A Bicycle Built for You and Yours

My husband had a bicycle in college that was so light he could lift it with one finger. He raced up and down hills in Santa Cruz, Calif. I like biking, too, but have never been in a hurry to get anywhere on two wheels. Through 24 years of marriage and three sons, I remained pretty much alone on the road far behind my family. No more. Now I sit on the back seat of a bicycle built for two.

My husband came up with the idea last summer. His research led us to Pittsgrove, N.J., where Mel Kornbluh operates Tandems East, a tandems-only bike shop that specializes in fitting all sizes and abilities. We left with a new fire-engine red, six-foot-long Burley Paso Doble, and Kornbluh's parting advice was, wisely, "Communicate!"

That's the same send-off Stephen Marks gives to couples who rent tandems at Bike and Roll at the Old Post Office Pavilion. "I call tandems a divorce-maker. If they don't give up," he says, "they learn how to get along."

As we prepare for a ride, my husband holds our new bike steady between his legs while I clip my shoes in the pedals and get comfortable in the saddle. He clips in, and, with a leap of faith, we ride in tandem, our pedals locked together at 80 revolutions a minute.

The sport takes coordination and teamwork. My husband is the captain. He steers, breaks and controls the gears. My role in the back is called the stoker. Unlike Daisy and her beau in the refrain from "A Bicycle Built for Two," the two of us whiz past single bikes at 40 mph downhill. En route from our Silver Spring home through Rock Creek Park to Hains Point, I tell my husband to slow down. We are not in training for the Tour de France.

Although, by definition, you are never lonely tandem biking (some bikes seat three or four people), there are lots of opportunities to meet people. Two groups, WABITS (Washington Area Bicyclists in Tandem Society) and its sister Baltimore group, CRABS (Couples Riding a Bicycle Simultaneously), sponsor rides every weekend from late March through mid-November. WABITS and CRABS also meet at rallies, or multiple-day events, including the Kent County Spring Fling in Chestertown (May 23-25) that coincides with the reenactment of the 1774 Chestertown Tea Party where, as in Boston, rebel Colonists chucked bales of tea into the Chester River.

Our first group outing was a 42-mile trek to Deale, Md. I pinned the directions to my captain's shirt and took on the role as navigator. We biked through rural countryside and learned valuable lessons from 25-year veterans Bob and Willa Friedman, who, like many riders, say the tandem is a sport they can do together. Over the years they have come to compromise on a riding style. Willa says she always keeps her mouth shut uphill: "I can't pedal hard and talk at the same time."

Larry Black, who owns bikes stores in College Park and Mount Airy, says it is important for new riders to try out a lot of bikes. He has a large selection of tandems and offers rentals, loans, free trials and lessons to get couples on the road. Black will dispense advice Sunday starting at 10 a.m. at the Mount Airy store's annual Spring Demo Day, which features scheduled outings for experienced teams and test rides for the entire family on any of 100 new tandems or dozens of specialty bikes.