In experimenting on tandem bicycles, I have found one difficulty which, so far, has been very serious; it is the tendency of switching between the riders; that is to say, the twist of the machine. It is difficult to make a frame strong enough to prevent this, since the rear end has to be kept perpendicular by means of a direct twist on a long backbone. Both riders cannot be uprighted as the same weight can be when it is all centred in one spot. It is the distribution of the weight more than the amount of it that causes the trouble. It is well known that a man of two hundred and fifty pounds avoirdupois can ride without much trouble, but two men of one hundred and twenty-five pounds each, sitting two feet apart, will strain a single-track machine tremendously; this annoyance will not be finally escaped by means of mere strength of parts. Some novel arrangement of the wheels, saddles, or other mechanism will have to be called into play to modify the unsightly length of the present tandem bicycles, though it is not right to disparage them on account of it. Much objection has been raised to the “shape of the thing,” but since the advent of the Safety bicycles, appearance must take a second place to that which it held when we sat perched upon the noble old Ordinaries. If we must slip along the ground like beetles, let us not be too fastidious as to just how we look. Let the Tandem come on; and be received with open arms. Those of us who are a little weak want to make a combination with some flyers, to make up our deficiencies in scorching runs. If we can get on the rear seat and eat doughnuts part of the time, so much the better. THE RATIONAL ORDINARY. As the above term seems to be indigenous to England, and emanates indirectly from the fertile brain of the distinguished editor of the _Cyclist_, I append below a quotation from that journal by way of introduction to this subject. “THE FUTURE OF THE ORDINARY.