[LCI_Brian]

I have a shorter friend whose new road bike is a 43cm Trek 1000 WSD. I have a mid-90s Burley Duet tandem, 23.5"/21". She wants to try stoking the tandem. She won't fit on the rear position with the seatpost all the way down, so I'm thinking I'll have to install the child stoker kit. I have it set up the conventional way with the extra chainring attached to the left rear crankset.

The problem is that the 125mm cranks on the stoker kit are a little too short. The way I see it I have two options.

1. Install a regular double crank on the child stoker bottom bracket. But then the pedal threadings would be reversed. I only need toe clips for the stoker, maybe I could swap the axles from a pair of pedals and loctite the pedals onto the cranks?

2. Buy longer cranks for the stoker kit. Does somebody make them?

Any other suggestions, or anything else I'm missing?

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[Michel Gagnon]

Except maybe for a trial run, I would try to avoid the stoker kit because she must be heavier than a kid.

I see a few other options you might check:

1. Get either chank shorteners or cranks with multiple drillings. DaVinci tandems (http://www.davincitandems.com/comp.html#xt) offers some.
The crank shorteners I have give my stoker a crank length from 100 to 150 mm.

2. Make sure the saddle is as low as it can get; buy another seatpost if neessary.
For instance, the seatpost supplied with my tandem required the seat to be up by at least 3 cm, while the Zoom seatpost the shop installed instead of the original one allowed the seat to be almost flush with the seatpost collar.

Finally, I don,t know how much tandeming experience you have with short people, but she doesn't need to touch the ground. Right now, my 9 year old stoker who is about 4' 6" uses the 18" rear compartment of the tandem with the seatpost out by about 3 inches. She doesn't touch the ground, but she has no problem pedalling the whole circle.

[merlinextraligh]

new tandem with a shorter seat tube for the stoker. Look at it as a buying opportunity. You might consider a Bike Friday. They're almost infinitely adjutable. My daughter, who was under 4 feet tall when we bought it, fit fine on the back, as well as my wife who is 5'8".
And the Bike Friday packs to travel.

[ElRey]

I think the easiest option would be a taller girlfriend. What with a bar on every street corner and all.....