Tandems. What is the attraction?

[middleagecyclist]

In Bury there's a tandem club for blind riders; I looked into it but it requires quite a lot of commitment of time so I backed out.

You mean this one of course.

It's just up the road from me and I too have thought about offering my eyesight and legs but as I work shifts I have enough trouble getting weekends off as it is. Would love to be able to help out if my work situation changes though.

 

[Wades]

Ah. Just clocked your location. We're 15 minutes down the road. Want to have a go?

Very kind of you but probably best for me to stop before the bank account takes a battering!

Nice to see a 'local' on here too!

 

[srw]

I'd rather have the weight where it counts for braking? On the front?

More seriously though, it's the person on the front who can see most, feel most, and do most ...... in that last fraction of second when the lights turn red! You want the bigger and stronger person there on front to hold the bike up when it stops. Male or female - doesn't matter ..... it's the muscles in their thighs that count

It's not the thighs that take the strain - it's upper body strength you need for tandem piloting.

 

[srw]

Is there some reason why conventional tandems have the bigger rider at the front - is it some limitation of the design or merely convention?

Apart from the strength issue, there's also a design issue. If the smaller rider is at the front, the saddle will be so low that a very long and awkward stem/handlebar combination is required for the stoker - either that, or the stoker needs to spend the whole time in a racing crouch. Having the bigger rider at the front gives enough pilot seatpost showing to use a reasonably sensible stem for the stoker.

It does has the disadvantage that the stoker can't see a great deal to the front, but (s)he does have the freedom to look around in all the other directions without worrying too much about what's on the road ahead.

 

[srw]

the only real issue is transporting it as to heavy for 1 person to lift on to roof of mpv car and onto carrier , also to wide to fit on back of car going across , and difficult to restrain inside car safely .

S&S couplings are your friend! (But they would probably cost more to fit than a Raleigh tandem is worth).

 

[Tim Hall]

I met an elderly tandem-owning couple once who had a car roof carrier where the bit you put the tandem on hinged down from the roof to one side of the car. Once the tandem was fixed on the whole thing just cantilevered back up onto the roof somehow, very neat solution I thought. Maybe someone else has details?

Mick and Rose fit that description and are on the South Coast somewhere down your way.

After a few hours head scratching, I remembered this. Any use?

 

[growingvegetables]

the only real issue is transporting

Especially by train - I never thought I'd turn trainspotter, but you need to know when the Intercity 125s come through

 

[dellzeqq]

My regular cycling buddy keeps threatening to take me out on his tandem, but as he's a bit bonkers and the tandem hasn't seen the light of day for years, I'm being non-commital and hoping he forgets he offered!

ask yourself this - is he fitt?

 

[machew]

Used to have a tandem until the wife jumped/fell off the back, when I was going just a bit too fast down a hill. She has stated that then only way she will get back on one with me is when Satan drives a snowplow

 

[johnr]

Thinking of tandems, I've never seen one with the woman on the front and the man on the back. Are they the last bastion of male chauvinism? I would have thought if you're the man on the back, having the sight of a female's shapeliness in front wouldn't be a bad compensation.

Any men out there who have their female partners drive the front of their tandem? (Photo proof welcomed.)

My partner and I rented a tandem in Northumberland a few years ago - she was insistent all the way to the shop that she was driving (which was OK with me), but a couple of minutes astride it with the north wind blowing in her face changed her mind. We had a great day out - well apart from the constant comments about how good it was not to be cycling into a wind - and she did front up for a few miles. (It is suprisingly nice not to be cycling into a strong wind after doing it all day).

It was, as other have said, a good way for differently experienced riders to travel together

 

[fimm]

My partner and I rented a tandem in Northumberland a few years ago ...

Can you remember where?
My boyfriend and I hired a mountain bike tandem a few years ago - it was not a success as I found it quite disconcerting being on the back and not having much control, and the bloke got annoyed with the gears which didn't seem to be changing properly. We took it back to the hire place and they agreed that there was a problem with the gears and swapped it for two conventional bikes - which I think saved the day! However I would like to have another go on a tandem sometime.

Incidentally I'm slightly taller than my boyfriend but we still ended up with him at the front - I think he would just get too annoyed with my more cautious riding style while I'd be willing to (attempt to) keep my mouth shut and do what I'm told!

 

[theclaud]

Sailed past two young and very fit Lycra-clad guys, taking a special detour round their thighs.

Like all tandems it descends like a homesick rock.

These tandemistas have a bit of a way with words!

 

[theclaud]

If you are romantically involved witht the person on the front you are in an ideal postion to grab their bottom

To be fair, you're in an ideal position to grab their bottom even if you are not romantically involved with them. But it might be considered impertinent...

 

[dan_bo]

My younger brother (bigger than me) and I tried one but it was a rather skinny-tubed old steel framed tandem and it flexed a lot. It was a horribly disconcerting feeling a bit like sitting on a farm gate so we didn't enjoy that one.

In Bury there's a tandem club for blind riders; I looked into it but it requires quite a lot of commitment of time so I backed out.

I cycled from bury to brighton for the 1994 TDF with them guys. Some seriously fit fellers in that gang.

 

[clarion]

I once heard a USian stoker comment that, whatever direction your relationship is going, a tandem will get you there quicker! Very true.

As a pilot, I enjoy the luxury of having back massages en route, and my bum pinched by my partner.

And it is amusing to see how quickly idiot motorists back off when the stoker takes her hands off the bars and does 'jazz hands'. Scares the living shoot out of them (I guess they haven't realised it's a tandem).

Downsides: Pilots, your jersey pockets are no longer your own. They are there for the convenience of your stoker. A small price to pay for the back massage etc mentioned above. And when we are touring, I get a map pinned to my back, which can be embarrassing if I go into a cafe without removing it.