When I was junior school age, my family and I used to enjoy family bike rides together, both at home and when on holiday. As my sight got to the point where I couldn't keep up and a bike ride caused me more stress than it was worth, we weren't able to enjoy cycling as a family anymore. We have always, and still do, enjoy plenty of family walks and so just did more walking instead.
It was only years later while studying my degree that we decided that it would be nice to be able to cycle again as a family, but this time my Dad and I would take up a tandem!
It took much research online to track down a suitable design, as many were road bound tandems as opposed to the mountain bike style we wanted. However, we eventually settled on a smart silver Viking tandem which is fabulous. It came boxed up which helped keep the price a bit lower than a pre-assembled one and, thankfully, my Dad is pretty handy when it comes to putting things together.
It's a great way of getting fresh air in the summer and spending time with family. I must say that I enjoy the exercise without the hassle of not being able to see where I'm going. One of our first trips out on it was at an English Heritage countryside park where there are acres of woodland and cycle-friendly roads and paths. We were delighted to discover that a few professional tandem teams were training there as well that day and were just as happy to see us novices.
Locally, riding a tandem is more unusual. If I had a pound for every time we get people singing "Bicycle made for two"!
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