Tuesday, March 2, 2021

Is It Time To Shift Gears?

 

Teresa and I love riding our tandem together. We have had some great moments riding through the countryside with our legs pumping in perfect rhythm. Almost every time that we pass someone out in their yard while on a ride they will shout out to me, "Hey, she's not pedaling!"  She is pedaling, of course, because I made sure of that! I bought her shoes that clip into her pedals! She doesn't have a choice! If I'm pedaling then she's pedaling! Pedaling is something that we have to do together on the tandem, but steering, braking, and shifting are another matter entirely. Teresa has tried steering from the rear before! It didn't turn out well! We almost ended up going on two different sides of a big wooden pole! That's not something that you want to try on a Tandem! Neither is arguing over who is in charge! Especially if you are several miles from home!

Tandem riders refer to the person seated up front as 'The Captain' and the person seated in the rear as 'The Stoker.' Teresa isn't very stoked about being called 'The Stoker' so I have taken up calling her 'The Rear Admiral.' She likes that! I captain the vessel, but she tells me where to go and determines just how fast that we're going to get there. If I try to go faster than she wants, she just eases up the pressure that she exerts on the pedals. A few times I have questioned her as to whether or not she is putting in any effort and she assures me that she is by saying, "OK buddy, you want to feel what it's like when I'm not helping, try this on for size!" Immediately I'm aware of her efforts and beg her to come to my aid!

So we both have pedals. We both have a seat. And, we both have a set of handle bars. But, only one of us has brake levers and gear shifters. Those are in the hands of 'The Captain' at the front of the bike. But a good captain let's the 'Rear Admiral' give the orders. Most times Teresa is calling for more speed than I can give her. There have been a few occasions where we have hit 45 mph going downhill. At those moments she either shouts out with a childlike 'weeee' or cries out for some brakes! It's hard to tell which is which with the wind blowing in my ears at 45 mph so I usually just ask her what she said when we get to the bottom of the hill! If it was 'brakes!' then I'm in trouble! But, for the most part, she doesn't ask me to hit the brakes very often. She has learned to trust me and I have learned what she is comfortable with.

When it comes to shifting gears there is a little bit more teamwork involved. Teresa doesn't like pedaling at a high cadence and often calls out to me to shift to a higher gear so that the spinning of our legs will slow down even though that will mean that we will need slightly more pressure on the pedals to maintain our speed. On several occasions she has called for a higher gear when there were no gears left to shift into. She likes to go fast she doesn't like to pedal fast! 

Shifting to higher gears is easy. I can do that without even letting her know that I'm going to shift ahead of time. Downshifting is another matter. Especially when pulling up a tough hill. Whenever we are straining to get up a hill we have to let one another know how we are feeling. That usually involves me telling her that I need to shift to a lower gear a second before I actually apply pressure to the shifter levers. This is necessary to relieve stress on the chain of the bike. We both ease off just slightly before the downward stroke of the pedal on our right foot and I make the shift occur. When we do this by signaling ahead of time what is about to take place everything goes smoothly. When we don't, we run the risk of the chain coming off. That has happened a couple of times going up a steep hill. Trust me; that isn't fun! Especially when you are clipped into the pedals and have almost no forward momentum. It can lead to a crash!

Are people around you trying to signal to you that you might need to shift gears? Are you listening to their voice? You may be comfortable with the cadence and the speed, but if those that you are linked together with in life aren't 'feeling it' in the same way that you are, there is a good chance that it won't end very well. Perhaps it's time to kick it into a higher gear. Or, maybe, it's time to ease up the pressure for a moment and downshift a gear or maybe even two.  There is plenty of time to get where you need to go and the journey will be much more enjoyable if you listen to those that are on the journey with you. Don't go it alone! Find a rhythm and a force that works best for those that are with you on the ride. If you do, then you will find yourself farther down the road than you ever dreamed possible, and you will have the joy of having brought others along for the ride.

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