Tandem Cycling - Maneuvering question

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Zonker
09-25-05, 07:26 PM
We've had two rides now on the new Speedster and have starting and stopping down pat. One thing that has been disconcerting is what I would term a "violent wobble" ...once while executing a slow speed tight turn and once when swerving to avoid another oncoming cyclist at about 15 MPH who wasn't paying attention and was in our lane on a local trail. I had to fight to keep the bike upright in both situations. Any insight as to what causes this, and how to prevent it?

TandemGeek
09-25-05, 08:03 PM
If I had to guess, your stoker may have made an abrubt weight shift while you were making these steering intensive manuevers which would have induced what we call "stoker steering". Your steering inputs to counter her initial weight shift and caused her to reshift her weight, and so on.. presto; violent wobbles. The Co-Motion's steering can amplify this whole scenario at slower speeds.

The more you ride and get comfortable with each other the easier all of this will get. Some gentle coaching for her to work on keeping a neutral riding position and resisting the temptation to look around or to use her own "body english" to guide the tandem will also help.
zonatandem
09-25-05, 10:02 PM
Zonker Team!

Well, all new stokers should be informed NOT to try to steer from the back of the tandem under any circumstance; yes, her reaction/steering attempts will definitely affect captain's ability to control that l-o-n-g bike.
Slow motion turn will sometimes get stoker uptight and that will translate into stoker steer. Again, your stoker possible reacted with stoker steer when you suddenly swerved to avoid other cyclist. It is a natural reaction for new stokers to correct things in unexpected situations. When slow turning, stokers feet should lightly pedal stroke to follow captain's pedal pressure. Hopefully, captain has voiced out loud to her what he intends to do!
These things take a bit to get used to but soon she'll trust her captain and things will go smoothly. Good communication is the key to becoming a good tandem team!
Enjoy your Speedster!

Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem