By 
Husband and wife Jackson and Rose Green, both cyclists, have been inseparable since they met in 2005. So it only makes sense that they now race together, too—in a custom-built tandem mountain bike.
The couple, who celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary this week, first met when they were traveling to take part in the Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge, one of New Zealand’s largest cycling events. They hit it off from the start.
Later, Rose wanted to do the Lake Taupo Road Race, which is about 100 miles, but she wasn’t really a road cyclist, so she joked they should get a tandem bike and have Jackson pull her in the race.
More From Bicycling
After tracking down a tandem from a friend, the joke became reality, and a true cycling love story began.
But that borrowed bike wasn’t going to suffice, especially since they knew they would eventually want to take it off the road. Mountain biking was, after all, their first shared passion.
“It was a horrible tandem, so flexy and bendy, with old, skinny tubes,” Rose said.
As poor university students, they knew buying a new bike wouldn’t be an option, so they scoured eBay-like sites in New Zealand and finally found an old Burley Rock ’n’ Roll tandem bike—six hours away. Though they couldn’t afford the $1,000 price tag, they scraped together $650, and since they drove six hours for the bike, the sellers agreed to the price.
“On the way home we stopped to try to go mountain biking on it,” Jackson said. “We thought we were so extreme.”
[Find 52 weeks of tips and motivation, with space to fill in your mileage and favorite routes, with the Bicycling Training Journal.]
That bike wasn’t exactly suited for off-roading, so they widened the chainstays to accommodate decent mountain bike tires, and added a suspension fork on the front.
Then, they hit the cross-country racing circuit—and even honeymooned on it.
Quickly, they started exceeding the capabilities of the bike. Going over any sort of jump caused Rose’s feet to rise from the pedals, or her to buck out of the seat.
So they started looking for a full-suspension tandem to buy. Realizing that didn’t exist in New Zealand, they decided to build their own. At first, the welds held, but the tubes sometimes broke. Still, they kept trying new formulas until one finally worked.
“People always ask, ‘Is it two bikes welded together?’ But no, it’s made from scratch, with straight gauge and double walled steel tubing,” Jackson said. “You couldn’t ride properly on something that was two bikes welded together.”
Now, they are on their third homemade bike, and have learned some things about riding tandem—and about each other—along the way. Some of which, they believe, has even helped their relationship grow stronger. Here’s how.
It helps them tackle the obstacles together
The Greens don’t crash often any more, partly because they are pretty calculated with what they do. They scout jumps and obstacles ahead of time, so they know what’s coming, and how to attack obstacles when it comes to racing a course.
“I think the fact that we’ve been doing it for like 14 years, we know each other well and we know what we are both capable of and what the bike is capable of,” Rose said.
While Rose must react quickly in seat two, Jackson’s job is to call out what they are about to do. Sometimes he can’t yell fast enough, but by this point, Rose has learned to read his body language before he even utters a word.
“When we are actually riding the tandem, Rose is so good at reading my body language and being able to respond the right way,” Jackson said. “Being on the back of the bike can be tricky, so rather than popping when you would on a normal bike, Rose has to pop early—when I do—for a jump to work.”
It helps them fight for their goals
Actually entering races was another obstacle to work around. The Greens said that race organizers are sometimes wary of letting a tandem bike race downhill against a field of single riders, but they always seem to convince them that they will not clog up the corners or hold people up.
Depending on the quality of the field, they beat a quarter to a third of the participants on average.
Now, the couple has two kids and don’t get to race together as often as they like, but they do get out when they can.
It helps give them time to grow as a couple
At the end of the day, the Greens love that tandem mountain biking is a great way to do both off-road and multi-day touring with a partner. You both reach the top of the mountain at the same time, equally as tired.
The couple has also met tons of friends through tandem biking, both in person and over Facebook. It’s something they plan to share with their kids when they are old enough to tackle the tandem-riding world.
“Many people say that a tandem is a divorce machine, but for us it’s been the opposite,” Jackson said. “It’s been a relationship accelerator.”
It helps them communicate better, too. “We do talk a lot while we’re riding and racing, we discuss lines, we will talk about everything,” Rose said. That can be everything from what’s going on in the race—say, how to get around a root or how to handle dropping off a rock—to other things going on, too.
