The Tandem Club

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.

Due to road closures in Stafford on 15th September the ride will now start from Market Drayton.  Full details in the whats on section.

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.
 

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.

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