The Tandem Tour

The Tandem Team has been spending a lot of time together lately to get ready for this trip. From our home base of Cadboro Bay, Victoria BC, we plot and plan the inner workings of our soon to be adventure. Well, actually, the adventure has just began.

We spend most of our days together, thinking about what needs to be done next, and how we can work together to get it done. Miller gets going on the "follow-up" calls, or as i like to call them "get ready to be shut down by another non-sponsor call." Big Bear Brent starts doing some man-stuff right off the bat. Like building a trailer. That's right, Brent is building the wooden trailer that will be pulled behind the trusty Tahoe. I either send some emails, call my mom, or play the guitar. Oh, and plan the route. We did that yesterday too. And by golly...Ontario is going to be a long way across. Ben Gully usually starts off his Tandem Day by ordering some camera equipment off the internet. Im not saying, but there may or may not be some aerial photography going down.

But alas, yesterday morning we awoke to the beautiful sun shining down on us in beautiful Victoria, and we knew what we had to do first. Go for a ride. A big ride. The biggest yet.

We dusted off our helmets, and saddled up the quad-tandem. After some light maintenance, We took off up the massive unbelievibly large hill that is Sinclair Road. With Big Bear at the Stern and Jeffy B sitting stroke seat, we had our work cut out for us. With one of the lightest at the front, and Big Man weighing about 50lbs. more than him at the back, the ol' quad Tandy was struggling and swinging around like a snake in heat. Remember, this bike is 12.5 feet long hub to hub.

As we turned down Mackenzie Ave. We had to make a change of seat positions. With Big Bear now closer to the Front, we made a short stop at the bike shop to get the computer working, then took off down the galloping goose trail towards the ferries.

Dodging cat calls from supporters and hecklers alike, we peddaled on. It was a beautiful spring day in BC, and we were cruising. Our average speed was an easy 30km/h

We reached a top speed of 50km/h...shit.

On our way home, we took the good ol' Pat Bay highway. It was a little nerve wracking peddling alongside semi's, but it is something we knew we had to get used to, so we put our heads down and peddled.

Just before we reached home, we were stopped on an uphill, and had to re-start. We all got on the power stroke, and 3...2...1...crunch. We bent the outer chain sprocket on the rear casette. to much power on. Once again, a crash analysis. What did we do wrong, and how will it never happen again. This is how we deal with problems. Learn our lesson, and move on. Luckily our friends at the Quadra Bike Shop fixed it for us. What a bunch of guys.

Tonight we are having a fundraiser BBQ, and all the boys are coming in from Victoria to show off the bike to our Vancouver friends. Today is a good day.

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