Perhaps you have seen an energetic couple on a sleek tandem pedaling around Po‘ipu, powering along Kipu Road, toiling up the hill from the coffee plantation into Kalaheo or crossing one of the bridges on the Eastside. In fact, there
Perhaps you have seen an energetic couple on a sleek tandem pedaling around Po‘ipu, powering along Kipu Road, toiling up the hill from the coffee plantation into Kalaheo or crossing one of the bridges on the Eastside.
In fact, there are two local couples who regularly ride on these and other island routes. Steven and Karen Yee, both originally from Honolulu, have lived in Lihu‘e since 1995 and have been riding tandem for the past four years, a news release states.
Sherman and Heatherbell Fong, formerly of California, have lived in Kalaheo since 2007 and have been riding tandem for six years. Last year these two tandem “teams” were contacted by other tandem riders on O‘ahu and together they formed HOT Club (Hawaii on Tandems).
This month, Kaua‘i HOT Club members are hosting a “Kaua‘i Tour” with two or three additional tandem teams coming over from O‘ahu. Modest as this showing is, HOT Club members believe it may be the biggest — or the only — tandem rally ever held on the island.
Three rides are planned for the last weekend in March. The local teams will be taking their visitors — and any other tandem riders from Kaua‘i who wish to join them — on some of their favorite scenic roads, avoiding highways as much as possible. One will be a loop from Kalaheo to Po‘ipu, Koloa and back; one will be roundtrip from Kapa‘a to Kilauea lighthouse and back; and one will be on the backroads around Kipu, Kalapaki and Ahukini.
“Tandem biking is like the essence of aloha. You’re helping keep the island green and spending time with your loved one and friends,” said Sherman Fong.
His wife added, “We have been able to explore backroads and see Kaua‘i in a way that we never would think of doing in our car.”
Steve and Karen said in the release that “We’re typical of a lot of tandeming couples. Riding a tandem keeps us together and happier. When we ride single bikes, one is usually way up the road and the other is way behind, and both are frustrated.”
Later this year four HOT Club teams will make up a Hawaiian contingent at a tandem rally in Canada. Both Kaua‘i teams plan to be there.
HOT Club members Steve, Karen, Sherman and Heatherbell are hoping that other tandems now languishing in garages will be dusted off, greased up and that their owners will join the Kaua‘i tour March 27-29. For more information, e-mail Sherman Fong at shermandhb@earthlink.net
And if you see a tandem or two on the road, please extend the same courtesy as you do for all bikers — a 5-foot “bubble” as they say in New Zealand, a moderate speed and a friendly wave.
