From: border@wilbur.nas.nasa.gov (Ryan A. Border)
Newsgroups: rec.bicycles
Subject: Re: Tandems - help from experienced riders please?
Date: 18 Aug 92 16:00:57 GMT
Organization: NAS, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA

kelvin@kickapoo.cs.iastate.edu (Kelvin Don Nilsen) writes:

>  How should the stoker/captain cooperate when leaning into corners?
>   (Sometimes, it feels like my stoker is fighting me on corners.
>    Other times, I hardly notice she's there.  Are there any 
>    "guidelines" for the stoker/captain?)

As the captain, I corner the bike almost exactly as I would my single.
My stoker (wife) tells me that she just tries to match my body lean.  For
what it's worth, I'm a "lean-the-bike-more-than-the-body" believer, and find
this works especially well on the tandem.

>  Starting and stopping is somewhat inconvenient, but we're getting
>   used to it.  My wife stays in the peddles always and I muscle
>   the bike around whenever it's not rolling.  but this is awkward
>   for me (and tiring in stop-and-go city traffic).  are there better 
>   ways?

My wife pops out of the pedals for long stops (lights), or when I'm tired.
When we approach a stop, I'll tell here either "in" or "out" depending
on if I want her to stay in the pedals or not.  If you don't have them,
you should really invest in clipless pedals- they make this exercise a
lot easier.

>  Mounting the tandem is a bit of a trick for me.  My seat posts are
>   always high enough that stepping over them is no easy task.  On
>   my single bike, I always mount by stepping into the left peddle and
>   beginning to roll before swinging my leg over.  I can't do this
>   on the tandem unless I take a spin by myself before returning for
>   my stoker.  Suggestions?

I have learned to swing my leg over the front of the bike.  This way I don't
have to worry about kicking my stoker.

>  So far, we've not been able to both stand while peddling.  Usually,
>   if we have a tough hill or just want to accelerate quickly, i'll 
>   stand but my wife stays in the saddle.  I cannot rock the bike back 
>   and forth with her in the saddle.  I suggested to her that we should 
>   probably try to stand together.  But the one time we tried that, her 
>   natural reflex to the rocking of the bike was so violent that it almost 
>   sent us onto the shoulder.  I think she might have returned to the 
>   saddle before the bike was really upright.  What is the best way to work 
>   together when we want to peddle out of the saddles?

Practice, practice.  We have gotten to the point where I yell back "Up", and
a half turn of the cranks later, we're standing up on the downstroke.  We
stand up a lot- almost as much as I would on my single; and I find we can
get a lot more power for a burst.  To start out, I would suggest trying to
stand up on the flats in a big gear.  Turning a low cadence, will help
you learn how to do it smoothly, and you can work on accellerating through
a range of speeds.
_______________________________________________________________________________
* Ryan A. Border               border@nas.nasa.gov,   border@craywr.cray.com  *
* Cray Research Inc., On Site Applications Analyst 415-604-4633  o__ o__      *
* Numerical Aerodynamic Simulator, NASA Ames Research Center    _.>/-.>/'_    *
* Never trust someone who can count to 1023 on their fingers.  ( ) \---\(*)...*
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