We did it!  We had been planning since January to go to the Northwest Tandem Rally.  We actually had a whole training plan worked out that due to illness and life getting in the way, we never actually really adhered to.  This meant that we had a total of 30 miles under our belt and no training on the hills.  Not that the ride was really all that hilly (they called it the Flat Long after all) nor really that far (it only turned out to be a wee over 60 miles)



but we weren't necessarily prepared.  Regardless, we did very well, keeping a pretty darn good average speed and even letting it loose on the decents.  What's extra cool about this is that Christina's completed her first organized ride and her first (well, close enough) metric century, i.e. 100 kilometers.  Most of all, we did it together.

Damn if we didn't need each other, either!  Within the first 12 miles, we had three rear flats.  The one in the middle was a pinch flat, likely to have been caused by being anxious to get back on the road and catch up with Ian who had just passed us on Highway 34.  The other two both involved the stem tearing away from the tube.  It's possible that there is something amiss with the rim, but there are other factors involved.  For one thing, Highway 34 was full of big gravel and glass and we had two panniers on the back of the bike full of food.  We brought our own food because of bad memories of what was available at the last Eugene Rally.  I'm sure it didn't help that we have an internal hub, drag brake, fenders, rear rack, panniers, suspension seatpost, and two-leg kickstand pushing down on that wheel either.

The pic above was taken just after this first flat and just before we got the pinch flat.  You can see the first tube hanging off the back side of the pannier.  We tied it around the pannier to keep it compact but I guess it fell off.  We got the pinch flat and I figured it might be a good idea to get rid of the bags so we surrendered them to the SAG.  Very shortly thereafter, we had the 2nd tube die the same death the first one did.  This was bad because it meant we were up a creek without a paddle.  We were practically in tears and ready to call the SAG to pick us up and call it a day.  Luckily, another SAG came by with a Salsa Ultralight tube which made me a bit nervous.  However, $4 later, we installed it and had no problems thereafter.  I also might add that in light of recent discussion on problems with Stelvios on tandems, that I had no problems with the tires.

Bonus points, too, for NWTR this time.  The Rally often has a bad reputation for being badly organized, but this was great.  They even had a sprinkler at the last rest stop!  The only thing they didn't have was cold water, but I forgive them.  Anyone who has a 451 tube laying around is fine by me! 

Speaking of the Rally, there are more pics to be seen on Flickr if you click the pic above and also on the website of the professional photographer who took the pic above.  I have some more pics from the Vendor Show which I did while the girls stayed at home.  Most of them are of Calfee's bamboo/carbon tandem (!!!) since I was too busy otherwise to take pictures of anything else.  I also have some nice bird's-eye-views of me fixing flats once I figure out how to extract them from Christina's phone.

While we're on the subject of technology, I might point out the fact that Christina's sporting an iPod in the above picture.  She says (and my experience agrees) that it helps her maintain a higher intensity level when she's excercising.  Considering our nervousness about not being ready for the rally, we weren't about to leave home without it.  The only thing that didn't work well about it was that I couldn't talk to her very easily.  Now I understand the value of those Tandem Talk devices:  not only can you speak easily to each other, not only can you listen to music together, you can do both simultaneously.  Definitely on the wish list.

Back to the music though, it definitely worked.  Actually, there was a hill right after the last rest stop that we just sailed up, giggling all the way.  This is because Christina's "shuffled" music had ended up on one of the tracks from hip hop/techno pioneer Afrika Bambaataa's Don't Stop...Planet Rock - Remix EP.  She kept singing "don't stop" all the way up.  Later, she was singing along to multicultural masters of beats and rhyme, Black Eyed Peas, and our psychadelic pop Portland neighbors, the Dandy Warhols.  You may have noticed that I recently became an iTunes affiliate which means that if you click those three links above and buy some music to see if what works for Christina will work for you, then you will further contribute to the aforementioned Walter's Put the Pieces Together Fund.  And that's a good thing!  I'll be sure to include more links like this to give you an idea of what keeps us motivated.

Back to the matter at hand, though, I have to say I really enjoyed our ride.  There's something magical about tandems.  They require you to work together and when you do, you can accomplish greater things than you could have alone.  You complement your partner well?  Like to ride together?  Push each other two new heights?  Imagine them all put together and you have a vague idea of the thrill and joy that is tandeming.

Joel and Olga discovered it.  As I mentioned back in January, I got a used TiLite XLQ Sport ready for them to borrow for the tandem rally.  They drove out with Ian on Friday and camped out and did the short ride Saturday.  Apparently they flew past everyone and did quite well.  They discovered that Joel could push as hard as he wanted and Olga was still behind him.  They noticed the ease of conversion, the ease of getting up to thrilling speeds. 

Unfortunately, Ian let someone borrow their tandem (well, even Joel was calling it "his") at the vendor show, so I rode into Bike Friday yesterday to try to help get them set up on the TiLite Sport (Dura Ace!) in our showroom.  We rode around town, had some beers, and I got a pizza to bring back to the girls.  Joel and Olga were having a lot of fun and I can tell the idea of a tandem is tempting.  So if you want that used bike now's the time!

The morale of this whole story is that I hope that wherever you go, whether it's your own backyard or some exotic foreign locale, that you are in good company.  Sure, I have fun on my bike no matter what, but this long weekend was doubly fun (pun intended) because I could enjoy riding with people I enjoy being with.  It's the best of both worlds (pun intended again).