tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7705714898680615192.post6544643256150692442..comments2024-03-28T09:13:52.707+00:00Comments on Blind Spot: A Bicycle Made for TwoHannah Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02537301344697081335noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7705714898680615192.post-53135032432149307802022-04-01T00:48:26.238+01:002022-04-01T00:48:26.238+01:00Courting tandems were merely a product of the bicy...Courting tandems were merely a product of the bicycle craze that swept Europe and North America in the 1890s and 1900s. It was fashionable to take bicycle rides as part of courtship, which we now call "dating." Many courting tandems saw lots of use in their day but were left neglected when the Turn of the Century bicycle fad faded out. <br />With a tandem ride in that era, the gentleman would customarily take the rear seat. The "ladies first" objective. A Courting Tandem was designed with a ladies' step-through frame in front and a mans' top tube frame in the rear. Dual steering control was provided to the rear seat handlebars through a chain or linkages so that the gentleman could ride the bicycle solo from the rear seat over to where the lady was waiting. He could then stop and steady the bike while she climbed up onto the front seat and away they would go with no need for him to first dismount and take the rear seat. It worked out well.<br />Another name for courting tandems was "combination tandem" meaning mens's and ladies' framestyles in the same bike. There were also "rear-steer double diamond" tandems with both positions in mens' style but with the same handlebar linkage system that permitted solo riding from either seat.<br />There were still others that were convertible, having a removable top tube as well as double downtubes in the forward position so that two men could ride it fast or the top tube could be removed for use as a courting tandem with a lady in point position.<br />I have seen some tandems with the ladies position at the rear but these lack the dual steer feature of the true courting tandems and were not in line with gentlemanly etiquette of the 1890s.<br />Modern tandems typically use framestyles like mixte or similar that are useable by either sex in both front and rear positions.<br />I am presently in the process of buying an 1899 Merion Courting Tandem to restore.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08048782115498078450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7705714898680615192.post-6362789785429767672012-02-28T22:30:59.055+00:002012-02-28T22:30:59.055+00:00Thanks for this Jon. It is very interesting to see...Thanks for this Jon. It is very interesting to see femininity (or femaleness) aligned with blindness in this way: this is a very common paradigm in the nineteenth-century literature that I've read so far which almost always talks about blind women rather than men. How would this image look if there was a blind man in front and either a sighted man or a sighted woman behind? The idea of a 'courting bicycle' is also interesting because it seems to suggest that this kind of bicycle were used as a courting or seduction mechanism. Once the couple had finished courting and got married, did they do away with the tandem and resort to more traditional means of transport? Was this bicycle a way of reassuring the woman of her potential husband's gallantry and general good character?Hannah Thompsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02537301344697081335noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7705714898680615192.post-34300352282779684322012-02-28T16:41:37.128+00:002012-02-28T16:41:37.128+00:00Hi Hannah - an interesting reading of the historic...Hi Hannah - an interesting reading of the historical tandem. You're right about the steering mechanism. I believe this design was known as a 'courting bike' (see: http://sites.google.com/site/matrixtandem/) designed to allow a female rider to sit at the front while a male companion maintained control at the rear (with a raised seat to allow him to see). In this case, though, it certainly looks as though the front rider could steer as well (which must have been interesting). Fascinating also - judging by the source's title - that the rider was not only blind but 'deaf-mute' (doofstomm) too.Jon Hugheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07495019254586513380noreply@blogger.com