Tandem Cycling - Going numb

I have been tandem riding with my husband for almost a month, and have noticed numbness in my left foot. It starts at the toes and works its way up to the ankle. It is worse the longer the ride. I switched to a saddle with less padding and width, but that didn't really help much. My left hand was actually tingling after today's ride! This doesn't happen when I ride on my own. Has anyone experienced this? What do you recommend to fix this?

Thanks,
Knoxygirl

How much time are you spending on the tandem on your average ride and how often are you getting up off the saddle, i.e., taking butt breaks?

My foot goes numb when my shoes are strapped too tight.
I wonder if the hand tingle is a different or related problem.

Jack

As far as the foot goes, you may need to adjust your shoes as "just me" indicated. Also, pulling up on the pedals can help release pressure on your feet and stimulate circulation. As to the hand situation, your bars may be too low, or you may be using a death grip on the bars and not repositioning enough. From time to time it pays to shake your hand to maximize circulation, too. Good luck.

Are you riding in the same shoes and pedals on your tandem as on your single? If not, perhaps it's the cleat position that needs to be checked.

We ride about 15 miles every other day, and usually 8 miles on the in-between days. I wear the same shoes and loosely-tied my left shoe to see if that was the problem. Maybe I'm not getting out of the seat enough. I usually wait until we are coasting to do that. Thanks for all the tips!

Another thing to consider is whether you're spending a lot of time "mashing" the pedals in a high gear, or whether you're spinning smoothly. If you'll focus on spinning "perfect circles", with the same pressure on all sides of the pedal stroke, you'll find that you're actually lightening the pressure on the ball of your foot during a good part of the stroke.

This assumes, of course, that you're wearing cycling shoes with cleats. If you're not yet using them, consider them an investment worth their weight in gold.

Does this happen when you ride solo? If not, what's different about the position on the two bikes? Are you wearing the same shoes and gloves on both? Are you riding the same amount of time on both?

Thanks for all the help guys! I've switched saddles and am going to measure both mine and the tandem for differences. I also need to talk to the captain about gears, I think I am mashing too much on the tandem.

Are you by chance 'peeking' over pilot's shoulder as you are tandeming? Seems all the pressure is on one side of your body. Many new stokers have a subconscious habit of trying to see where the captain's headed. No fun staring at his backside, but you can look left/right without straining to look over his shoulder(s).
Check bar and saddle height too; ideally 1/3 of your weight should be on pedals, the next third on seat and the remaining third on the hands. Switching hand positions on bars every so often would also help.
Keep-a-trying Knoxygirl!

One thing I have noticed is that Tandem riding involves a lot more sitting than solo riding. This is because you cannot ease the weight off the saddle- Stretch a leg occasionally or even swing arms about to stop any hand pain coming on- without upsetting the balance or rhythm of the Tandem. We have set a routine now that as soon as one of us starts to feel any problem coming on we wait till the next downhill bit and both out of the saddle- then right leg stretch then left leg. Only takes a few seconds or so- Unless the problem has hit already, but it is now a regular sight to see us coasting downhill, and resting. Then we are away for thr next 30 minutes or so.

My stoker/wife or I will call out for a "butt break" every once in a while and stop pedaling so we can take the weight off our seats for a moment.