Tandemania: Tour De Houston

The 2008 Tour De Houston was last weekend. This 20, 40 and 70 mile ride starts and ends in downtown Houston. This ride has been around for the last few years, but it's one of the few I have never ridden. I gave a passing thought to riding it, but I knew that I'm not nearly ready. I still have very little speed or endurance on the bike and the thought of riding on darkened streets in downtown Houston was not something I wanted to risk. I do miss riding terribly though and I considered driving down to the ride just to see and greet old friends. Then I saw a letter on the newsgroup from Paul, a new rider to the group, who was renting a tandem and needed a way to transport it to the ride. I happily volunteered. It turns out that Paul and Cyndy live just down the street from me.

The EZ Tandem Paul rented is probably the longest tandem I've transported on the Draftmaster. It took some adjustment of the tray and we only had about 6" clearance between the back wheel and the pavement, but somehow it worked.

Although I didn't ride, it was still alot of fun to rise in the dark, drive to Paul's and rack his bike. I guess the ritual of the ride prep is part of the pleasure of riding for me. Plus, I made a couple of new biking friends in the balance! The pictures below were taken by Debbie on the ride.