a carpeted floor, both for protecting the floor and to make it
easier to see what you're doing if the carpet is dark. The rags
will come in handy when you re-pack your tandem. Nothing worse
than trying to pack a dirty tandem or, a wet one if it rains.
- 4. How far can you go
to ensure everything stays put? I line my case with two packing
straps and two terry cloth sheets. All the components go into
the case on top of them. Once everything is in the case the towels
get wrapped over the top of the packed bike & compression
members and then I cinch up the packing straps. The entire tandem
-- less the [front] and back wheels -- ends up being one neat
little package that you can lift out of the case such that nothing
moves. The wheels go in a soft case with the [trunk] pack, tool
box, panniers, and cycling clothes, etc... This may seem a little
over the top, but it gives me piece of mind.
- Finally, in light of
the new baggage screening procedures invoked by the Transporation
Security Authority (TSA) on January 1, 2003, I've adopted this
last step. Give the possibility that our neatly packed travel
tandem could end up being the subject of a search, I'll place
a friendly note in the case and on top of the packed tandem contents
that says. "This
is a tandem bicycle. There are packing instructions and pictures
of it inside the lid. It took me 4 hours to learn how to pack
and unpack this bicycle so that it fits and nothing gets damaged.
Since you've now opened this case I'd ask that if you have any
doubts about how to un-bundle and safely repack this tandem bicycle
please have my airline page me or call me on my cell phone at
____________ and I'll come and help"
- Resources for Shipping
your tandems are at these URLs:
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Tandem
Travel Accessories
Panniers
Soft Covers &
Bras
- PygmyPack Cordura covers that protect your drivetrain
from the elements, or your car's interior from your drivetrain
Trailers - Behind
Your Car
Trailers - Behind
Your Tandem
Travel Cases
Rack Systems
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the page
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