Two boys on a tandem bike have taken campus by storm.

Matthew Tevnan and Harry Missing, both seniors on the UVM men’s rugby team, met in their first year when they lived on the same floor in Central Campus Residence Hall. In their junior year, they moved in together. 

“We were just sitting around our dining room table, we were like ‘Wouldn’t it be fun if we had a tandem bike and rode it to class and rugby practice every day?’” said Tevnan. “So, we crunched the numbers on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace, and we were just hounding people for a bike.”

They ride it to class, to rugby practice and sometimes to off-campus locations such as the YMCA. 

Missing and Tevnan shared that their positions on the bike are consistent. 

“I’m top, he’s bottom,” Missing said. 

Missing always rides in the front with Tevnan in the back. 

“It takes a real mastermind to be in the back, so I don’t really want to put it in his hands,” Tevnan said. 

Since these two started riding their bike around campus, they’ve noticed others doing the same. 

“There’s been a lot of copycats,” Missing said. 

The two boys believe that they’ve started a campus-wide trend. 

“People are throwing around the words ‘icon,’ ‘legend,’” Missing said. 

Missing and Tevnan were quick to learn the skills of the tandem bike. 

“You either have it or you don’t, and we have it. It’s just the chemistry you need between the front driver and the back driver,” Tevnan said. 

Tevnan noted that he has been less successful attempting to ride the tandem solo.

“Never tandem alone,” Tevnan said.