Neighbors: Steve and Penny Koerner

By Rachel S. OHara
| 5:00 a.m. November 23, 2010

Steve and Penny Koerner pose with their tandem bicycle that they have already begun to take apart to put into two suitcases to take home to Colorado Springs, Colo.

Longboat Key
Neighbors

Retired attorneys Steve and Penny Koerner have returned to Longboat Key this season in a bit of an unconventional way. Steve Koerner, 58, and Penny Koerner, 57, rode their bicycle built for two from Colorado Springs, Colo., to their home in Twin Shores on Longboat Key. Their trip began Sept. 7 and ended Nov. 7. They covered 2,217 miles in 62 days.

The Koerners’ love for tandem biking grew out of their love for biking in general. They had done many single bike trips with friends, including a tour through Italy, but decided to give tandem biking a shot.

Their first trip on their custom tandem bike took them from Colorado Springs to Minnesota — 1,000 miles — for a family reunion.

They say the best part of riding tandem is experiencing the trip together.

“The smell of a place, the goofy signs, an animal you saw … to not have someone there to share it with would be difficult,” says Steve Koerner.

The Koerners say that the idea that bike riders must be exceptionally fit in order to do such trips is a myth.

“It’s more perseverance than anything,” says Steve. “We break it down into itty-bitty pieces and stop when we need to. We don’t think about how much farther we have to go.”

To learn more about the Koerners’ adventures, visit their blogs at http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/COStoLBK and http://cyclistsrule.blogspot.com/