# Tandem Adventures - Picture Thread



## ds2199 (Sep 16, 2008)

This is a cross post from the Colorado Front Range Forum. There is a thread there called http://forums.mtbr.com/colorado-front-range/do-you-like-get-high-man-post-your-high-country-riding-photos-863775-16.html It's a great thread to check out when you have some time!

The wife and I got out for a couple of great rides near Crested Butte over the weekend. On Friday we rode the 401. The flowers were pretty awesome and the the ride is, well it is world famous for a reason.

Top of 401 trail








The wild flowers were pretty awesome this year








Bevin was pretty excited about the flowers...








Then on Saturday we wanted a bigger ride that we had not already ridden and took a friend's advice to ride Star Pass. Riding from Cement Creek (Deadman trailhead) to Upper Cement Creek Trail and then Crystal Peaks Trail to the saddle. Then around to the top of Star Pass. Finally, the descent down Trail 400 (East Brush Creek). I was a huge fan of Trail 400! That downhill was killer and seemed to go on forever!

View looking down on Crystal Peaks trail (500ish ft from the saddle)








View looking up towards the saddle








At the top of Crystal Peaks Trail (just over 12,000 ft)








Looking towards Star Pass








Near the top of Star Pass looking toward the Aspen side








This guy didn't really care that we were hanging on his turf at the top








Top of Star Pass (looking towards the Aspen side - just over 12,300 ft)








Still top of Star - clouds were coming in - time to roll








That trail goes on and on...








Only stopped once on the way down (it was too damn fun!)








And of course, this








It was not an "easy" ride to get to Star pass, but the downhill made it all worth while!


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## DrMarkR (Apr 18, 2013)

Durango Mountain Park, last year. Took the Fandango to midway on the lift, and then rode on to the top, and all the way to the base. My 10 y/o with me on the tandem, and wifey on her single...


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## DrMarkR (Apr 18, 2013)

Paradise Royale, Northern Calif in 2013. Same setup with son on Fandango with me and wife on single (wife and I do ride the tandem ourselves....I swear!). This was a cool loop!


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## ki5ka (Dec 17, 2006)

*Vail, Crested Butte, Telluride*

Vail (Spraddle Creek), Crested Butte (Snodgrass), Telluride(Village Trail and No Brainer), early July


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## jfactor1 (Sep 22, 2010)

Getting ready to ride my friend's ECDM down The Flow in Copper Harbor, MI. That one ride was enough to convince me that I NEED one. Just waiting for the right deal to come along. BTW, chest mounting my GoPro was the wrong choice for obvious reasons. LOL


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## JokerW (Nov 5, 2004)

"BTW, chest mounting my GoPro was the wrong choice for obvious reasons. LOL"

Butt Why?


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## jfactor1 (Sep 22, 2010)

To be fair I had been riding solo when he showed up. Didn't even think about it. Ended up with 15 minutes of HD footage of his ass.


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## Fleas (Jan 19, 2006)

jfactor1 said:


> To be fair I had been riding solo when he showed up. Didn't even think about it. Ended up with 15 minutes of HD footage of his ass.


:lol:

That happened once when I let my buddy borrow the camera on a day when I was not moving very well. We rode singles and he didn't know what the camera's field of view was, so on all the climbs he was too close. He took the footage and created a montage of my a$$ set to the music of Fiddler on the Roof.

-F


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## ds2199 (Sep 16, 2008)

JokerW said:


> "BTW, chest mounting my GoPro was the wrong choice for obvious reasons. LOL"
> 
> Butt Why?


That made me laugh!

Keep the pics coming! It's great to see some of the places that we take our tandems (and friends/kids/significant others)


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## sportsnapper (Apr 24, 2014)

*Been meaning to post in here for a while...!*

Been meaning to post in here for a while...!

I've a collection of photos and videos (edited and unedited...) from our adventures this year. So here's a few to start with - you get a view of some of the riding available in the UK and elsewhere.

Video from Easter of the newish Blue route, Colin's Folly at Ae forest - part of the 7stanes Mountain Biking. This particular day it was snowing at 1030, and the ground was covered with a thin layer of snow - it cleared up by 1300 and we went off to ride. We also go to meet Colin who deigned the trail later. He was keen to know how the routes rode on a tandem - as he said "no trails are designed with tandems in mind"
I've added some data, to try to make it a bit more interesting...






Next, having fun with Terraventure in Fife (a district in Scotland). This is a cautious descent, as we had a biggish off about an hour earlier - Cracked one helmet and both of us were badly bruised by the incident.













Terraventure and us pausing for a selfie

And the crash - consensus is that there was too much rebound in the front forks. From my (the pilot) point pf view - I really didn't know what happened until we came off - there was a rut in the long grass, and we dived into that. I'd been more worried about the line over the (possibly slippery) rocks. 












Topping another hill (There's lots in Scotland!)







Riding in France...

That's it for now...more editing to do


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## switchbacktrog (May 10, 2013)

That Colin's Folly trail looks very tandem friendly .

We're heading down to the West Country on Monday to try these trails before we meet you at Swinley on Sunday morning on the way back to the flatlands of East Anglia................

Bodmin Beast blue cycling trail (England)

Ridge Ride Trail (England)

https://www.cornish-mining.org.uk/sites/default/files/Mineral_Tramways_Mining_Trails.pdf


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## Sanchofula (Dec 30, 2007)

Fifteen Year Anniversary present:









Opening season (Fall 2015) for our winter riding area at Ancient Lakes:









We just got back from a camping tour of the Olympic Peninsula, and though we had plans to ride tandem, it was pretty soggy, so I rode fat solo and my wife hiked.


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## ds2199 (Sep 16, 2008)

Nurse Ben said:


> Fifteen Year Anniversary present:
> 
> View attachment 1017889
> 
> ...


Cool anniversary present!


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## sportsnapper (Apr 24, 2014)

*Some more from the UK!*

This weekend we met up with Switchbacktrog and his stoker to ride our local trails, Swinley forest.

Lots of fun - same trails we always ride but the commotion caused by two mountain tandems going round together was great. "oh look there's a tandem - oh wow there's two!" seemed to be a common refrain. Novel for us as well as we rarely get the chance to ride off road with another tandem.















An there's some video....

The first is red25 - first part is a stiff climb, then there's the downhill jumpy part (I think we did get air - certainly everything felt very light at one point!). We did this three times, and the video shows the third time round.






The next is a section called Tank Traps (yes - dates from when this area of the forest was used for mIlitary training) it's a deep set of switchbacks, not too hard on a Solo, but a challenge on a tandem. We failed, as you can see and hear from the video. Our partners in crime happily made it round when they attempted it at the second time.






Also learnt a lot about how to mount GoPro's for the best effects on this sort of ride.


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## switchbacktrog (May 10, 2013)

From earlier in the week when we were in Cornwall riding the old mineral trails. This one is Carn Marne, a high point from where you can see both coasts.


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## switchbacktrog (May 10, 2013)

Looks like we only just got this section ride in before the closure today Gareth. Shame really as this was a great ride on the tandem.

The Crown Estate has announced they will close the Sandy Cutting (also known amongst the mountain bikers as the Jump Gully) with immediate effect.

Although popular, Sandy Cutting has been the site of many accidents over its lifetime - too many. During the latest inspection by The Crown Estate, it was finally decided to close it.

Having looked at the accident rates for the last 12 months with The Crown Estate, Sandy Cutting accounts for over 40% of all reported incidents in the forest. This is not sustainable or defendable for The Crown Estate, and TrailTeam Swinley supports this decision.

We understand that there are many mountain bikers who will be very upset by this decision and we would like to remind them that at the end of the day, The Crown Estate have a responsibility to all users of their land and it would be irresponsible to keep a feature known to be a high cause of incidents open.


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## sportsnapper (Apr 24, 2014)

Half term week in the UK, so we get to ride during the week (my stoker is a teacher).

Had a day looking after our grandson, so we hitched his trailer bike up to the Mountain tandem and rode to one of the local playgrounds, then back home via a country pub. So nice a day we sat outside, unheard of in late October in the UK









Then off to Wales, land of my Fathers (literally).

This is at the top of Blue Scar, Afan, a relatively new trail that is so much fun on a tandem, sweeping and fast, with a manageable climb to start with. We did it twice in a row.









Next is a view ⅔ of the way up Y Wal (the Wall) one of the original trails at Afan, which is one of the oldest trail centres in the UK. It's a long climb up mostly on fireroads, but worth it for a series of long, exciting and not too challenging descents.









The last day in Wales we attempted White's Level. After the first hour climbing up a rocky sheep trail I was broken, and we took the easy route down fire roads. Another time, with fresh legs......no pictures of that!


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## switchbacktrog (May 10, 2013)

*Forest of Dean UK ride.*

The weather forecast was good so we booked a few nights in the Forest of Dean last week. Very cold with hard morning frosts, but bright sunshine during the day. Trails were running well with the clip showing the last couple of sections of the Verderers Trail and Launch Pad which was originally built for disabled riders in 4 wheeler MTB's, although it doesn't look like they use it much..............First part of the clip is a bit slow but it does get better .


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## sportsnapper (Apr 24, 2014)

Hi John - you must have been there the week after we were - half term for us. Arrived in pouring rain, and left in pouring rain, but had three great days of sunshine and cold weather. We rode Verderers each day - and rode to and from pedalabikeaway from our campsite near Sling. Last day we rode the loop round the forest, but wasn't thrilled by that! And Launchpad is excellent...

Here's a couple of videos - again - felt a lot faster than it looks!
Launchpad


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## sportsnapper (Apr 24, 2014)

Video 2 - only one per post apparently :-(

The end of Verderers


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## switchbacktrog (May 10, 2013)

Looks like you took the Blue option rather than the red that drops off to the right.


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## TandemBear (Aug 18, 2013)

*Moab 2016*

Porcupine Rim
















Slickrock








Unfortunately, due to time constraints, I was unable to ride the Slickrock loop on the tandem. Too bad because I timed Slickrock to be our last ride so if we experienced rear hub failure #6, it wouldn't matter. (Unlike the last time when we destroyed our hub on the first tandem ride. Dumb!) Oh well!


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## ds2199 (Sep 16, 2008)

Hats off to your stoker! Riding Porcupine Rim on a hard tail sounds rough. I do love that trail! How far up were you able to start? LPS? UPS?

Makes me jealous! I need to get back out to Moab soon!


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## TandemBear (Aug 18, 2013)

ds2199 said:


> Hats off to your stoker! Riding Porcupine Rim on a hard tail sounds rough. I do love that trail! How far up were you able to start? LPS? UPS?
> 
> Makes me jealous! I need to get back out to Moab soon!


My stoker did very well, given she isn't as experienced (and trusting) as my wife. I kept reassuring her I wasn't riding anywhere near over my head AND that I'd dismount on the gnar.

We had a good friend drop us at UPS, so we skipped the usual jeep road climb. Glad we did because it would have been too demoralizing for the kids.

That said, we'll be sure to put in more miles with the kids prior to our next Moab adventure.


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## ki5ka (Dec 17, 2006)

*Little Walnut near Silver City New Mexico*

Our spring trip ended up being further south than we expected, New Mexico instead of Moab, and cut short because of the flu. This is on Mountain Loop on the Little Walnut trail complex just north of Silver City New Mexico.

Most of the trail was like this. It's narrow and a good workout, a well designed trail and a pleasure to ride.









This bit was exciting. It is rideable but the captain flinched and we walked it.

















This is a Lost Dutchman State Park near Apache Junction AZ. Short little system, but a delight to ride and some great views






.


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## Fuzzle (Mar 31, 2015)

Here our adventure in the rain and hail!


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## switchbacktrog (May 10, 2013)

Yorkshire Dales UK


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## ebnelson (Oct 30, 2006)

Whoa, check out the three wheel trogmobile!


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