Couples who ride together, especially on tandem bikes, stay together - Toledo Blade

Couples who ride together, especially on tandem bikes, stay together
Toledo Blade
Two by two, they ride, traveling in tandem for a variety of reasons: to get exercise, to spend time outdoors, or maybe to keep that marriage knot firmly tied.

“We are seeing a resurgence in tandems,” said Julie Theroux, co-owner of Cycle Werks in Whitehouse and Bowling Green.

Then she makes vocal the reality of riding such bicycles. “You need to have a solid relationship with your partner.”

There’s a saying: “Wherever your relationship is going you’ll get there faster on a tandem.”

As she shows off some of the tandems available for purchase in the Whitehouse store on Providence Street in the Lucas County community, Gardy Bandfield, 65, walks in with his vintage tandem. He wants the brakes checked out, the rear seat lowered, and overall, the bike could use a tune up.

“I’ve had this bike for over 30 years,” said Mr. Bandfield. “We took it all over the country. We’ve put 100,000 miles on it.”

Couples who ride together stay together, he said, noting he used to race solo and had fun, but his wife Cindy grew weary of him being gone. He was in his 30s at the time, and was riding 500 miles a week.

To keep the wife happy, he suggested they ride in tandem. Now, they spend time together; they get a good work out, and they have fun. Mrs. Bandfield is competitive and*had a tendency to ride in the 25 mph range for many years. The couple live near Monclova.

Age has declined that speed. Both the Bandfields are retired. Now, he says, they ride around much like people in the one-time popular song, on a bicycle built for two, and their destination often is the ice cream shop.

"Riding a tandem bike is the best thing we ever had for our relationship," he said. "You only can talk so much."

His vintage tandem splashes with color: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple along the seat tubes. He paid $4,000 for the Kuwahara bike in the 1980s.

Derek Hanson, service manager at Cycle Werks, said the bike is antique, and then adjusted the term to classic, and it was made, he said, by the manufacturer that made the BMX bike featured in the E.T. movie.

For those who want to give a tandem bike a spin before spending money to buy one, Cycle Werks began offering tandem rentals beginning in June. "They can try before they buy," said Mrs. Theroux who noted some couples embrace the tandem bike riding as a rewarding hobby that strengthens their relationships. Others? "No way."

If you have two Type A personalities, you are going to have a problem, she said. The captain, the one in the front seat, might not get along with the stoker who sits in the rear seat. The issue? It's a control thing, she said.

Overall, bicycles are riding a revival road. "Riding bikes is something Baby Boomers are doing to get in shape. Bicycles are popular in general because people are ...




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