About the tandem and our trip

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Like written elsewhere, riding a tandem implies sharing everything as a couple : exhausting climbs, fantastic downhills, navigation mistakes, landscapes, rain, sun and mechanical breakdowns.

And while coming back from Norrköping's downtown, some awful noise start to get heard from the rear of the bike. For a first check, we see just a small disc brake setting defect.

But after a thorough examination at the camping :

Honey ?

mhyes ?...

I have good and bad news.

...

The good is that I found the noises' origin. The bad is that the frame is broken.

No cry, no tear, we accepted our fate, though this event will change our whole planning.

We are however pissed off for breaking a frame after 4000km, but it's another story now.

Scandinavia and especially the Lofoten Islands are still our goal. We'll just have to buy two normal and sturdy bikes.

We spent a few days in Norrköping, with an unusual sunny weather as people told us, and hope to reach Stockholm next week.

Stay tuned, adventure on this blog is still going on !

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27/04/2013 Final preparation, last episode

Ça rentre !

Let's resume where we left off ...
Once disassembled into two parts, we stored the whole set in the car, taking care of the rear brake cable, still connecting the frame's halves. The remaining small elements were added over between a few layers of cardboard to protect everything.
Tetris level 1 completed !

Here is our stuff for 6 months (roughly, we forgot some before taking the picture and fired a few after).

On vous laisse faire la liste :-P

There's about 20-25kg of luggage on the photo. Difficult to do less with our past experiences, we should however be equipped to operate between 0 ° C and 30 ° C or more, whatever the weather (but a sunny 20 ° C suits us very well!).

Will it fit into the bags? Yes / no / maybe?

Yes, it fits in ! Without much difficulty, but not without some doubts during the filling workshop.

Departure getting close...

... and bringing with him a usual "preparation panic".
There are so many little things to think about that our small brains overheat.

As the result of a lengthy game of "I'll unscrew you - oh no, it's not the good wrench", the bike now looks like a freshly opened ikea box.

We still have to take apart the two frame halfves and stick it into the small car with the tetris soundtrack for audio background.

As we have to close our internet connexion before... you'll see this later !

We saw many people these last days (it's not over) and all these visits, talks, messages and support comforted us. We could almost wander why are we leaving ?

BECAUSE ADVENTURE AWAITS US !
And this last settled day will be full of adventure and epic action !
To be continued...

About riding a recumbent

Our bike has this particularity of being a recumbent.
We won't get into the details explaining what and why and when, other websites do this very well (go on, work a bit !). We just expose our personnal opinion :

• Remarquable comfort : We may feel a bit tense after a long ride, but nothing to be compared with memorable pains endured on upright bicycles.
• Somehow faster : Noticeably faster on flat, much less obvious on a climb. As we don't fancy mountains...
• Learning how to ride, again : One needs a certain time to recover the hard learned ease of riding a bike.
• Looking like ET : it is a fact.

To sum up, recumbents are made for distance, no way as urban bikes.

Last adjustments before "folding" !

Riding a tandem

Above the Loire.

Compared to a more usual bike set, where each traveller ride it's personnal bike, the tandem formula has, from our point of vue, several advantages (some are linked to it's recumbent position) :

• Ease to talk : Except in downtown at rush hour, we hear each other quite easily (at least Vincent hears Vinciane, the opposite is'nt always true)
• Physicaly together : Each one can manage it's effort, even if crancksets are linked by the same chain ! Therefore, the tired can rely on the other one to keep going on (a bit slower, of course). Interestingly, there is no wait upside the hill.

No kickstand, unfortunately.

But the tandem formula also has some drawbacks :

• Bulk : it is a long and uneasy bike to manoever on foot. Taking it on a train may also be quite difficult. Although the turn raduis is very large, it's not an issue.
• Hauling stuff : less frame means less anchor points for paniers. While we were limiting weight with our two bikes, we now try to limit volume, and look for very compact gear.
• Very visible : You can't go through town without letting a trail of cautious (or less cautious sometimes) attention.
• Can't swap : chain lengths have to be set to the rider's heigth (leg length more precisely) and having to learn how to ride make our positions fixed: Vincent in front, Vinciane behind. 

To sum up, it is very nice for a long trip. The more other means of transport are required, the more a pair of bikes becomes preferable to this big vehicle.