SURVIVING LOCKDOWN ON A BICYCLE MADE FOR TWO!
Colin Calder is one half of the "dynamic crew" of Matildas Musings, the UK'S only blogging tandem bike. Along with his (long suffering!) partner Diane Lockhart they ride a classic Jack Taylor tandem which is actually older than them (just!) They have been "in tandem" for 9 years - since meeting on a blind tandem-biking blind date! With a little help from Colin - who is a communications professional - Matilda "writes" about her fun adventures on the road around their Perthshire base - usually with a healthy dose of sarcasm while often featuring the food and drink experiences as Team Matilda pedal (slowly!) along on their bicycle made for two!
Matildas Musings blog link: https://matildasmusingsdotcom.wordpress.com
Matildas Musings Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/matildasmusings Matildas Musings Twitter link: https://twitter.com/matildasmusings
“But you’ll look sweet, Upon the seat, Of a bicycle made for two!”
So run the words of the famous song – but it really is “twice the fun” on a tandem – especially during lockdowns!
And as a self-confessed nutty Scottish cycling couple we have undoubtedly found that living by our maxim of ‘It’s always better when we’re tandeming together” has helped us survive the Covid-19 lockdowns – by blogging about our madcap adventures on a bicycle made for two!
With my partner Diane Lockhart, we are the “dynamic crew” of Matildas Musings (https:// matildasmusingsdotcom.wordpress.
com/) – the UK’S only blogging tandem bike which is based in Perthshire in the southern Highlands of Scotland.
So when the tough coronavirus restrictions were imposed for the first lockdown last year we took the decision to live up to our other motto of “It’s the Smiles not the miles that count” and pedal our way thru those bleak days to maintain our wellbeing and our relationship.
There is no doubt that tandeming kept Diane and me healthy - mentally and physically. As early sixty somethings, we feel very fortunate and blessed to have survived that 3 month period thanks to our exercise regime of regular fun adventures while adopting the #cyclingfromhome mantra, with each ride starting and finishing from our garage!
With many of the routes from our base in the town of Auchterarder often having to be repeated due to the limited options, we decided that we would make each tandem ride different or memorable - keeping up our fun and smiles quotient!
And our highlights included several prosecco picnics; a (freezing cold) paddle in a river; trips to farm shops for ‘essential’ supplies; a DIY gin tasting pedal on my birthday; eating freshly picked strawberries; and wearing our new tandem-themed face masks!
The world had completely changed, but we decided to preserve some form of normality (for us anyway!) with our adventures! But we were not blasé in any way. We always felt very blessed to have our health and be out pedalling.
As the miles built up our initial target was to clock up a virtual JOGLE John O’groats to Lands End - but we easily hit that achievement. In total we recorded over 1000 miles over 40 different rides, before the strict lockdown restrictions were lifted.
We decided to put together a special blog as a photo timeline of Team Matilda’s life during that first pandemic lockdown - with a single image from each of our 40 rides to create a simple pictorial chronological record. Blog link: https://matildasmusingsdotcom. wordpress.com/2020/08/19/40tandem-rides-40-tandem-photossurviving-lockdown-on-a-bicycle-madefor-two/
For the record the calculations show that over the 40 lockdown rides, the exact total mileage was 1039 miles at an average speed of 12.4 mph.
The total elevation was 46,023 feet or just over 1.5 times the height of Mount Everest! That is definitely a statistic that Diane – who doesn’t do hills – was keen to impress her friends with!
We are now well into our #Lockdown2 rides in tandem - although the Arctic weather in Perthshire has kept our mileage lower than hoped.
Tandeming is of course perfect for these Covid-times as you can cycle perfectly safely with your partner - as long as you are in the same bubble!
This provides us with a fabulous retort when some pedestrian offers the wise-crack of “Hey you’re not 2 metres apart!” The quick reply from Diane of “It’s ok, we sleep together” usually shuts them up!
We have been tandeming enthusiasts for around nine years – after amazingly meeting on a crazy tandem-biking blind date!
It was definitely one of those quirks of fate moments, reminiscent of the hit movie “Sliding Doors”! Showing that romance was most certainly not dead, we – as two (then!) fifty-somethings had been fixed up on a blind date.
To say we got into tandeming by accident would be an understatement as we had originally planned a nice picnic and a walk at Loch Katrine near Callander - on the National Cycle Network Route 7.
But as I arrived in the car park I noticed tandem bikes for hire. I thought it would be a fun way to break the ice and remove any first date awkwardness!
The result was that we both got hooked on tandeming immediately - despite the constant heavy rain that day, and Di falling off into an unglamorous muddy heap on at least two occasions. But instead of moaning, she burst out laughing!
And the rest as they say is history! As two reluctant singletons, wwe fell in love with a new hobby … and each other!
Within months had bought our own classic Jack Taylor tandem - which we affectionately named Matilda - for romantic weekend trips on our bicycle made for two while dating!
Then just a year after that infamous blind date, I gave up my life in Glasgow and moved to rural Perthshire when we moved into a new house together complete with Matilda in the garage!
And I am glad to say that despite our somewhat unconventional way of starting out in a relationship, we have gelled as a team - having become synchronised with each others foibles both on and off the saddle!
And our recipe of having fun and a laugh underlines that cycling together on one bike frame is a perfect recipe for coupledom!
The buzz of pedalling together as one unit is something that just cannot be replicated on standalone bikes - or “half bikes” as us tandemers call them! And the added benefit is that 1 and 1 really does add up to 3 on a tandem in
terms of power output - and of course sheer joy!
The fact that tandems are “twice the fun” – is shown by the motto of The Tandem Club UK (www.tandem-club.
org.uk) - an organisation where I was “volunteered” to take on the role as social media coordinator to promote tandeming as a hobby for couples.
Rapidly rising membership numbers reflect the fact that the humble tandem is making a big comeback as it provides an avenue for true “togetherness” on a bike.
Put it this way - there is no way that one part of a couple can be left behind by the other on a tough hill climb!
For those not familiar with tandeming terms, I perform the role of “captain” or “pilot” - the one who does the steering and gears; while Diane fills the role on the rear seat of “stoker” - taking care of directions, map reading and of course stoking power to the pedals! Well that’s the theory anyway!
But be prepared to attract plenty of interest from others as you cycle past on what they term a “double bike!” That can be fun too, but Diane’s blood starts to boil when she hears someone shouting “She’s not pedalling on the back” for the twentieth time that day!
For the record - both riders need to be pedalling or the tandem comes crashing to a halt. Our Matildas Musings blog ( www. matildasmusingsdotcom.wordpress.com ) is now a big part of our fun cycling lives – and is unconventionally written from the perspective of Matilda, our trusty tandem!
When we first thought about the idea of a blog, it was simply to have an on-line diary to record our photos of our rides together. But I then decided that if we were going to have a blog then I wanted to make it stand out and be original - so I decided that the blog should actually be “written” by Matilda!
So with self- deprecating humour the blog recounts her Musings of trips with her “dynamic crew” - made up of the “old git” - aka me - and the “old gal” aka Diane.
The (hopefully) amusing tales of her adventures focus on our tourism and food and drink experiences en route which you may have correctly guessed make up a huge part of our road trips! Matildas Musings has certainly captured the imagination over the years among cyclists and non-cyclists alike. It has an ever expanding fan base not just in Perthshire and within the tandem community - but it has global appeal with regular readers as far away as China, South America, the Yukon, Thailand, New Zealand and right across Europe.
And Matilda received amazing recognition as her blog has been honoured with a commendation and being listed in the top 10 “most innovative blogs” category at the UK Blog Awards - with the judges commenting that they had been particularly impressed by the unique point of difference in being “written” by a tandem bike!
If anything this fame has gone to Matilda’s head a little - and she seems to have got cheekier in her comments about me and Diane as her personality develops over the years!
But equally she knows her place and never crosses that line (well not yet anyway!) - and realises that without her dynamic crew there would be no Team Matilda and nothing to blog about!
So if you see a red classic tandem somewhere in Scotland - or further afield - with a loved-up nutty looking couple wearing matching day-glo orange or pink cycling jerseys, it will probably be Team Matilda!
So give us a wave - or a friendly toot as you pass in your car (leaving plenty of space naturally!) - but just don’t dare suggest that the stoker is not pedalling. You may get the unromantic answer you were not expecting!