What's Hot section of Bicycle Guide Magazine in 1987
Seven days and 14 hours later, LonHaldeman (left) and Pete Penseyres (right) reportedly were still talking to each other.
-- WHAT'S HOT --
Will Somebody
Please tell these guys about supersaver fares? Late in the evening on May 16, Lon Haldeman and Pete Penseyres made good on their promise of a sub-eight-day transcontinental tandem crossing. The pair completed the ride from Huntington Beach, California, to Atlantic City, New Jersey, (a course similar to the 1986 RAAM route) in a blistering 7 days, 14 hours and 55 minutes--covering the distance of 2,920 miles faster than any other cyclists in history.
Although tandemists can easily manage fast cruising on the flats and warp-speed descents, the big bikes lose steam on long climbs, when their aerodynamic advantage is minimized and the disadvantages of weight and conflicts between the riders' pedaling styles become more significant.
The difficulty of coordinating two riders' efforts, bodily functions, and rest periods for days on end make it hard for tandem teams to approach the records set in the last few years by RAAM's fastest solo riders. Penseyeres and Haldeman
minimized these problems on their tandem ride with a high level of organization, as on Penseysres' record-setting 1986 RAAM ride.
Raleigh Cycle Corporation's Dennis Bushnell built special tandems that allowed either member of the team to ride as captain or stoker, and Penseyres designed armrests to increase comfort and aerodynamic efficiency. The two slept at the same time each morning and subsisted entirely on a liquid diet, allowing them to ride for approximately 22 hours every day. By alternating periods of concentration on the front of the bike with resting on the back, neither rider suffered from the extreme physical problems of hallucinations that generally plague solo transcontinental record rides.
Despite generally windy conditions, including 25-mph headwinds through Kansas, Haldeman and Penseyres beat the timetable they originally planned. Lon even had to return home to Harvard, Illinois, for the birth of his daughter, Rebecca.
