Well, that's a first

[desperance]

So here I am, stuck in the house again, waiting for a package again (and we know I do not do this with grace or charm), and I was standing at the window watching the traffic because of course we know that makes the delivery-van come quicker; and I saw a man go by on a bike, and I thought there was something odd about it. But still had to look twice and count on my fingers a little before I was clear what the oddness was.

It was a tandem, but he was alone; there was an empty saddle behind him, with empty pedals going round and round.

Which I'm sure must happen often in the life of a tandem, but I've never seen it before. Which is probably not surprising, given how few tandems one does see, but still'n'all and nevertheless. That's something new today. And something learned: the unpumped pedals still go round, regardless. I suppose they'd have to, unless there was a device to disconnect them from the chain. I'd just never considered the matter heretofore. See? Looking out of windows. Good thing. Stuff occurs. He might have passed by all unwatched, which would have been such a pity...

Comments

[martyn44.livejournal.com]

But would he have passed by had you not been watching?

[ogre-san.livejournal.com]

Any day you learn something new can't be a total waste.

[song-of-copper.livejournal.com]

There is no substitute in life for the ability to (a) notice such things and (b) appreciate them! :-) Bonus points are awarded, of course, for the ability to describe them in an entertaining fashion. ^_^

[camies.livejournal.com]

It is an unusual sight, certainly. I suspect that most people who have tandems own other bikes so if they are off on their own they are riding one of the others. I'm wondering why he was riding the tandem on his own. Conceivably:

- picking someone up from / having dropped same off at the station etc.
- taking the bike in for a service / riding it home having just bought it etc.

Tandems are almost always owned by couples it seems, so when one turned up on a ride recently and someone said 'There's a couple on a tandem' there was no point me asking 'If you don't know them how do you know they're a couple'? Just as well that I didn't.

[ellarien]

My parents did much of their courting on a tandem; presumably that involved my father bringing it to collect my mother or taking it home after dropping her off. (Neither of them owned another bike as far as I know, and my mother never learned to ride independently.) That was nearly fifty years ago, but I don't think tandems were very common even then.

[fatbaldguy60.livejournal.com]

When I was young, our method for making the school bus appear arund the corner [in mid-winter Iowa] was to turn around and count to 100. If the bus was not there, we swore we would go home. It usually only took 5 or 10 times before the bus arrived, hehe.