Originally Posted by 53-11_alltheway
wouldn't a tandem have a good power to frontal area ratio?
Considering that you have 2 people pedaling with the air resistance of one person I'd say a tandem should be able to go a few mph faster than a roadie.
That is true. But you oversimplified it a little bit. Frontal area is just for rough drag calculations on simple shapes (e.g. box shapes, beams, ...). As soon as you have more complicated shapes drag calculation is quite more complex.
In the book 'Bicycling Science' by David Gordon Wilson drag and other topics of bicycling are explained in great detail. And if i remember correctly they state roughly a 1.5 fold increased drag versus a not quite 2 fold power of a tandem versus a single bike. Considering a tandem team that works very well together.
