What can you do with your tandem besides take a nice intimate ride with your spouse or kid? How about going out with a few like-minded cyclists? Here's a description of a 2001 rally:
About 900 Midwest Tandem Rally riders in over 400 teams streamed through Duluth, Minnesota in two mass starts over Labor Day Weekend, 2001, stretching as much as 40 blocks. Triples,
tandems with single or tandem Trail-a-bikes,
and several baby trailers raised the average team size noticeably over two. Human participants from two months to 77 years old, a Chihuahua, a Yorkshire Terrier, and a marvelous guide dog named Rebel enjoyed a variety of carefully-selected routes that were "flat by Duluth standards." Conventional tandems predominated. The one beam-style bike appeared to be a custom model. Recumbent tandems made a strong showing. Vision and Rans accounted for the majority of the two or three dozen 'bents, with homemade and smaller builders' models also well-represented.
A bright yellow recumbent tandem trike may have been the mellowest piece of equipment on the road. Bilenky combinations (one upright rider with one or two recumbent riders) drew a lot of attention,
but the media favorite was a back-to-back tandem recumbent that was described as a prototype.
Both Santana and Bike Friday had triples with removable center positions -- at least two of each. Matching jersey fashions ranged from flashy to garish and on to outrageous, with rare tasteful or understated pairs.
Wisconsin's Couples On Wheels accessorized themselves and their bikes with cows, Pairs of Iowans Going Somewhere with pigs, Chicago Area Tandem Society with cats, and so on. Representative James Oberstar of Minnesota spoke at the banquet about bikes being recognized nationally as legitimate transportation. Apart from an hour or two of rain and a tough headwind coming back on the third ride, Duluth came through with refreshingly cool, pleasant weather, to make the rally a great experience for all.
