Author: Sophie Butler

We enjoyed a nice warm late spring day for our new ride along the Transpennine Trail around Barnsley from Silkstone Common to the RSPB reserve at Old Moor.  Many thanks to Wigfield Farm Cafe for allowing us to park in their car park and for providing very reasonably priced refreshments after the ride. 

This ride is entirely off road, initially uphill towards Silkstone common to an interesting sculpture come stone seat where we turned around for a nice long gentle run down hill towards Worsborogh. The route traverses a number of crossings across mostly minor roads with a couple policed by cyclist friendly traffic light controlled pedestrian crossings.  Much of the route has recently been completely restored and resurfaced and hence was wonderfully smooth.  However this was in sharp contrast to the last short section towards the RSPB reserve at Old Moor which was peppered with tree roots making the surface somewhat bumpy but this didn’t detract from another great route to add to our portfolio.

Maybe it was because it was the bank holiday weekend, but this week only four tandems embarked on the delightful journey from Boroughbridge, navigating a loop via the Aldwark toll bridge on quiet country lanes. Despite the somewhat gloomy weather forecast, we managed to stay dry throughout the trip. The ride was fairly smooth, with only a couple of wrong turns. These deviations did not put a damper on our spirits, and we achieved exactly the advertised 25 mile distance and a modest elevation of under 200 metres.

No other mishaps occurred, and once our cycles were safely on the trailer once more, we concluded our adventure with a pleasant lunch in the garden of Gilchrist’s Tearooms, located on Boroughbridge High Street, allowing us to relax and share stories from our ride. A perfect end to another successful and enjoyable outing for the Tandem Trekkers.

Write up by Stevie B

It was a glorious day for our jaunt along the iconic Monsal Trail in the heart of the Peak District National Park. This was a new ride for many Trekkers and one which we were all very much looking forward to.

The weather was perfect and we had no less than 10 tandems out on the Trail. After a brief introduction to the ride we set off through stunning limestone gorges, crossing several high viaducts and through 5 tunnels before reaching the end of the trail close to Buxton.

Whilst we were cycling others were abseiling off one of the bridges, rock climbing and of course walking through the beautiful scenery.
The return journey took us back through the tunnels and historic stations to the other end of the trail close to Bakewell.
The trail was very busy close to the start but thinned out substantially on reaching the 1st of the tunnels.

Finally we returned to Hassop Station cafe for a well earned lunch before the trip back home. What at terrific day!

Write up by Steve De

Another great ride around Stamford Bridge in North Yorkshire with an awesome bunch of people. Perfect weather for cycling with some high cloud and a slight breeze and temperatures in the mid teens.

The birds were singing as we rode through some delightful little Yorkshire villages with the Cherry blossom in full bloom and Bluebells and bright yellow Dandelion adhorning the grass verges.

The tandems behaved themselves with no mechanicals and no incidents, although during the ride Steve lost his phone, Connor lost his smartwatch and I lost my way. Thankfully everything was found very quickly and we all continued our journey.

One word of advice from someone who knows and apologies to my stoker. It turns out that it is a lot easier riding a tandem if you remember to release the drag brake first. Still we are both a lot fitter now.

All washed down with a visit to a local cafe, The Balloon Tree where we all enjoyed a delicious lunch before returning home.

All in all another lovely day out with Tandem Trekkers

Write up from Steve De

Well, what a great turnout for our Easter weekend ride from HQ to Low Moor Station. All arrived on time, despite the temporary closure of Mirfield Station for its much needed upgrade. There was hilarity from the start with one pilot sporting a whole new Trekkers branded wardrobe.

We had another dry day out, arriving at the Sunflower Pot Cafe in record time on the return leg: queue more laughter.

The trees were resplendant in spring blossom, the birds were singing their little hearts out and sun shone through the clouds for our return to HQ.

Please note: No animals were harmed during the riding of this route! (Check out the Penistone ride blog)

Write up by Stevie B

Representatives from TT ventured out to Halifax, to tout our wares and provide information to interested individuals and organisations a like.
The event was made up of many stands with products and services specifically for visually impaired persons (VIP’s).
Trekkers volunteers (Stevie, and Chris) provided information and contacts for Trekkers.
The Tandem Trekkers stand included information boards, evidence of our fun filled rides, and displaying (one of) our fantastic tandem bikes
We got a few potential new pilots and stokers we look forward to welcoming any new recruits and friends of TT over the next season.

Early start for a long ride and a long day out.

8 tandems and an excited guide dog loaded for a day out in Humberside and North Lincolnshire.

The assembly at the start point included 2 sponsored walks and an inflatable 8 foot high dinosaur costume, hence our visit from the superintendent of the bridge to check our intentions as he already looked to have his fair share of “different” visitors without a marauding gang of tandem riders from West Yorkshire.  We were all impeccably behaved and managed to ride across the bridge without incident and even managed not to run over the dinosaurs tail.

The sun shone incredibly well and 20 miles were covered prior to the obligatory café stop where Trekkers once again commandeered all available table space and made the most of the extensive menu, including the Bakewell Tart whose sloppy bottom filling of cherry jam may have made indelible marks on my racing jersey.

Extended lunch break completed a gentle 13 miles afternoon jaunt back through the Lincolnshire countryside before a dash through Barton on Humber and back up onto the bridge.

33 miles completed, no mechanicals and no casualties other than the jam on the jersey incident.

Taya (Jules’ new guide dog) appeared to have a had a wonderful day out with her puppy raisers in Beverley and we all departed in various directions roughly on time.

Thanks to all pilots and drivers involved today, particularly as logistics are challenging with this many people coming form so many different directions. 

Write up by Barney

Last Sunday was an unusual morning in more ways than one. Firstly it was a Sunday, secondly we had an excess of pilots over stokers and thirdly wearing my Charlotte’s Tandems charity hat we had mother and daughter trying out a wheelchair tandem with a view to borrowing it from said charity and fourthly we had a familiar face as interloper on her recumbent trike (Mrs M, that is!).

So a varied field of machinery, variety is after all the spice of life.

It was a lovely sunny day although with a stiff breeze keeping the warmth at bay.

Thanks to Barney for loading and unloading whilst I claimed a dodgy back….(It’s true I tell you!)

Thanks to everyone who came. I think we had a good morning.

Write up by Drew

We were greeted with fine if somewhat chilly weather for our jaunt along the Trans Pennine Trail from Julies cafe in Penistone today 29th March 2025

Twelve Trekkers turned out supported by Tayer Jules’s newly qualified guide dog and Alison who took Tayer on a nice walk and acted as official photographer.

We all set off in different directions as planned to meet a couple of hours later for a well earned late breakfast at the very reasonably priced Julies cafe where we were all welcomed with a smile, speedy service for once and great food for a catch up with friends.

After a slightly delayed start whilst I inflated the tyres on my trusty Orbit with the short pump from the ride leader pack, we set off for a ride up and down the trail in the sunshine. Some went east, some west and and a few with lots of energy managed both directions.

One pair of our party unfortunately became entangled with a mad March hare which ran into them on the trail causing the timing chain to come off the tandem and a somewhat traumatic experience.

Sadly the hare didn’t make it but thankfully our friends trekkers were able to continue their ride after some running repairs, the maintenance course earlier this year clearly delivering results and both pilot and stoker were unharmed.

Next up is a Track session on the 6th April at Wyke followed by a ride over the Humber bridge on the 12th April.

Write up by Steve De

Do we actually ever grow up? Join the Tandem Trekkers to find out!

Whatever your age, once you join, you’ll soon discover it’s like being transported back to the classroom, and you do not want to sit next to so for fear of breaking out in stitches, or you are best staring into the distance trying not to make eye contact! Our club brings out the best in people … like when they were 6 years old, and this is “challenging” for any ride leader, to be fair. Not only are you volunteering your time to give your stoker the sense of freedom of cycling, but you must also put up with fully grown adults who digress to classroom giggles, disruptive behaviour (I shall name no names tough Kate and Dave joined us today), and questions of “are we there yet” and messily eating icecream cones!

All this obviously is best done with fantastic scenery, and we certainly had that today as we did a giggle-stop-start-tour around Boroughbridge and even visited Ripon cathedral, making the tiny town of Ripon, in fact, a city!

On the downside, we were grossly “missold” deer, a true dear oh dear moment, and didn’t spot a single one, though plenty of pheasants were laughing along with our banter and jokes, or they were making noise complaints – unsure!!
In terms of shout-outs – one must go to our (permanent but not felt tip) marker on the ride, Brian, who didn’t mark up any homework but instead super helpfully made sure we crossed every junction safely! Meanwhile, Andy kept sweeping up the rowdy gang of trekkers with a smile, and Martin assisted.

So overall, it was a (very) fun ride with (adults who act like) 6-year-olds in the lovely countryside, we even missed the rain! I am giving it 4-stars.

Thanks, everyone, for the company. It’s a total hoot, as always! Andy, Brian, Chris, Steve B (thanks for organising, inc recce, and leading), Steve, Tim, Aisha, Michelle, Jules, Kate, Dave, Katie, Martin, Ian, and Helen for dog walking.

Write up by Judith

This week we had our first outing of the year on our local ride – the Spen Valley Greenway. It was fabulous to see everyone again, as our ride leader Judith remarked afterwards. We were also joined by our latest pilot recruit, Paul, who seemed to be immediately at home within our jolly tandem peloton.

After a cold and frosty start, most tandems made it to Low moor station before a swift return to see our friend Hayley at the Sunflower Pot Café.

There was a really joyous vibe going on as we refuelled and had fun as only Trekkers can.

All returned to HQ in glorious sunshine, see you next week for our Ripon ride.
Post by Stevie B

We had a cracking start to the season with a glorious first ride out with tandem trekkers today. The spring sunshine made it feel like we were on holiday and we all agreed it was an extremely relaxed and enjoyable ride from Birkin round the very flat but still beautiful countryside round Selby.

Multiple road ahead closed signs caused only slight concern and we merrily rode on sure that nothing would stop us. Indeed it didn’t, though if we had needed to invent a quick detour we were confident that we would have managed it and still made it to the café for lunch. 

We got there in record time and had a very nice lunch in the sun, and even an icecream. 

We were a small group of 8 trekkers today, but we certainly had quality and a good time. 

1st of March, Saint David’s Day and the start of meteorological spring.

It didn’t snow, it didn’t rain and the wind didn’t blow. Absolutely perfect weather for Tandem Trekkers to get their outdoor ride calendar underway at the Brooksbank Cycle Track.

A cracking good facility for our first ride to help blow away some of those winter cobwebs and get our legs moving with the sun on our backs.
Seven stokers and more pilots than you could shake a stick at came along to enjoy the fun.

A very big thank you to them all, particularly Barney and Keith for sorting out the transport of tandems and stokers!

A very warm welcome to Warren and Hilary on their first official ride with TT, they were still smiling at the end which is always a good sign.

We all got some good laps in and it was great to see everybody in the flesh once more having a good chinwag and a few laughs. It’s what TT is all about and we’re really looking forward to the rest of the season.

Fingers crossed the sun keeps shining on us and we don’t have to break out the waterproofs!

 A much reduced pack of 3 trainee mechanics this year due to illness and family issues attended the maintenance course.

Many portions of flapjack and quiche were consumed along with the best part of 6 hours of hands on maintenance of tandems leading 3 more competent and confident pilots able to assist with technical issues on the trail.

Once more the course was endured in near freezing conditions of our lock up so congratulations to the club kettle for ably providing a steady stream of hot drinks, they were essential in preventing early onset hypothermia.  Next time we will choose a warmer month.

Another positive result of the course is that we have now ticked off all the outstanding maintenance tasks highlighted at our December clean up session.

Special thanks to British Cycling Limitless for funding additional tools and training equipment for this years course.