Tandem Bicycling America: Border to BorderCoast to Coast [Paperback]

Paul Wittreich (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 12, 2002

Come along on a bicycle built for two for this double tale of a KHS Tandemania Roma tandem bicycle to take you the length of the Mississippi River from the Canadian Border to the Gulf of Mexico then from Coast to Coast from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The seat belts couldn't be fastened because there aren't any. The only proper precaution is to look out for cars, and have bike helmets on. The country is out there for you to see. But you have to slow down from 70 mph to 10 to 15 mph if you want to see it all. That is, if you want to smell the flowers plus the pig manure scent wafting through the air. America is out there, it is just a case of knowing how to find it. I think we have found it.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Paul Wittreich bought a bicycle at the age of 58 after hiking the whole Appalachian Trail and running 13 marathons. This propelled him into a new adventurebiking across the USA, 4300 miles, coast to coast, and pedaling the length of TransCanada highway, 4,400 miles, again ocean to ocean. So at the age of 66 and 70 there was more to come.

Product Details

• Paperback: 182 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse (June 12, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595227783
• ISBN-13: 978-0595227785
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,509,361 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars No practical or entertainment value, August 8, 2004

By 

Randy P. Phinney - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tandem Bicycling America: Border to BorderCoast to Coast (Paperback)

This book is more of a very sparse travel log than a book. Very little in the way of useful information. No storyline, no experiences related in any kind of entertaining way, not much of anything.

Each day is briefly summarized with time they started, where they ate, how hot it was, if it rained, how far they went, when they called it a day. All presented in a very plain toast way - like a police report. It was actually painful to read this entire book.

To save you the trouble here is a summary of all of the useful information:

- don't use lightweight tires on a long tour

- bring spare tubes

- bring a tire pump capable of pumping up the tires

- know how to change a tire

- don't put new saddles on the tandem the first day of your tour

- know how to do basic maintenance on the bike

There is no information on the gear they brought, what worked well and what didn't, riding techniques, things they learned, how they felt about the ride. Just nothing.

I can't really describe how poor a book this is. If you are considering touring on a tandem don't even think about reading this book. It makes tandem touring sound excruciatingly boring and pointless.

At least it's short. Even though it's over 150 pages, the font is large as is the line spacing so there are probably about enough words for 75 pages in a normally formatted book.

One more thing - there are only a few pictures, they are small low quality black and white, and again, contain nothing of entertainment or other value.