FAQs

Where are you going?

East!!  Yes, generally, east.  But now that we have travelled quite a long way east, we may now start to go south or perhaps south-east.

Where are you from?

Originally from N.Ireland (Keith) & Derbyshire (Tamar) but both of us have lived in London for most of our working lives.

Why are you doing it?

Hmm, let me think about that for a mo…sitting at a desk shoving bits of paper around or pedalling to beautiful, interesting places? Where would you rather be?

Did you get the bike made specially?

Nope, we just bought it from a super bike shop called JD Tandems in Yorkshire, England. It’s made by a German company called HASE and is called a “Pino Tour“.

If you’d like to read why we chose this bike, click here.

How fast do you go?

It varies.  Downhill we’ve topped out at 78kph (update from Sept-2012 – 100.5kph).  Uphill we’ve occasionally had to get off and walk….but have also spent many hours grinding along at 5 or 6kph.  On a good stretch of flat tarmac with a tailwind we’ll happily cruise at 25-30kph.  On bad tarmac with a headwind we slog along at 10-15kph.  But a reasonable road on a reasonable day and 20-24kph is normal.

How far do you go each day?

Again, it varies.  We average 400-500kms per week.  We usually ride for 5 or 6 days and have 1 or 2 days off.  Some days we only do 20kms (eg after a day’s sightseeing).  Some days we do over 100kms.  We mostly aim for around 80kms a day, but in China we tried to do about 120kms a day.

Are you disabled?

No, but the Pino would be a great bike for someone with a disability and can be adapted in a number of ways if needed.

Which charity are you doing it for? 

Err, we’re not.  If you want to give money to a charity of your choice please do so.  We just wanted to ride our bikes.  Raising money for a charity implies some kind of challenge where you need the focus of raising money to enable you to keep going.  Our journey is not a challenge….we’re enjoying ourselves far too much to call it a challenge.

Are you sponsored?

No, we didn’t want to be riding to someone else’s agenda, and wanted to be free to pick and choose the equipment we feel suits our needs the best, and make unfettered comment on that equipment.

How much did the bike cost?

This question really bugs us.  Some people don’t even smile and say hello before demanding to know what we spent on the bike, presumably to make some kind of judgement about us.  Yes, it was a lot of money, but not as much as some traditional tandems cost, and no more than we would have spent on two good quality solo bikes.