We are ready to get aboard a moustache – The Angel Tandem

It’s been ages since the big news about Ruth’s spectacular comeback on a Tandem bike! and the problem with having such a long wait for delivery is that it has given the writer plenty of wintry months to concoct some wildly ambitious plans to embark on an absolutely epic journey around Aotearoa as our cycling swan song.

Tandems tend to be pricy, especially ones with pedal assist, so we need to ensure that we put our moustache to good use over what is probably going to be a fairly short period of time given our advancing years. There are no guarantees that tomorrow will arrive with the same degree of certainty that it has in the past (call it the sunset years). After some discussion we (there was a little arm twisting with Ruth) decided to go out in style and embark on the ‘mother of all’ tandem rides. A 7,500km epic around Aotearoa. As added motivation we decided that it is time for us to step up try and raise awareness and donations for an amazing charity (The Bald Angels) who support vulnerable tamariki (children and young people) of Te Tai Tokerau-Northland, who have their whole life ahead of them – in the sunrise of their lives.

Northland experiences the highest cases of poverty in Aotearoa. Many whānau (families) are living without running water, electricity and basic access to services. Our isolated communities are some of the most impoverished in this country. We also have the highest incidence of rheumatic fever, some of the highest rates of truancy, child deafness and tragically, youth suicide, in New Zealand and the Western World. Wouldn’t it be great to help give these kids the opportunity to thrive? We hope that others will be inspired or entertained enough to support the charity we are riding for!

We have decided to call our ride The Angel Tandem Ride .

So what’s the plan?

There are quite a few factors that influence the plan that has evolved so far. I say so far, because any plan does need to be flexible enough to handle any number of unexpected events that this ride might throw at us. We would have loved to have ridden it during the summer of 23/24 but this was not going to work. The factors that have dictated our ride are:

• The arrival of the bike – it was a moving target with delivery hoped for as late as early 2024. At least that uncertainty is now removed.
• Having not ridden a tandem before. There needs to be quite a bit of ‘education’ at the ‘school of hard knocks’.
• Being an e-bike. We need to work out what range we will get in different riding environments carrying about 170-180kg of bike, passengers and gear. This is critical to working out our route and daily distances. We can still pedal if the battery empties but you would not want that to be too far and certainly not involve many hills.
• Avoiding the Christmas / New Year silly season and holiday period which makes for busier everything – especially roads and accomodation. We will also need a degree of flexibility around destinations just in case a day is unrideable due to the likes of gales or floods. Not uncommon in the land of the long white cloud.
• Trying to get the best overall weather window. We know we are going to have to face wind, rain, heat, cold etc, but let’s minimise these nasties by not heading off in the middle of winter or any time too close to it.
• Ruth (now officially called The Rear Admiral or RA – her initials) is coming out of retirement for the ride. This creates a few caveats that need to be built in; rest days, a reasonable break over Christmas and the right to withdraw at any stage. We are going to offer what we call an Angel Seat (guest stoker) option where she will swap her position on the back for anyone who would like a pedal around the block, to the next town or even a couple of days on the bike. This might help her to see out the distance. So anyone who wondered what it is like to ride a tandem, here is your opportunity. Don’t be shy! For the record, I will not be called by the traditional name of ‘Captain’ but referred to as ‘The Grunt on the Front’. Titles are very important as they convey the level of responsibility and effort.

Having decided to ride for The Bald Angels we felt that the ride needs to be inspiring enough to get the attention of potential donors. We hope that these points will help:

1. 100km for each year of our life. Well that is 71-72 so at least 7,200km. All three proposed legs of the ride currently tally up to a tad under 7,500km. More kms than most septuagenarians will have ridden in their entire life. In addition to the distance, we will climb 80,000 metres of hills. Our average daily ride is around 70km – again, it resonates with the age.
2. Riding it on a tandem. That is a bit different – not too many of them in NZ.
3. Riding it on an e-tandem – different again. We suspect we will be the first old codgers (possibly first couple) to attempt a circumnavigation of Aotearoa on an e-tandem.
4. Riding unsupported, i.e., we carry everything we need including clothes, spares, food, water and camping gear. Creates challenges as you have only one bike to hang all the gear on. Every extra KG is less KM in range.
5. We will have one additional passenger – our little Angel Bear. We are hope that angel bears have great navigational skills and super powers.
6. Aiming for four significant touch points along the journey. We chose lighthouses as they are a symbol of hope, not just for us on our ride (we will need the odd beacon) but also for the kids we are trying to help. These are: Cape Reinga & Waipapa Point (Southland) representing the far north and south of the country and Cape Egmont & East Cape representing the widest points across the country not to mention the symbolic sunrise and sunset aspect of these points.
7. You can follow the ride and the entertaining lead up to it (could be tandemonium) on social media or via our blog. Months of entertainment for the cost of a modest donation to charity! Better value than Netflix.

With the bike arrival scheduled for December 23 we ruled out attempting to undertake all of the ride during the coming summer (23/24). However, it does give us a late summer to hone our tandem riding skills and fully test the tandem’s capabilities. We need to have completed this by mid autumn 2024 as we will need some time to finalise the bulk of ride’s itinerary and associated logistics well before our departure in Spring 24.

Given all of the above, we have decided to break our Tour de Aotearoa into three stages:

Stage 1

From Kerikeri to Kerikeri via Cape Reinga. This is a 500km journey that we will use to test Ruth, the tandem, our gear configurations and the practicality of our proposed range of accommodation options including camping. Hopefully we can complete this in February. UPDATE: This ride has been completed – see posts here.

Stage 2

From Kerikeri to Invercargill via a more easterly route through both islands and including the Catlins and Waipapa Point in the South. This is a journey of around 3,500km leaving late October 24 and getting to Invercargill mid December. We will leave the tandem in storage in Invercargill and fly back to Kerikeri for some R&R and to wait out the main school holiday period.

Stage 3

Late January 25 we will start in Bluff and bike 3,500km back to Kerikeri via the West Coast of the Te Wai Pounamu and then taking a more westerly route through the north including Cape Egmont. We expect to arrive in Kerikeri around late March 25.

We will be keeping you posted with regular updates. We have launched our givealittle page for anyone who wants to support our cause. 100% of the donations will go directly to The Bald Angels. We also post to our social media accounts, including our youTube channel – you will find us via #angeltandem.

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