THE TWO TIMES The Newsletter of the Tandem Club of Australia Issue 93 June/July 2001 President's Report (Pres's Press) Firstly I must say thankyou for the overwhelming and supportive response to putting up membership fees. Members at the special general meeting voted unanimously to increase the fee, meaning we can now support your club's running costs and pay for event insurance. Suggestions were made to have our membership fee even higher, but our aim was only to get to break-even cost. Thankyou to all those members who responded by email as well as to the members who made the time to get to the meeting. The focus can now turn to getting in our applications for TwoUp 2001 in Queensland and I can hardly wait for that super sunshine after the last few weeks of Melbourne gloom. If you intend going get your application form off as soon as possible to Jaimie Cook. A sensational weekend has been organised, with planning for great rides and events already well in hand. In case you thought Texas was the biggest, wait till you've seen the Big Pineapple, Big Macadamia...etc. Applications have started arriving, so follow up today by filling your form in and sending it off (an application form arrived with last newsletter - download more from our web site or contact Jaimie). Membership fees incorporated in TwoUp's costing will provide you with membership to October 2002. For all the State Representatives: keep up the good work with organising those rides and keeping the Editor busy with your contributions. The recent Tour de France got me tuning in to the television again so I could feel the Pyrenees once more; those guys on singles didn't seem to be having as much pleasure as we did on our tandem tour! A big hello to all our new members as well as the TCA's continuing members. Keep your tandem seat warm and your loved ones riding with you. Kim Travers ************* Tech Talk (Product Review) Tandem Talker Communication Unit an essential part of the gear! by Barry Squire Early in our tandem experience last year we read of the Tandem Talker unit in Tandem@Hobbes [an email discussion list - Ed) postings where teams spoke of their pleasure in using it for ease of communicating with one another, especially in windy conditions or in traffic. We looked up the Web site ************ Four kids + two adults + four bikes + twelve months = ADVENTURE The Richard family, from France, have landed in Australia with two tandems and two single bikes for the trip of a life time. With children aged six to 10 years, the younger pair stoke on their parents' tandems, while the older two ride their own bikes. Starting in Darwin, they're heading through the red centre (mostly by bus & plane - I can just see the faces of the check-in staff!!) to Alice Springs, then to Cairns, Sydney and arriving in Melbourne for Christmas. After that they head to NZ for six months. More next issue; in the meantime, check their Web site ********** On the Road Barry Squire 'Our interest in tandeming has lead to some great shared times with others who are braver (and fitter) than we!' Barry Squire tells us about one memorable encounter... John and Kathy Rumball hail from Cottesloe, on the coast at Perth. I found them pushing their unladen tandem towards the library on the UNE campus in Armidale the Thursday before the June long weekend, having checked in at the Pembroke Caravan Park - a reward for pushing up from Glocester (an awesome climb)! After coffee in our new campus cafe (with grand view of the Booloominbah lawns) I invited them home for dinner. They are on a ride from Adelaide to Darwin via Victoria, eastern NSW and Queensland fully laden with about 50kg of gear and supplies, definitely looking for gravel forest roads and bush campsites off the beaten track. We were able to direct them to the Styx River and Mann River areas between here and Grafton. They appeared to be trying to follow the National Trail route as much as riding a bike allows! It was great to hear from them something about Bob and Claire Rogers' visit to Perth on their Down Under trip last year - John and Kathy hosted them for the few days they spent in Perth. As we never managed to meet up with them on Zippy as they went up the coast east of here, that was the next best thing! We enjoyed a pleasant evening chatting about some of their travels this far, and their plans for the next few months. They are experienced tandemists and have ridden, we understood, in Asia, Africa and Europe over the past nine or so years. It was very interesting that they never appeared to have had trouble booking their tandem through either by rail or by air! What are other's experiences of having to crate or box the tandem before an airline (or rail company) will consider taking it on board? Perhaps NSW Rail needs some lessons from other states in this regard? Here's wishing them safe travels in the remainder of their journey! I think they said Christie Cycles built their tandem - it certainly travels long well and carries their gear with ease! John and Kathy are on email and send out occasonal updates on their travels. Contact us if interested and I'll get their permission to include you, though their support team in Perth may be more appropriately placed for this. Barry! - approaching 3500 km rapidly! ********** State Rides Vic Beach Break Sat & Sun 8-9 Sept Ride to the beach and stay at the Barter family beachhouse ($3 adult; $1 child. First six get a bed, others can camp in yard). Out-of-towners are welcome to floors space at Tony's on Friday night. Catch the 8.**am train to Geelong; ride the Bellarine Rail Trail to Queencliffe, with lunch en route. Have afternoon tea and explore Queenscliffe then ride to Ocean Grove via Pt Londsale. Pub dinner at the Collenduna Hotel. On Sunday walk to Point Lonsdale for lunch then ride to Geelong for the evening train (or stay till Monday). Contact Tony Barter, Vic state rep. WA Gathering Sunday 16 September The first WA TCA meet will be at Burswood Park, which is central and adjacent to the beautiful Swan River with its huge network of cycle paths. It will be very informal, with a sausage sizzle from 10am to 4pm where interested people can give us their ideas on what they would like the club to do in this state. Bring your bike and enjoy a ride along the river. We want to encourage not only tandem riders but anyone who has a spark of interest in cycling with less than one bike per rider. We will take our retired tandem along for prospective tandemists to try. Contact Ray & Merrill, WA's state reps. ************* The TCA & Blind Tandeming: Some Reflections on RVIB TC & TCA History by John Milburn The RVIB Tandem Club was formed in 1980 as an offshoot of the RVIB Ski club. Its earliest major group ride, on salvaged rusty and flexing ladyback rattlers, was the Gas and Fuel Energy Fun ride in late 1980. Less than 12 months later Allan and Rosalyn Bates, in working hard to foster and enlarge the involvement of vision-impaired people in tandem cycling at the RVIB tandem club, enlisted the guidance of some experienced TCA members. In November 1981, with the help of Charlie & Paul Farren, Caroline & Andrew McDowall, and Kay Trainor & Martin O'Brien, the RVIB Tandem Club and the TCA held a joint club ride with 18 tandem teams participating. This was just the first of many inter-club events. In 1991 the RVIB Tandem Cycling Club organised the second International Peace Tandem Tour rides. Around 30 vision-impaired tandemists from about 10 nations cycled our north-western Victorian roads to have what was universally acclaimed to be the time of their lives. However, many overseas visitors returned home scratching their heads over the Aussie predilection for drinking several large beers and then eating half a dozen fried dim sims. The shape, general appearance, colour and texture of the Aussie truck-stop take-away standard was perplexing to our international visitors. However, since then many participants, having acquired the taste, have requested dim sim recipes or asked for some to be air-freighted to them. The first of these International Peace rides was in 1989 around Southern California. At least three other such large events for vision-impaired tandemists have taken place. In 1993, Metro Sports Club, a division of the royal National Institute for the Blind - UK, organised a 14-day 1400km tour through East Anglia and Norfolk UK. Around 50 vision-impaired tandemists from Russia, the Ukraine, Lithuania, Holland, France, Germany, South Africa, Hong Kong, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the USA participated in this International Peace Tandem ride. This magnificently organised event was frequently accompanied by an 'after ride' evening of toasting in Russian vodka, Yorkshire red bitter, Aussie Jacob's Creek Red or American Bourbon. The other two less-formalised tours of vision-impaired tandemists were from Moscow to St Petersburg in early 1993 and from Bulleweo, Zimbabwe, to Johannesburg in South Africa in mid-1994. I know of other vision-impaired tandemists who have done the UK's 'End to End', or John o'Groats ride, from Scotland to Lands End, Cornwall. And other blind tandemists have cycled through both the humid tropical jungle lowlands and the cold high mountain passes of Sabah, Sarawak and Kalamantan in Borneo. Another 52-year-old totally blind tandemist and his captain ran a marathon through 250km of the Sahara Desert in 120F heat. This latter blind tandemist, Miles Hilton-Barber, a Rehabilitation Officer at the RNIB - UK, and his captain, Jonathon Cook, will attempt in November to walk from the Antarctic Coast 730mi to the South Pole and back. So, blind, vision impaired or partially sighted people are no strangers to tandem cycling and a little adventure. I've known vision-impaired tandem cyclists from the age of 80 down to those not yet in their teens. While other vision-impaired tandemists I've known have suffered from complex medical conditions over and above their blindness. The group that rode through Borneo all suffered from Albinism which greatly increased their vulnerability to life-threatening sunburn and tropical diseases. As Miles Hilton-Barber says, "I don't want to sit at home wondering about life. I want to be part of it, in the thick of it - taking life by the hand and saying 'Yes I'll go with you - to the edges of the world'. Sight loss needn't stop me making choices about the way I live. If I can show that trekking to the South Pole is possible for a blind man, then maybe I can inspire someone who's just lost their sight to pick up a white cane and take that first step across the road and into the unknown. Life's a journey. It can be exciting, scary, exhilarating and I want to live it - to the full.' The bottom line: If you are ever short of an enthusiastic stoker, then please don't hesitate to contact the RVIB tandem Club via: John Milburn, Email: jmilburn@alphalink.com.au or Allan Bates, Email: allanba@rvib.org.au ******** Web Tips Let's go surfin' now... A new regular column for what's hot on the web for tandem people. Send in your favourite sites to Peter Hines at Dillon_Hines@optusnet.com.au. da Vinci Designs (USA) http://davincitandems.com/ "The one on the back is not pedalling!" We've all heard it, but how many of us wish it were true? Tandem riders have forever been chained together, locked into synchronous cadence. The ability to coast or pedal independently is a convenience that we all miss but simply take it for granted. Enter da Vinci Designs with their independent freewheel system - allowing each rider to scratch, stretch, or wiggle in their seat without disrupting your partner. It's also claimed to be great in mountain biking conditions. da Vinci make complete tandems and a range of innovative accessories including three-hole drilled cranks (effectively 130, 150 and 170mm) to allow for a growing child. ************ Welcome to teams who've joined since June 2001: ACT Barbara McCarthy & Robert Brice NSW Mal & Rae Barstow Gary & Lisa Hackett Alan Taylor & Cheryl Hinton VIC Peter Howell Tas Tim Stredwick & family ************** Paid Up? Currently one third of TCA members are unfinancial (fees were due last October).Does this include you? Check your mailing label - this is the last newsletter for members with outstanding fees. ************** Ride More Want to ride tandems more often than your partner does? Sign onto the TCA's 'spare captains & stokers' database. Contact the Membership Secretary. ************ Daisy, Daisy, tell me your answer, do... Dear Daisy, My fiance and I have bought a tandem for our honeymoon bike tour. But after a few test rides I'm a little concerned I won't be able to enjoy some of the finer pleasures of married life at the end of a long day on my uncomfortable saddle. What should I do? Nervous bride Dear Nervous bride You should never have to put up with an unsatisfactory ride, especially on your honeymoon; test a few different saddles - one with a cut-out middle section might do the trick. If you are the rear rider, a suspension seat post might help absorb some of the bumps along the road. (If only we could get one of these for the rest of married life!!) All the best Daisy Ask Daisy the answer; email: dear_daisy_daisy@hotmail.com ************ The Two Times publication details: The Two Times, the newsletter of the Tandem Club of Australia, is published at the end of every odd month (May, July etc). Submissions are welcomed - send articles, hot tips, gossip, questions etc to: The Two Times Editor PO Box 12259 MELBOURNE VIC 8006 Send photos as hard copies (to be returned) or as 200DPI TIFF files. Limited advertising is available ($20 per standard -sized ad, per issue). Deadline: second Friday of the odd month