JD Tandems News - Archive for 9/2010

Take it with you
Little article about taking your tandem with you when you travel.
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

Why Do People Ride Tandems?
Most of our first impressions of tandeming come from riding next to one on an organised ride.
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

Santana Quad tandem on Look North
Look North are featuring our Santana Quad tandem on their programme tonight.
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

Tandem Charity Ride Success
We had done nearly 100miles once before on a tandem, but the lure of a large cold beer in the back garden meant that we had never quite topped the magic figure. So when Ruth and John of JD Cycles asked if we would like to join in with their charity ride to support Marie Curie Cancer Care we thought this has to be the opportunity to crack the magic figure.
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

1200 km on a tandem!
2 of our customers, Katherine & Peter Southby have just complete the Paris-Brest-Paris 1200km Audax ride, on their tandem.
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

We are opening a new shop
We pick up the keys to some new premises on September the 1st and will be open about the middle of October, shortly after exhibiting at the 2010 London Cycle Show.
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

Review of the ORBIT Pegasus Pro Tandem
Submitted by: Jimmy Reid (31st May 10) We took delivery of our Pegasus Pro in the 1st week of May as promised when we ordered. We have yet to get out on an all day trip but have had several 30 – 50 mile jaunts and have thoroughly enjoyed them all. We now have seats and stoker bar positions tweaked to suit us perfectly and are revelling in the togetherness that only a tandem can produce for cyclists of differing strengths.
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

Hi from Mexico from Ing, Sean and Kate
Hi Everyone! Hope you had a great holiday. We are all fine and almost in the tropics now!
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

Kates Diary Installment Five - Yellowstone to Grand Canyon
We didn't get very much sleep last night! A family of skunks was outside our tent climbing into our panniers and eating our bread. In the end Dad had to bring all our bags inside. They were very cute with pointy noses and stripey tails but they smelled worse than my parents! I think we're having a hotel tonight. Mum was just sitting outside the supermarket just having a rest and a man came up with two dollars and handed it to her and said God bless you this Thanksgiving!
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

Kates Diary Installment Four - Banff to (very snowy) Yellowstone, Wyoming **UPDATED
In Banff we met a man who had just biked all the way across Canada on his own. As he pedaled he made electricity which he stored in a battery which he carried on his bike.
Published Thursday 2 September 2010, Updated Thursday 2 September 2010

Kates Diary Installment Three - Banff
After Stewart we went on the totem pole trail. We went to Gitanow, home of the Gitxan people. There were about 50 totem poles in the village. They were very very tall and some looked very old with no paint left on them.
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

Kates Diary Installment Two - Whitehorse to Stewart.
Mum and Dad have decided to try and save money by staying at campsites less so tonight they have chosen a picnic area called Rabid Grizzly Rest Area. Hmmmm!!
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

Kate's Diary. Installment One. Inuvik to Whitehorse
It never went dark. In winter it is dark all the time here and the Northern Lights can be seen. Inuvik has a great swimming pool with a fast river, a huge hot tub and a water slide. We also went to see the giant greenhouse where the people grow their vegetables.
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

Bikeradar Live
We took all of our 25 plus demonstration tandems to Bikeradar Live at Donnington park in May, and we had over 200 new tandem riders out tandeming round the race track.
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

Old French Tandem **UPDATED
Standing amongst a collection of bric-a-brac, between a disused railway yard and a cement factory, rusty and unloved, she stole my heart. I love to adopt lost causes: this one attracted me like a magnet, and even though she was a wreck, I realised that she had real potential.
Published Thursday 2 September 2010, Updated Thursday 2 September 2010

It started in Tuscany...
It started in Tuscany. We had planned some great routes, using small back roads, which started off ok and ended up rocky and unrideable. Disappointed, we often had to retrace our steps and find less interesting routes. Later that week, in Sienna, we chanced upon a Swiss couple touring on a full suspension BMC (thought they made cars) mountain bike tandem .
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

Josh & Melanie - Their Scottish tour with an Orbit + Trailer
Written by Josh… My girlfriend and I went on a bike tour through Northern England and Scotland last month. We had the opportunity to test out an Orbit touring tandem from JD Cycles. With somewhat complicated travel plans, we decided that the Carry Freedom City trailer would make for the easiest overall travel experience.
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

Welcome Home Boys!
The trek ended on Sunday 6th July @ Sandbach Town Hall with champagne reception to celebrate their achievement & was followed by a family barbecue put on by Sandbach Ladies Circle.
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

Tina the tandem - by Steven Rowley
Tina the Tandem, as our Routier was immediately christened (well, she does live in Essex!), was bought as a bit of an indulgence. She has the unenviable task of being a jack of all trades. The brief was that Tina had to be able to take our nearly 8 year old on the back as well my wife. She had to be capable of a family pootle, an audax or a tour.
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

A five day tour of Yorkshire, Cumbria and Northumberland
Day One, Skyreholme to Windermere (62 miles) :
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

Sponsored Marie Curie 100 mile Tandem Ride
Sponsored Marie Curie 100 mile Tandem Ride – Sunday 13th July 2008
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

C2C (Sea to Sea) from Whitehaven to Newcastle in 17 hours
Yesterday, me and my dad completed the entire coast to coast cycle route from Whitehaven to Newcastle in just one day, or to be more precise, in about 17 hours. Here is a full description of the day's events.
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

A TOUR OF THE PUBLIC CONVENIENCES AND MUNICIPAL CAR PARKS OF THE SOUTH WEST OF ENGLAND
For some reason because the South West of England isn't in our usual haunts of Scotland, Wales, Ireland or South of France we rarely go there so this year we decided to take the blinkers off and go somewhere completely different. As we live in South Warwickshire and occasionally read the Guardian this suited us as we could start the tour from home without the need of road or air transport. It would also mean more time to cycle, yippee!
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

JD Cycles add two more exclusive tandem brands
Specialist tandem retailers JD Cycles add two more exclusive tandem brands to their already impressive selection.
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

South America on a bicycle made for two
On our first ever tandem tour (Sheffield to John O'Groats) an idea was born: the length of South America on a bicycle made for two. Sounds daft eh? We thought so too, so we revised our plans to Equador and Peru instead.
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

The Dartmoor Devil on a Tandem
Well the day started off find, we loaded the tandem on to the back of the car alright and the weather forecast was sunny with no wind. So far so good, things started to change as we drove up to the start at Bovey Tracy, the light board decided to come off, luckily only on one side. It didn't hit the deck so I just clipped it back on and we arrived at the start.
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

100 miles on a tandem with 5000 feet of climbing
100 miles on a tandem with 5000 feet of climbing, one day's tandem experience each, and both of us old enough to be grannies. People thought we were mad to enter the Lancashire Valley Loop charity cycle ride, and I suspect a few didn't think we'd finish. We'd practised – for half an hour the day before, and could stop and start without falling off.
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

2 Go Mad on 'Phil and Friends'
This is one of the CTC challenge rides and took place on 13th August. Basically it's a very hard sportif with a 105km and 150km option starting and finishing at Stannington near Sheffield.
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

A Landescape Experience Part II – The Pub Crawl
We didn't intend to do a tandem tour in 2005, too busy with the new business and we'd already had a couple of holidays earlier in the year plus some good weekends, it should have been enough for one year. However, you can't have too many holidays and having accidentally bought a new Landescape in August, we felt it was only right to give it a reasonable test ride.
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

A Landescape Experience – Part 1 – The York Connection
The weather was forecast to be dire for the Friday of this year's York Cycle Rally, so we dug out the waterproofs, risked the weather and cycled the 22 miles anyway. We went on our old and occasionally reliable Dawes Supergalaxy, a first outing for the trailer that we'd bought a year previously and never got around to using.
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

Pyrenean Raid
This time last year I was sitting outside a fabulous little hotel in Larrau in the Pyrenees drinking a cold, well earned glass of beer.
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

Fred Whitton Challenge on a Tandem 2006
There are a fair few write-ups of Fred Whitton Challenge rides on the internet, and very good they are too. They're what got us interested in it in the first place.
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

An introduction to Tandem riding
Tandeming is simply a term coined for two people riding the same bicycle 'in tandem' i.e. at the same time, the same pace, working together and experiencing the joy and fun of cycling – together.
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

Virgins in France
We are running free on the highway. Wind in our hair, sun in our face and the open road ahead. Suddenly we were overtaken, whilst others took up position alongside and behind us. It was no good running: we pulled into the kerb before the sirens and blue flashing lights started.
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

Sally and Iain's C2C Tandem Experience
Left home in York at 9:45am for the 120 mile trip to Whitehaven. Travelling through many very heavy storms, a few road-works and with a poor forecast, James (our son and driver) kept reminding us that it wasn't too late to turn back.
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

Abruzzo & Puglia by Tandem by Allan and Konrad
An account of a two week tandem tour in May 2005 from Pescara, through the Abruzzo e Molise region (Campo Imperatore etc), the Gargano Peninsula and down into Puglia, returning from Bari.
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

Thanks from Ross Bentley-Davies
You'll be pleased to hear that the tandem finally arrived not long after 3pm and we've just been out for a quick spin on it.
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

Thanks from Andy & Lynn Skelton
We came across from Scarborough on Saturday to buy our new tandem and returned home the proud owners of a Dawes Discovery Twin.
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

Tandem Ride around Rutland Water (Empingham Reservoir)
We hired our tandem from the Whitwell cycle hire shop, however, you can also hire a tandem from the Normanton site, which can be found on the south side of the dam.
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

Thanks from Kate and Andy
We received delivery of our Dawes Discovery Twin on Wednesday. We have been for a couple of rides and are very pleased with the tandem.
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

Thanks from Captain Paul
Just a quick note to say thankyou....
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

Whitby, Scarborough, Whitby by Kate and Andy
The route follows the old railway track bed from Whitby to Scarborough, which, in most parts is surface with old ash, however there are some areas where there are bricks, tarmac, in some places uneven farm tracks crossing the line and finally in Scarborough a made up foot/cycle path.
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

Most sane people would go on the train... by Martin and Yvonne
"Fancy Edinburgh for the weekend?"
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

Why Cycle Tandems?
Tandem cycling is a great way for two people of different abilities to cycle together.
Published Thursday 2 September 2010

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