1400 MILES | 14 DAYS | ZERO PRACTICE ON A TANDEM
Between April 3rd and 16th 2011 Dave and Australian bucketlister Sebastian Terry pedalled a tandem bicycle from Vancouver, British Colombia, to Las Vegas, Nevada.
The first time Seb and Dave rode a tandem bike was in Vancouver, when they started their journey. They weren't experienced cyclists, at any rate, so this was always going to be quite a challenge. Cycling through five States, over mountains, along highways, across plains and through deserts, it's hard to believe the 1396 mile journey only lasted 14 days.
The Background
In early 2010 a strange Australian man named Seb turned up on the doorstep of Dave's house in London, carrying a bag of eggs. Seb wanted Dave to help him break a world record and the very next day Seb claimed the honour of breaking the most amount of eggs (24) in 30 seconds.
One month later Dave and Seb became the first people to Stand Up Paddleboard the length of Europe's largest freshwater lake, and then in October 2010 they began a one month motivational speaking tour around Australia. One of the businesses they addressed asked Dave and Seb to speak at the company's next annual conference in Vegas and the pair answered, 'That sounds awesome, but we'd feel lazy flying into Vegas, so we'll go to Canada first, and then cycle to the talk.'
1,116,800 PEDAL REVOLUTIONS
ANECDOTES
Not much planning
It’s fair to say, we were unprepared. When we arrived in Vancouver we still weren’t sure if we had a tandem bike sorted. I didn’t have any padded cycling pants so I borrowed some, from my Mum. She’s a petite lady. We didn’t have a bike lock or appropriate pannier bags, we just strapped a couple of duffels haphazardly to the rack on the back. We needed a lesson on how to fix a puncture before we started. Yes despite all this we had absolutely no doubt that we would make it. Some things are more important than pretty gear and spreadsheets.
PHOTO GALLERY
ROUTE MAP
TANDEM Playlist
TRANSPORT: TANDEM BICYCLE
Tinkerbella the Tandem Bicycle was sourced and scrubbed up by Recklessin Vancouver, BC. A cheap, heavy but ultimately lovely tandem, she was very pretty with her wicker basket and clown horn.
