[NFBV-Alexandria] FW: Great article about the DC tandem group

[Brian Miller]

Bonnie kindly share this article, and I thought I'd share it with the
chapter since several of us are mentioned here, and are involved both with
the DC and Tuesday Night tandem groups. 
Thanks Bonnie!
Brian Miller
President
GAC/NFBV


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Subject: Great article about the DC tandem group

Below is an article that appeared in WAMU magazine. It is an article, not a
radio segment. Congratulations to Tajuan and Karla for great interviews. Hit
the link for the on-line version with a picture. Just read below for the
article text.
Bonnie

https://wamu.org/story/18/08/03/got-hooked-blind-cyclists-hit-road-weekly-ta
ndem-ride/ 

'I Got Hooked,' Blind Cyclists Hit The Road With Weekly Tandem Ride On a
recent Thursday evening, a group of tandem cyclists rode out from Eastern
Market to the Anacostia River. The air was heavy from a week of rain, but a
cool breeze picked up over the 11th Street Bridge and followed the riders
down to the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail, rippling over the water and through
the trees. One tandem sped away over a hill.
"Riding with the elephants, as we like to call it," says Tajuan Farmer.
"With these bikes, the gravitational pull takes over and they're gone."
Become a sponsor ?
Tandem bikes are a rare enough sight on the streets of D.C. to draw smiles
and friendly hellos from people along the way. But what fellow riders might
not catch in passing is that half this group of cyclists cannot see. Each
tandem pairs a sighted captain with another rider who is blind or visually
impaired.
These weekly rides are organized by Karla Gilbride, who serves as the acting
president of the Metro Washington Association of Blind Athletes. Riders meet
every Thursday from the Eastern Market or Bethesda Metro stations and
journey ten to twenty miles along the nearby trails on tandem bikes.
Riding in sync as a tandem pair requires some practice for the uninitiated.
The tandem's captain sits upfront to steer the handlebars, shift the gears,
and apply the brakes. Seated close behind is the stoker, who listens for the
captain's cues and gives further power to the bike by pedaling. It takes
time to learn this "tandem philosophy," says Farmer, who rides with the
group as a blind stoker and serves on MWABA's board.
Stopping and starting the bike as a team are perhaps the most crucial
moments of every ride. Communication is key, especially since the stoker
can't see an approaching stop sign or a steep hill.
"A good captain will tell you when to stop pedaling, when they've changed
gears, so you're in sync on these things," said Carole Nathan Metzger, a
visually impaired stoker who rides with the group.
At 72, Metzger is one of the group's eldest members. She'd given up
recreational cycling when she began losing her peripheral vision as an
adult. Riding as a stoker with MWABA last summer marked her first time on a
bicycle in 35 years. "I thought oh, I can do this," she recalled of her
first Thursday riding tandem.
Metzger later wrote an essay reflecting on that night. "I did not see much
on the ride," she wrote, but "I did get to feel the wind in my face, enjoy
the fresh smells of the vegetation alongside, and know the exhilaration of
speed."
The tandem program began in earnest in the spring of 2017 as a joint effort
between Gilbride and Farmer, and it has quickly become one of MWABA's most
popular athletic offerings. Gilbride began riding tandem while living in
California and was motivated to begin a similar program for blind athletes
in D.C. "I got hooked," she says-a commonly heard phrase among this group of
cyclists.
Farmer, meanwhile, had been riding with a tandem group out of Alexandria
before deciding to invest in his own bicycle. It was Farmer who petitioned
Metro to build lockers large enough to accommodate tandem bicycles at the
Eastern Market and Bethesda stations, a process that took about a year, he
says. Another hurdle in the program's initial stages was acquiring a fleet
of tandem bikes. MWABA currently has six tandems to share on a weekly basis,
each intimately familiar to riders for their various quirks and claims to
speed.
Gilbride says the tandem cycling program serves blind and visually impaired
athletes of all abilities, whether they've been blind since birth or are
entering adaptive sports due to vision loss at a later stage. MWABA offers a
range of recreational and competitive sports, from yoga to judo. "People
come to us at all levels of experience," she says. The tandem program
welcomes new riders-stokers and captains alike-and helps ease them into
their first ride.
Each tandem bicycle makes for a collaborative balancing act between the two
riders on board. The sighted captain, in sole control of steering the bike,
is responsible for keeping the pair out of harm's way. The generous flow of
trust between riders often paves the way for new friendships, and the pair's
physical closeness on the bike makes for easy conversation as they ride.
"You're not complete unless you have a stoker," says Qudsiya Naqui, a
visually impaired stoker who rides regularly from Bethesda and Eastern
Market. Single bikes are affectionately known as "half bikes" among the
group.
In addition to tandem cycling, Gilbride is active in nearly every program
MWABA has to offer and is training for a triathlon in her spare time. She
hopes to expand the athletic association into further sports in the coming
years, including distance running and adaptive cross-country skiing. In the
end, "it's all about camaraderie," she says.
For Farmer, who often rode a single bike in his childhood before losing his
vision, learning to ride tandem has offered the chance to reconnect with
biking and the thrills of the trail. MWABA's stokers aren't simply along for
the ride; they're immersed in every aspect of it. Once the tandem falls into
its familiar rhythm, "then you can focus on your environment."
"You can listen to the sound of nature, feel the sun and the wind, and hear
the description of what plants and flowers and animal life is around you."
Farmer goes on, still musing: "It's truly an experience."

MWABA's tandem rides happen every Thursday at 6 p.m. from April to October.
The location alternates between the Eastern Market and Bethesda Metro
stations. Learn more at MWABA or e-mail karla.gilbride at gmail.com for details
about getting involved.
This story was originally published by DCist.


Bonnie O'Day
703 845-3436