Monday, December 29, 2008

Little Soldier

Look what Santa brought!

Christmas Vacation began when Little Egypt informed me that I was flying home to Tulsa to see my family for the Holidays. “I am?” says me. “Suck it up!” says she.

Little Egypt had driven the car up into those cold lands a few weeks before. I will meet her in Tulsa, and we will drive back cross country.

We bought tickets for Hawaii late summer—but the airline sadly went out of business. As Hawaiians are warm, friendly, and smart people—they somehow got us vouchers for Southwest Airlines. So—we have vouchers galore; I’m packing the only warm clothes I own into luggage. Another Christmas of stuffing my face with good food/bad for you food, mes amis!

Back in sunny Tucson, just for kicks, I looked on Craigslist/Tulsa/Bikes—and behold, I discovered this tandem! It will be mine! Oh yes—it will be! A couple of cell phone calls later and plans got made to view the bike.

I figured since Tulsa is not the best place to ride all the time, some bloke would be un-loading some sweet bike for a song. And since Little Egypt only buys things on sale—by the grace of god she agreed to take a look—the price being offered was certainly to the tune of a very good deal.

I had explained to Charlie, the owner, that if the bike didn’t fit in the car it would be a deal-breaker. Little Egypt would not let me take it if the frame wouldn’t allow the car’s trunk to shut.

Charlie practically gave the bike to me. We took off the wheels, the handle bars, pedals, etc—and the bike just fit in the car. Yes!


These are the Craig's List images the previous owner made.

This is a Schwinn Twin Deluxe, five speed. I sold Little Egypt to the idea because one, the price was right, two—this is not a high-end tandem for the road; we wouldn’t be out racing the wind in our spandex-clad bike clothes, and three—this would be our cafĂ© bike; on weekends we would ride together down for coffee, just a mile! Maybe I would put baskets on it and we could grocery shop as well.

This bike is a tank. I would say it weighs 70 to 80 pounds. The nick-name “Little Soldier” soon became attached—going back to the days when Little Egypt rode helicopters over the Afghan-Pakistan border.

More photos and stories when the bike is back from Pima Street Bikes!

3 comments:

Doohickie said...

SCORE!

Sweet bike, Bruce!

Tell me, how do tandems pedal? If the front rider turns the crank, it turns the rear crank, right? I'd like to get one of these but my wife has terrible knees. If I could do all the heavy lifting and she could coast and not have to move her knees, I might be able to sell her on the idea...

Bruce's Bike Blog said...

Dood,

I have never actually, er um, ridden a tandem before... Carving Knife might be slapping me around back there! "Faster! Faster!" she could very well be ordering!

Cheers! Bruce

starstuff said...

Nice bike. You just need a white basket with a daisy on the front :) . I think my wife would really go in for one of those, I guess I will have to start watching craigslist!

As to not pedalling in the back, some tandems have special gearing to allow the back rider to coast but they are expensive.