An Interest in Those Bikes Built for Two Has Come Full Cycle : The genteel 1890s sense of romance has been mixed with speed of the 1990s.

It won’t be a stylish marriage

Won’t need a horse and carriage

But you’ll look sweet

Upon the seat

Of a bicycle built for two

Ah, romance.

Harry Dacre’s hit 1892 tune “Daisy Bell” illustrates just how long the tandem bicycle has been around, and how these mechanical contraptions were imbued from the start with an aura of romance and courtship.

That was then. The biking booms that have come around since, from 10-speeds to mountain bikes, somehow bypassed the tandem--seemingly relegating it, along with silk top hats and fringed parasols, to some dusty closet of sentimental Victorian relics.

As it turns out, the tandem was just biding its time. It’s back, with its genteel 1890s sense of romance remade for the 1990s: hard-driving, built for speed, sheathed in stretch Lycra. Cyclists who were leaving their loved ones in the dust on morning rides are discovering a new credo for safe cycling relationships:

Use a tandem.

Doug Bucklew of Cypress, for instance, found that he was leaving his wife, Rose, behind when they went out riding. They both enjoyed cycling, but because he was a stronger rider, “neither of us was enjoying riding together,” he said.

So three years ago they bought a tandem. Now, he says, they rarely go a week without taking a ride together (three to four times a week when the days get longer).

Tandem bikes allow two riders of different abilities to ride together without sacrificing the workout. Stronger riders, male or female, can push as hard as they want, while the weaker riders can slack off if they need a rest. “Together, we’re a lot stronger as a riding team,” said Bucklew.

Some big companies, such as Schwinn, have offered tandem bikes all along, but they were mostly simple cruising bikes. It was about five years ago that such smaller specialty manufacturers as Burley, Santana, Rodriguez and Co-Motion began to offer upscale tandems with some of the features of more expensive road bikes.

They tapped into something. Cyclists who got into the sport during the ‘80s boom were now getting into relationships; tandems offered a way to share their love of cycling with the loves of their lives. Tandem sales have been climbing steadily, particularly in the past two years (at a time when bike sales in general have been stale).

Some of the big manufacturers, such as Trek, are now getting into the act, introducing its first tandem models at the recent Interbike trade show in Anaheim.

The rise in interest is mirrored in the rise of Orange County-based Teamwork Tandem, one of the biggest tandem clubs in the country. It was about two years ago that Tom and Trudy Eichen of Whittier met another tandem-riding couple, Greg and Shannon Hall of Fountain Valley, at a ride in Valencia. They decided to form a club.

Starting with just a few riders, Teamwork Tandem had grown to 60 members (120 riders) when it became part of Orange County Wheelmen eight months ago. Since then it has more than doubled to about 140 members (280 riders). The club sponsors monthly group rides in Irvine and other events.

Tom Eichen guesses that about 90% of the membership is married couples (friends sometimes are riding partners; in addition to riding with his wife, for instance, Eichen also has a racing partner). For couples, riding a tandem is not simply a way to share an interest, but it can actually strengthen a relationship in hard-to-quantify ways.

“It’s such an accomplishment when you get to the end of a ride,” said Eichen. “Just to have finished it together and to be able to reflect on it when you get home is just great. You don’t get the same thing on two singles.”

Of course, it isn’t all roses. Doug Kerr of Irvine remembered the time he got off his bike, forgetting his wife Terri was still on back. She was still clipped into the pedals, and went crashing to the ground with the bike.

Trust and communication are integral to riding in tandem. The rider on back (the stoker) must grant navigational and gearing decisions to the rider in the front (the captain). The stronger rider usually rides in front, although some couples make it a point to switch positions.

“If you get along in your relationship to begin with, it confirms it. If you argue about everything, you could be in trouble,” Kerr said. “We have some couples who bicker more than others.”

“A tandem puts you together like nothing else,” said Anny Beck, a Teamwork Tandem member from Bellflower. “You can ride next to someone for months and not know them. You find out things you never would have guessed.”

Beck is an avid touring cyclist who has ridden across the country seven times, twice on a tandem with her husband, Don Beck. “They told us it either makes or breaks a marriage, and it’s true,” she said. “I really had to learn how to trust my husband.”

When she was single, Beck said, she would occasionally ride a tandem with someone she was dating--and know right away if there was any spark. When she met and married Don Beck, they took the money they received and bought a new tandem as an “investment in our relationship,” she said.

A different occasion led the Halls to buy their first tandem. They rode their single bikes together avidly, but when she became pregnant found herself starting to slow down and fall behind. A tandem solved the problem; she rode into her eighth month of pregnancy.

Husband Greg “helped carry the load,” she said.

The ever-increasing popularity of the tandem makes for a lot fewer “bike widows,” said Doug Kerr. Riding together has contributed a extra layer of trust to his relationship with his wife.

So far, though, Terri Kerr is remaining wary about the latest innovation in bicycles built for two: mountain tandems. “She doesn’t trust me to that extent,” Kerr said, chuckling.