TANDEM Diversity
Pictured here on tour in the UK.
Lifetime miles: 5433
As it turns out, it is highly unlikely we will travel again with a non-Rohloff bike, so rather than have Willy sitting in the shop, we decided it would be best to sell him. In April 2021 he was sold to a young couple wanting to upgrade their tandem and to get into travel. Good luck in your new home, Willy!
Co-Motion Carrera Rohloff Co-Pilot
What began as an experiment with 650b wheels on a Carrera Rohloff (read about this project) has ended with us deciding to welcome a new tandem into our fold. We believe this to be an all-rounder, adventure tandem in every sense. We have named her Bella, and she promises to become one of our go-to work horses for everyday riding and for travel.
Co-Motion Primera Ultra
New on the show room floor for 2016 was this performance enhanced Primera, the brain child of the crew at Co-Motion, further enhanced by us with Rolf tandem wheels and carbon stoker bars. We tried the bike out on an extended tour, to test its worthiness for touring, and we liked it so much we decided to keep it in our personal collection and to replace it on the floor with another for the 2017 model year.
Enhancements include: Co-Motion carbon fork, Gates timing belt, Rolf tandem wheels, carbon stoker bars. The idea was to have a bike that would be competitive with the Carrera, at a lower price. We think it was a success. In particular, we like very much the increased comfort and performance of the Rolf wheels.
This is a good all round bike and a good travel bike. We've taken Willy on 4 international tours in the last couple of years and often selected him for our daily rides.
One of her defining features, that came from our wheel experiment, is her 650b wheel set, here equipped with 650x42b tires. We lowered the climbing gear even further by swapping the chain ring from 55t to 50t, resulting in a low gear of about 18". See our article on tandem gearing.
Note: As of September, 2022, Bella is no longer with us. We had an opportunity to send her to a new and different role - we donated her to a small bike shop in Tirana, Albania. We hope she either finds a new home by way of a sale, or finds a new life in the programs of that shop. We will miss her but know she will thrive in her new role. Bon chance, Bella!
Lifetime miles: 946
She's not just pretty - with her Rohloff drive train she makes an ideal travel partner. Here she is taking a lunch break (top) and lounging in the vineyards of Burgundy (bottom)
Lifetime miles to date: 10,749
We've named him Willy.
Co-Motion Supremo
Sapphire commemorates our 45th anniversary. She is a beautiful sapphire blue and sports Shimano Di2 drive train.
45 years - a big number!
Lifetime miles to date: 286
Since we never really used this bike much, and since there was little prospect that would change, we were very much open to selling it when a couple from Seattle, looking specifically for a Counterpoint, offered to buy it. We sold it to them, making us and them happy.
Co-Motion Quad
Finally, given that our daughter's 3 sons all like to ride together, her triplet just didn't have enough seats. We acquired this quad from friends in Canada, hoping to ride with our grandsons. Turns out though, it was too big to store, so was sold to a growing family in Portland.
Friends test ride it for us.
Co-Motion Equator Co-Pilot
Our Speedster Rohloff and Mocha Rohloff both sold and went to join new families, so it was time to add a new Rohloff tandem to our fleet. Our choice was this gorgeous 2018, Cortez Blue Equator Co-Pilot. We named her Tallie (short for Natalie) and we love her. She has traveled many times and has been back to Co-Motion for a repaint.
You can see that for most of the bikes in our fleet, I have reported the total miles we've ridden each bike, so far, or while we owned it for the ones that are no longer in our fleet. If you add things up, in the roughly 30 years since 1994 (that's about when we started keeping detailed tandem mileage records, by bike), we have ridden almost 73,000 miles on the bikes listed here (as of December 31, 2023). On top of that are test bikes, demo bikes, and review bikes that we've ridden lots of miles on since opening Tandem Diversity. In those 30 years we have had the habit of riding quite often daily recreational rides for fitness and for relationship tending. We have made the tandem(s) a major part of most vacations, going on numerous tours. If you add in the first 14 years of our tandem experience, not included in the above mileage, you would come up with a considerably higher figure, but I'm not sure exactly how much. It seems reasonable to estimate that, in our lifetime, we will ride more than 100,000 miles on tandem. And of course, the mileages listed here are for tandems only and do not include miles we've ridden on single bikes.
So, that's the tour of the tandem ownership and experience of the Owings Family and Tandem Diversity in the 44 years and counting that we have been tandem riders and travelers. As I wrote at the top of this summary, our credibility in your eyes, the reader and potential customer, should be based in large measure on our ability to frame answers to your questions and problems on the basis of broad experience. We have that experience and stand ready to help you, no matter where you are on your tandem journey or relationship.
Let us know how we can help you. To contact us, click here.
Our daughter's Tsunami triplet. We can't really claim this bike as ours, but we do get to ride it with her.
(Now sold)
A Schwinn Town and Country tandem.
(Sold September, 2020)
A matching Schwinn Town and Country triplet.
(Sold March, 2021)
We were helping Co-Motion to evaluate a prototype travel trailer set up. Molly got the call to help with that.
A couple from Arizona was looking specifically for a Rohloff, belt drive tandem with 26" wheels. Since we planned to upgrade to a new Equator tandem in the near future, we offered to sell Molly to these folks. They bought her and proceeded to ride her across the country! I think it was good for everyone that Molly found a new home.
Other tandems in our fleet that don't really rate separate listing
There are a handful of other machines acquired over the years as collectors items or just for fun.
A Schwinn Paramount waiting to be refurbished and repainted to original specs.
(No longer in our collection, as of November, 2020)
Molly enjoying palm trees and warm breezes on The Big Island.
Co-Motion Mocha with Gates belts and Rohloff hub
Molly Mocha, Molly for short, joined the family to take over primary travel responsibilities from Rollie. She is easier to pack due to smaller wheels and compact frame size. She also helped us with our evaluation and testing of a new travel trailer system looked at by Co-Motion. She has been to Hawaii with us, and traveled to Turkey in the Fall of 2014. She is equipped with the latest generation belts and now has Gebla Rohbox shifters.
Molly, with Gates belts, a Rohloff hub, and a sweet two toned paint job. She has traveled to The Big Island and to Turkey.
Lifetime miles: 1905
Gazelle tandem
For years we've longed to have a "Dutch Beater" tandem in the family, for running to the grocery and out to dinner. While on a trip to Belgium with my son in law several years ago I saw a Gazelle tandem in a shop in Leuven. For years after I tried to figure out how to get one to our home here in the States. Finally, I made contact with Gazelle USA, and Tootle joined our fleet. She's called that because we sort of Tootle along on her.
Meet Tootle. The electrical cord is for something else, not her - she is strictly pedal powered.
Note: As of August, 2020, this tandem has been sold - we were not using it enough to warrant keeping it.
Lifetime miles: 26
Co-Motion Gates belted, Rohloff equipped Speedster CoPilot
This bike came into the fold with the intention that he would replace Rosie as our main travel bike, and he did that for a while. He was named Rollie in honor of his Rohloff hub. Rollie originally came with the first generation Gates belts and the bar-end shifter from Rohloff. I upgraded him to the new Co-Motion bar-top shifter and the newer Gates center track belts. The belts in particular are better since they don't require nearly as much tension to stay on the sprockets. Rollie traveled to Europe, Vietnam, and South America, and was a very capable back up to Rosie. We enjoy the belts and enclosed hub for travel. There is much less fuss and adjusting, and the drive train stays much cleaner. We think belts and internal hubs have a bright future for tandem travel.
Out the back door for a morning ride. Rollie not only took over travel duties, but also backed up Rosie for daily rides.
Lifetime miles: 4046
Rollie at the Hotel Sacher in Salzburg, Austria. We are departing for Passau, Germany where we will join 2 Santana Cycles tours down the Danube River to the Black Sea.
Rollie enjoying the beautiful hills of Burgundy on a Santana Cycles tour along the Soane and Rhone Rivers in France.
This bike was repainted and sold to a couple from California who were looking for a used belted, Rohloff tandem. His last international trip with us was in January, 2017, to Vietnam.
Taking delivery in Eugene. She was a surprise for Chris.
Lifetime miles to date: 848
Co-Motion Macchiato
Ruby joined the family on the occasion of our 40th anniversary, so she is our second anniversary bike. The stone that commemorates the 40th wedding anniversary is the ruby, hence Ruby's name and color. Also, she has a special engraving on her head tube badge - a lighthouse with an inset ruby for the light. Lighthouses have always been important to the two of us, from the very beginning of our marriage.
Co-Motion Speedster CoPilot
Greta came into the family originally as a back up to Rosie for daily riding and travel, but within a short while she assumed a completely new role. We kept her in Wisconsin, near family that we visit often. Greta's presence there gave us a machine ready and waiting to take us on rides around the Madison area, one of the best cycling areas we've encountered. In fact, the only traveling Greta did was to Wisconsin and back a couple of times, before we realized she should just move there permanently.
Greta was Rosie's twin sister. She was green and she had updated components, but in other respects she was identical to Rosie.
Lifetime miles: 6325
Greta on the Military Ridge Trail outside Madison, Wisconsin.
It turns out that with trail surfaces that are often gravel in Wisconsin, and with deteriorating surface conditions on the trails that are paved, we think we will do better for our Wisconsin bike to have an enclosed hub and belt drive. So, Greta has been brought back home and sold.
Mt. Rainier and a bald eagle.
An Orca.
Heceta Head Lighthouse.
The 3 of us with the real Heceta Head lighthouse in the background.
Lifetime miles to date: 1011
Co-Motion Robusta
This bike (Robbie) began what may very well turn out to be a bit of a tradition - he was a surprise gift from me to the two of us for our 35th anniversary. Dwan at Co-Motion helped me to find a custom painter (a motorcycle painter) who could put on a paint job to my specifications, that would depict scenes of significance to the two of us from our first 35 years together, 25 of which had been spent tandeming. The four scenes we settled on were: the Heceta Head lighthouse in Oregon, Mt. Rainier, a bald eagle, and an orca. All of these were iconic reminders of our time together and the many activities we had shared over the years. The end result was beautiful - thank you Dwan! Robbie is a lightweight performance bike. He hails from the era before Co-Motion eliminated the internal lateral tubes from the Robusta line. He is a joy to ride - like driving a sports car. He doesn't travel much - he went to California for the Tour de Palm Springs a few years ago, riding in the back of our van. He was our first performance bike and our first anniversary bike, so will always be special to us for those reasons.
Univega Tandem Sport
This is a "just for fun" bike we picked up used from a local shop, for riding on some of the local trails and logging roads, especially in the San Juan Islands, which are not too far from our home. It got very little use, only when we on rare occasion felt the need for a trail ride that one of our other bikes couldn't handle, usually because of too narrow tires. Now sold.
Here we are with Rosie at the finish of a self-contained tour down the Washington Coast, out the back door, down the coast, return via train, ride from the station to the back door to complete the loop. Rosie has done several trips like this, sometimes with panniers and sometimes with a Bob trailer.
Lifetime miles to date: 24,357
As of April, 2024, Rosie has moved to a new home with new owners. We're sure she will serve them well!
This photo tells lots about us and about Rosie. This was taken just outside Rosenheim, Germany on a tour with Santana. Years later we covered this same road on a self-contained, self-supported tour of Bavaria. The spot is on a tandem test ride loop used by Wolfgang Haas, European distributor of Santana tandems. Note the front rack - after the Santana tour we went with Rosie for an additional week, self-contained, along the Southern end of the Romantische Strasse, carrying our stuff in panniers, front and rear.
Rosie sightseeing in Lisbon, Portugal.
Co-Motion Speedster CoPilot
My recovery from the neck injury and our return to conventional tandeming were celebrated by the acquisition of the bike the Bilenky travel tandem was originally meant to be. In contrast to the Bilenky, this bike was a standard, off-the-shelf bike, purchased from the Bike Gallery in Portland, Oregon. It was fitted with S&S couplers for travel - we had not sold the S&S cases when the Bilenky sold, so we had those and so were all set to start traveling, which we did. We picked up the bike in January of 2001 and were off to Hawaii for Santana's Valentine Day rally that February. We ultimately started naming our tandems, or at least the ones we use frequently - this bike is affectionately known as Rosie. Rosie has been a favorite bike since arriving that January. She has been through lots with us - international travel, domestic travel, rallies, tours both with groups and self-contained, RAMROD, daily recreational rides - you name it. She has been our vacation companion and our relationship counselor. She has been back to Co-Motion once for a frame repair and repaint, has been through 3 of sets of wheels, several chains and cassettes, has had her shifters rebuilt 4 times, has had her rear derailleur replaced, has upgraded cranksets from her original - you get the idea. However, I have to say that costs to maintain her, given the miles and trips she has done, have not been what I would consider to be extravagant. Rosie remains a favorite, comfortable bike - even now she is sometimes selected for our daily rides (our morning ride). We plan for her to grow old with us.
Rans Screamer
About the time we were selling the Bilenky, I suffered a neck injury of unknown cause, resulting in a pinched nerve and severe neck, back, and arm pain. After letting things cool off for a couple of weeks, we attempted a ride on our Co-Motion Java, only to discover that my pain was intolerable after about a half mile. Not being willing to give up on tandeming, we immediately investigated recumbent tandems, arriving at the decision to welcome a Rans Screamer into the fold. This bike we purchased from Angle Lake Cyclery in Seattle. Knowing we would want to travel, Dale at Angle Lake sent the bike off to Dennis Bushnell to have S&S couplers installed prior to our picking it up. I should note that I also bought a Rans single bike for my commuting. We had no idea how long my recovery would be from the injury (turns out it was more than a year before I could get back on an upright bike), so figured the Rans could be either temporary, or perhaps permanent. It certainly allowed us to continue riding and traveling during my recovery; in addition to our usual recreational riding, we took the Rans on Bon Ton Roulet in New York (that was the only time this bike flew) and on some local tours including the San Juan Islands and the Skagit Tulip Festival. We very much enjoyed the bike, even though our sense was we were slower on it than on our conventional bikes, and I suppose we would have been content had my neck required us to continue riding recumbent indefinitely. That, fortunately, did not come to pass and we were able to get back to conventional riding, though I did have a very short relapse about 10 years later that put us back on the Rans for a couple of weeks. However, since the neck problem has not recurred, this bike has now been sold, as of August, 2020.
Lifetime miles: 3590
First trip to France. Loire Valley, 1995.
The Tandem Two'sDay, with trailer, ready to depart Amsterdam for Paris, 2002. After Paris, a train ride to Germany, then a tour along the Romantische Strasse to Wurzberg, then train to Frankfurt, then home. On this trip she really showed us her versatility.
Lifetime miles: 1900
Custom Bilenky Tandem
Our thought was to replace the functionality of the Two'sDay for self-contained touring, with a bike that had full-sized wheels. After a thorough search we found Bilenky in Philadelphia, who would build us a custom tandem and a trailer based on the S&S cases that carried the bike on the plane. This was our first bike with S&S couplers; we took delivery just 3 years after purchasing the Bike Friday. We had very high hopes for this bike, but many of our hopes were not realized. First of all, delivery was delayed significantly so we had very little time on the bike prior to our first scheduled trip, a Santana tour in Tuscany. Secondly, the front half of the frame was originally damaged at the factory and had to be rebuilt, and in the rebuilding was made to incorrect dimensions. So, the bike didn't really fit me. Bilenky's suggestion, which I didn't particularly care for, was to make adjustments via changes in stem length. Finally, the paint did not come out the way we ordered it. In summary, I'm sure this was a very nice bike, but we had a bad attitude about it from the get go. She went with us to Tuscany and then on a Santana rally in Arizona, but shortly after that we made the decision to sell her, which we did to a couple in St. Louis. I sincerely hope she has been a good machine for them. It was after this experience with Bilenky, when compared with how smoothly things had gone with our custom Co-Motion, that we decided to stick with Co-Motion for most of our future tandems.
Even if not exactly what we wanted/expected, she was a pretty bike.
Lifetime miles: 512
Lifetime miles: 77
Bike Friday Tandem Two'sDay
About the time we were ready to take our first step into serious tandem travel and touring, a couple of guys in Eugene, Oregon had come up with the Bike Friday concept, a small-wheeled, folding machine that could travel in a standard suitcase and that, as an added bonus, could carry itself, so to speak, and all associated tools and packing materials, in a trailer that was made from the cases and a small frame and pair of wheels. This was before S&S couplers had really taken off, so there was not yet a widely available take apart or folding option for mainstream, full sized tandems. If you wanted to travel, to carry the bike in airline checkable luggage, and to be fully self-contained, the Bike Friday tandem was it at the time (and truly still is, really). In fact, the Bike Friday might be the best overall design for those who want travel to be their main focus. When it comes to group rides, the Friday has a minor disadvantage from the small wheels, in our experience. It was this minor disadvantage, experienced when riding in groups, that led us to purchase a second travel bike, with full-sized wheels. So, we ended up with bikes from both the small wheel and full-sized wheel world. We loved the Two'sDay and took it on several trips, mostly self-supported and self-contained. However, since we hadn't used it much in the last few years, we sold it in Spring, 2019.
Counterpoint OPUS IV tandem
Almost simultaneous with the arrival of our first Co-Motion, we brought a new Counterpoint OPUS IV into the fold, to replace our first Counterpoint, mostly to upgrade components and to address my desire to have drop bars in the captain's spot. As noted above, my main stoker pretty much moved to conventional tandeming about this time, so this OPUS IV saw essentially no use over the years.
Custom Co-Motion Java, after frame repair and repaint. Threaded headset. Double laterals in the stoker compartment. Truly an elegant and exceptionally practical bicycle. We miss her, but we have moved on.
Lifetime miles: 10,130
She took us to many new heights.
Lots of chain - lots of wow factor - lots (but barely enough) of brakes. Our brand new Counterpoint OPUS IV Trio in 1994.
Lifetime miles to date: 515
Still fun in 2013.
Custom Co-Motion Java
In transition from stoker recumbent to stoker upright, in 1994 we added 2 machines to the collection, essentially simultaneously. The first was this custom built Co-Motion Java, custom because the stoker compartment was made larger than stock in order to accommodate both our children, both taller than their mom. Turns out Mom could ride it too (with the seat all the way down), so she made the switch to this bike pretty quickly and we never rode much on the Counterpoint OPUS IV tandem covered in the next section. The Java was sold to a couple in Ohio after 13 years of service to us. She put on 10,130 miles as our go-to bike for double centuries, a Cycle Oregon, club rides, rallies, and daily recreational rides. She traveled just once, to Arizona for a Santana rally in Scottsdale. She went back to Co-Motion for a cracked frame repair and repaint once, about midway through her time with us. This bike had, and still has, a very special place in our hearts; she truly was the first top tier conventional tandem we owned. She certainly cemented our long-term relationship with Co-Motion.
Counterpoint OPUS IV Trio
We had lobbied Jim Weaver, builder of Counterpoint bikes, to develop a triplet so we could ride with our daughter, who had not yet departed for college. Jim came up with the push me/pull me design which has never failed to draw lots of attention and lots of comments (see our piece on this bike here). This turned out to be pretty much a just for fun bike; we've ridden on club and century rides as well as a couple of NW Tandem Rallies. This bike is still in our collection and we haul it out every few years when we find ourselves with an extra stoker.
Our first Counterpoint tandem on Mt. St. Helens in 1993. Descending was a thrill for the stoker, out there on the front!
At the finish of the Cycle Oregon Double Century in 1993, with our first Counterpoint tandem.
When Chris decided to make the switch to a conventional tandem, we sold this Counterpoint to another couple just getting into tandeming.
Our first Counterpoint tandem. Cycling vacation on San Juan Island circa 1990.
Lifetime miles: No records.
Counterpoint OPUS III
When my wife first began serious tandeming, we started her off in the recumbent position. The Counterpoint tandem had many advantages, including the recumbent position for my budding stoker, normal upright captain's position for me, and the ability to communicate easily on the bike due to our close proximity. This bike did recreational rides, plus one Tour de Blast (Mt. St. Helens) and one Cycle Oregon Double Century. It was a good starter bike but fairly quickly we concluded we wanted a triplet (see Counterpoint Triplet below), I wanted drop bars rather than flat bars (see Counterpoint OPUS IV below), and Chris was ready to start working toward a conventional tandem (see Tandem Two'sDay and CoMotion Java below). We sold this Counterpoint to a local couple after about three years.
Nishiki Tandem
The next step up, as the kids got taller, was to this Nishiki tandem. This was quite a jump in terms of performance. Rim brakes were both operated off a single brake lever, while an Arai drum brake was operated off the other lever. This wasn't the best arrangement, in my opinion, but at least there was a drag brake. This bike lasted for a couple of years, for the kids and me to ride. It didn't have a large enough stoker compartment to be comfortable for my wife, so when she became interested in doing more tandem riding, we bought our first Counterpoint (see below).
My son and me with the Nishiki tandem circa 1989.
Lifetime miles: No records.
The Nishiki goes on the car-top carrier, cycling vacation at Roche Harbor, San Juan Island circa 1989.
When we bought our first Counterpoint tandem, the Nishiki was sold to a couple just getting started into tandem riding.
Schwinn Twinn, rigged for camping with Blue Sky trailer, 1982.
Lifetime miles: No records.
The kids have outgrown the child stoker adapter. This tandem is very close to being too small. Circa 1987. Shortly after this, it was sold to another growing family.
Our Tandems
We feel that, in order to set ourselves up to give advice on selection and use of tandems, we need to have credibility, and the best way to get that credibility is by way of experience. Experience that involves owning, riding, and traveling with a wide variety of machines so we can offer personal insights from our own experience, not from what someone else says or from what we have read. Certainly there are many brands and models of tandems we've never ridden, but our experience is sufficiently broad to provide valuable perspective when deciding which tandem to own, for what purpose.
So, we offer here a brief run down of all the tandems we've owned over the years since we got into tandeming in 1980. Some of these bikes still live and ride with us; our stable is constantly changing as we keep up with technology and our aging bodies. Join us now, in our ride down memory lane.....
Schwinn Twinn
This bike was our first, purchased in 1980, using a loan from my life insurance policy. The plan was to do more family cycling, with me pulling our youngest in a trailer and Chris riding with our oldest on the tandem. Very quickly that morphed into me on the tandem with one of the kids, pulling the other in the trailer; they took turns riding on the bike. The first challenge was making and installing a child stoker crank set; there were child stoker adapters available, but prices were higher than we paid for the bike! I made my own from a bottom bracket cut out of an old single speed bike fished out of the dump. This bike served us well until the kids could reach the pedals, and then it quickly became too small.