The Tandem Club

We are always looking for ways to raise awareness among potential new members who don't know there is a Tandem Club. 

 In the latest copy of the TCJ are 5 Club stickers in a white envelope.  Please put these on your tandem (on all your tandems if you have more than one).  People admiring your tandem out on the road are sure to spot them and ask about the Club. This is your chance to tell them about what we do and get them interested.

If you need more stickers please get in touch.

Thank you for helping to raise awareness of the Tandem Club amongst potential new members.

Peter Weeks Publicity Officer

2020 International Rally Preliminary Information

Details of the Easter and National 2020 Tandem Club Rallies will appear here shortly.

We have been working on making the website more mobile phone friendly. Its not complete yet, but hopefully most pages should display better on these devices.

Len and Gill Hampson organised their first ride for the group in June which started and finished at the Lime Kiln Inn near Long Sutton.The route wound around the quiet lanes of South Somerset taking the group through beautiful countryside and pretty villages. There was a stop half way round at Hambridge village green where the riders were treated to homemade cake provided by the organisers. The riders then returned to the Lime Kiln Inn for Sunday lunch, drinks and general socializing.

Clive and Emma organised the July ride for the Taunton Group. Eight tandems and three solos met at the Red Brick Building in Glastonbury to ride across the Somerset Levels.
We set off on the National Cycle Network lanes to Ashcott, Shapwick and Catcott before turning north at Cossington.
We stayed on the lanes passing the peat farms to East Huntspill and then onto a coffee and cake stop at Rich’s Cider Farm. The clouds had cleared and we were all able to enjoy the sunshine at the outside tables.
The return journey took us across the lanes towards Westhay Moor. We all declined the option to stop again at Sweets tearooms and continued through Godney and back to our start point for a lengthy lunch.
 

James organised the September Taunton group ride which was attended by four tandems and two halves.
Bow garden centre,  between Okehampton and Crediton did us proud for breakfast, and we decided pretty quickly to split into two groups.  The riders and the walkers.  That isn’t walking all the time.  Just when excessively gravitationally challenged.  Andy knows the area well as his workshop, where he makes the wonderful Brook guitars, is close by.  He led the riders whose bikes were powered by dark matter; we, the walkers, plodded on about half an hour behind.
After rather a lot of climbing we reached the Hog and Hedge.  We read the sign: “Pull in and Pig out” and we did just that. 
Now we could lose the height we had gained in the morning.  A very rural ride in excellent company.  We were back before the rain started and nobody mentioned the B word, but I could kill a pint this evening.
 

Mark and Liz organised the October Ride where 8 tandems and 3 solos met at Escot Country House. Escot has very large grounds with a maze and a variety of captive animals -they include red squirrels, European otters, wolves and the Scottish wildcat- some are on a plan to be reintroduced to the wild.
Our route was fairly sparse on steep hills for Devon, passing the hamlets of Fairmile and Coombelake then past Kings School at Ottery St Mary. We then went to Tipton St John where we crossed the river Otter. Now on the east side, we went through the particularly pretty village of Harpford before crossing the main Exeter to Sidmouth road. The route then took us to Otterton Mill for a coffee stop. Beavers have been seen on the river Otter just upstream from this village in previous years but have been more elusive this summer. 
We then cycled on down to the sea at Budleigh Salterton where the sun came out for our photos .It is a great spot for swimming , but a bit cold these last few weeks and had we more time ,we might have visited the creamery at the town end of Budleigh beach ,with a huge range of ice creams. Our lunch booking at the “Lamb and Flag “in Ottery was, however more pressing.
We took a fairly similar route back up the Otter to the pub in the town. They did us proud with prompt service for our pre- booked meals. Ed, local to Ottery told us it’s a pub famous for serving Christmas dinner to people on their own, following a first dinner funded by a local lady. 
Back to Escot for the end of the ride -this one a 25 mile trip. The day started with fantastic sunshine and then was more mixed .For the first week of October, we were very lucky to have no significant rain and sunshine at the seaside at Budleigh.
Mark and Liz Nicholson