Originally Posted by
merlinextraligh
+1 on same seat height. As much as possible, my position on the tandem duplicates the position on my single road bike.
Doing otheriwse, imho, risks injury, and is likely less efficient than trianing your body for one consistent position.
Precluding any physical limitations on the rider's part, I have to disagree with you on the "risks injury" part. Ideally, your road bike will be set up differently than your time trial bike, which is different from your mountain bike which is different from your road tandem which is different from your mountain tandem which is different from your fixie, etc, etc. Yet we ride them all with no injury.
Generally, and within certain limits, pedaling is pedaling. There is certainly such a thing as a saddle that's too low, and also one that's too high. But between those two extremes are multiple settings that are perfectly comfortable, physiologically safe, and appropriate to that particular machine/riding style.
That having been said, note that it is also true that the more you train for competition, the more the validity of the above statement diminishes for you personally! Jacks1071 notes making an alteration of 2.5mm to compensate for crank length. That's tiny! Just shy of an eighth of an inch! But many racing or go-fast enthusiast riders I've worked with become that sensitive and more. To wit, how many times have you heard Liggett or Sherwin comment on the fact that even a rider's own "back-up bike", (which is an EXACT duplicate), just ain't the same? And that's where, (I believe), the majority of the anecdotal evidence for "one correct height" or "risk injury" is born.
So all of our bikes, (including our tandems), are set up initially as a reasonable duplicate of our singles, then adjusted from there to whatever "feels right" on that particular bike. And in this case, the saddle on our road tandem is ALSO lower than the one on my road bike.