We build a lot of tandems. A custom builder is a natural fit for tandems, because the challenge of fitting a tandem is doubled. Both the captain and stoker need to be comfortable for the bike to work at all, and making two people comfortable is much harder than making one comfortable.
We’ve been building tandems for 20+ years, and we’re one of the few (if not the only) custom builder to offer road, gravel, and mountain bike tandems. That explains why so many pairs come to us for a new bike.
What we didn’t expect to happen is to be contacted by so many blind riders, looking for tandems they could stoke. And even though, over the years, we’ve built a fair few bikes for blind riders, we certainly didn’t expect Team Sea to See, the first visually impaired team to take on the Race Across America (RAAM).
We built a tandem for Dan Berlin with our friend Rick at The Phoenix Cyclery in Fort Collins, CO back in 2013. This year, he and his captain raced RAAM with Team Sea to See. These guys are demonstrating that visual impairment doesn’t mean life impairment. They are also, we would add, demonstrating that they’re amazing cyclists.
There was an excellent news story on them recently, and something from the Today Show, too. We’re proud to be involved, if only as a (literal) vehicle for the message.