Our First Miles On Our New Co-Motion Kalapuya

We rolled out yesterday morning after two days of getting both cockpits setup and adjusted to our favorite single bikes, flipping the stem, truing the brake rotors, setting and adjusting the rear derailleur, building the road wheels and checking every bolt on the bike for proper tightness. We had a window of less than two hours before the rain was due to start again. We kicked around the idea of just waking up slowly and enjoying the morning without rushing around to get out the door. But only for a minute or two… It was new bike day!

I called Mike and we set it up to meet around 8:30 on the road. I set to prepping the tandem to roll. 32mm tires at 85 psi, water bottles, etc.. At 8:25, my wife and I threw our legs over the top tube of our tandem which is its name, by the way, just “our tandem”. This, as we discussed, follows a long line of not-so-exciting bike names in my stable; The Venge, The Trek, The Gravel Bike. No originality points, I simply don’t feel the need to name the bikes.

The first few pedal strokes were magical. I loved our Co-Motion Periscope, but the lightweight, high-end Kalapuya is absolutely wonderful. It surges when we put the power down. It’s zippy feeling when compared to the steel Periscope, and with the 32mm road tires, there’s plenty of forgiveness to make up for the stiffness of the 7000 series aluminum frame**.

Now, the maroon Co-Motion is our steel Periscope. The silver is our new Kalapuya gravel rig fitted with Rolf road wheels. The Kalapuya is somewhere between 14 & 16 pounds lighter.

I’ve been curious, maybe a little nervous, as to whether or not our 2022 good fortune on the tandem would pass over the winter. We went through a lot of profound changes and have had the time (and distractions) to get to a point where the urgency isn’t quite as urgent anymore. My wife and I have healed a lot between us and now that we’ve fallen in love all over again, what would happen after all of the shake-ups of the last four months?

All of the worrying proved silly within the first mile or two. We’re exactly where we hoped we’d be and it’s as good as it gets. We finished the sixteen-mile ride with just a few minutes to spare – the first rain drops fell less than a minute after we put the tandem away, smiles on both our faces. My wife and I are exceedingly excited.

**As a side note, originally I took it without investigation that the Kalapuya’s frame material was one grade down from the space-grade aluminum used in the Macchiato. I found I was mistaken after a little comparison on Co-Motion’s website. Our bike uses the same ultra-high-grade aluminum as the Co-Motion’s top-of-the-line Macchiato.

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