I have been riding my trainer — I have about 175 miles on my cyclocomputer — and on Thursday I got the chance to ride with Tom, the head mechanic from Fremont Cycle, on his Trek tandem. We went at 6 PM and rode the bike path to Clyde and back, about 17 miles. This was my first tandem ride (except for some very short tandem rides in Bloomington). It was a lot of fun, and my first outside ride since the accident in October, so I was psyched. It was warm and sunny here, which helped. I couldn’t clip in because although Tom had put on Speedplay pedals for me, my cleats were not able to clip in. Whatever. I was still able to keep my feet positioned OK, but I wasn’t clipped in. I was in charge of signaling turns and ringing the little electronic bell when we passed kids. It was a mental adjustment to not have to have my hands on the bars! I enjoyed the ride, although my eyes still prevent me from seeing off to the side. Fortunately, the captain had things under control.
