Welcome

The Twin Cities Tandem Club is a group of tandem enthusiasts from the Twin Cities of Minneapolis, St. Paul, and the surrounding area. We get together once or twice a month from May until November to ride tandem bicycles. We like to ride tandems for many reasons. We are a social or touring club, as opposed to a racing club. While many of our members do ride fast, the main purpose of our rides is to enjoy each other's company, and a "bite to eat" at the food stops.

I am sure if you were to ask the club members why they like to ride a tandem, you would receive many different answers. The following list is not all inclusive, but it does reflect what I have heard various people say over the years:

• Riding a tandem is a shared experience, and we enjoy the sense of team work that it brings.
• Riding a tandem allows two partners of unequal strength to ride together.
• Tandems have some aerodynamic advantages. While you have the effort of two people, the frontal profile is only that of a single person. So usually, a team's speed on a tandem is slightly faster than their average speed on individual bikes.

All of these reasons are in addition to the usual benefits of bicycling -- exercise, fresh air, and just plain fun.

Even if you are just considering a tandem bicycle or interested in tandems, you are welcome at our rides.

Who are "The Loons"?

Many tandem clubs have chosen names with an animal-related acronym. For example, our neighbors to the east are known as the COWs, which stands for "Couples On Wheels", and the Iowa based tandem club is the PIGS ("Paired Iowans Going Somewhere"). The Twin Cities Tandem Club is also known as the "LOONS", which stands for "Lena and Ole On Non-Singles". We chose LOONs as the acronym because there are many loons in Minnesota. Lena and Ole are a mythical (well mostly mythical) couple of Scandinavian heritage which are the subject of many jokes through out the upper Midwest. Here's a typical Lena and Ole joke:

Did you hear that Lena passed away? Her last request was to be buried at sea. Sadly, Ole drowned trying to dig her grave.

Many people believe that Scandinavian humor is an oxymoron, but we haven't heard of anyone taking offence at Lena and Ole jokes. This goes to show that Scandinavian's do have a sense of humor. More Lena and Ole Jokes can be found here.