The Tandem Club

Bookings can be made for the 2020 Easter Rally, which is being held at Greenhill Leisure Park, Bletchingdon, just north of Oxford.

Please book early to be sure of securing a  pitch on the campsite here.

2020 International Rally Preliminary Information
Details on booking the campsite and for the rally will follow later.

The Tandem National Rally will be held in Corsham, Wiltshire from Saturday 23th May - Saturday 30th May 2020. More info to follow.

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

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.

Chris and Chris organised the August Ride where an eleventh hour weather reprieve saw 10 tandems and a solo gather at The George Hotel, Castle Cary for pre-ride coffees.

Machines varied from recumbent tandem, “Moustache “ E tandem, lady back elect. assist.model,to a sparkling new “Dolan”.

 Jamie and Becky were welcomed to their inaugural ride with the Taunton group as was David from “Somerset Sight “.

 Negotiating a service company road closure within the first half mile, on foot, the ride followed quiet lanes through Pitcombe to Wincanton. Having crossed over the A303, we continued on unchallenging terrain via South Cheriton to Milborne Port where we just managed to avoid crossing the county boundary into Dorset.   From there we continued through Charlton Horethorne and Compton Pauncefoot to a well-deserved lunch at The Camelot Inn at South Cadbury.

Suitably refreshed we pedalled on through Sparkford and North Barrow to return to Castle Cary for tea and cake, having said goodbye to Rex and Hannah en-route to their onward journey home.

Having largely avoided vehicular traffic and serious fluctuations in elevation a pleasant and easy-ish ride was enjoyed by all in the most benevolent weather.

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.