Tandem Cycling - Your Dream Stoker Set-up

We still have a few bucks left in our tandem fund and was thinking of 'pimping up' the stokers bars. Of course she'll get a odometer, and map clip, but is there anything else I can put back there to aid with navigation? How about a GPS? Are there bar bags that fit so I won't be always carrying her lipstick in the front?

Our stoker has a large TOPEAK Aero Wedge Pack w/ straps hanging under the telescoping bar. There isn't room to clip a bag beneath the captain's saddle, otherwise we would have went that route. The stoker's saddle always has a bag clipped under it, but accessing its contents on the go isn't nearly as safe.

One note, since that wedge pack is expandable, I placed a small strip of electrical tape on the bar beneath the bag where the zipper rubs against it ever so slightly.

D

Being new to this, I can unfortunately not offer insight.

On the same topic though, any recommendations for an affordable suspension seat post for stoker? Unfortunately our tandem fund is not as healthy. :)

Where is best/cheapest to buy tandem related gear online?

Francois

...so I won't be always carrying her lipstick in the front?

It's not your color?! ;) No help here. I'm looking forward to ideas for SMALL handlebar bags in the stokers compartment -- being too lazy to research it myself. I currently toss my lipstick and inhaler in my jersey pocket. I figure I'm one unfortunate fall away from one heckuva kidney bruise!



On the same topic though, any recommendations for an affordable suspension seat post for stoker? Unfortunately our tandem fund is not as healthy. :)

Where is best/cheapest to buy tandem related gear online?



Oooooo. That first one's a tough one. If your stoker feels that a suspension seatpost would improve his/her riding enjoyment (and some stokers don't really like suspension seatposts) I would go with the best you can manage. In fact, I'd say that some of the most important money spent on a tandem is ensuring the stoker's rear comfort, i.e. saddle and seatpost. As has been mentioned here many times before, because of the frame construction on a tandem, the stoker takes the brunt of the bumps -- large and small. Our entry level Co-motion came with a suspension seatpost (can't remember the brand) and a saleswoman at our LBS was pretty clear that an upgrade was really going to improve my comfort. She was so right. The difference between the two was noticeable. I ride a Rockshox and I love it, but we do mostly urban riding so there are tons of bumps.

As for the best/cheapest places to buy tandem gear online, we like both Performance Bike and Nashbar. You can see their advertisements in this post. There are other tandem-specific places and doubtless others will chime in with their favorites.

Rebecca Twig would be my dream stoker setup....or, even better...she could captain....

Blow some $$ on a Bento bag (available from Mel at TandemsEast); or how about carbon fiber handlebars and/or round c/f stoker handrests from ariZona tandems.com?
Hey it's only $$ and make stoker h-a-p-p-y!

There are stoker handlebars, but whether you can use them or not depends on how high are your own saddle and her stem.

Generally, however, it seems that the most appreciated item is a suspension seatpost. Check Mark Livingood's posts on the subject (handle: thetandemgeek) because it seems there are good and bad ones. In my case, even though it would be VERY useful in our streets, I'm not there yet because my daughters are still too short.

Another improvement I made was to install two easy-to-access water bottles onto my own seatpost. A photo may be seen here (http://www.mgagnon.net/velo/pedalier4.fr.shtml).

Finally, Ève wanted standard road bars with "fake brake" hand rests. However, since the fake brakes cost 40-50 $ and real brake levers cost 10 $, I installed the latter.

Another way to attach water bottle(s) is to use a Minoura handlebar mount. Mount the bottle facing inward on bar (toward stoker). To facilitate drinking, without removing the bottle, you can pop out the plastic bottle pop-up spout and insert an appropriately sized diameter flexible plastic tube, available from most local hardware/home improvement stores or you even local pet shop that handles aquariums/fish.
Stoker Kay uses a custom mount, dead center on her stoker bar stemclamp. Works great for her.
Pilot uses one mounted on his bars with rigid plastic tube. No fussing/mussing riding one-handed to drink.
Stoker also prefers the round c/f handrests over the pseudo-brake levers on her bars.
Stoker also prefers not to use a suspension seatpost. It's up to the pilot to call out the bumps/road hazards!

We still have a few bucks left in our tandem fund and was thinking of 'pimping up' the stokers bars. Of course she'll get a odometer, and map clip, but is there anything else I can put back there to aid with navigation? How about a GPS? Are there bar bags that fit so I won't be always carrying her lipstick in the front?

Although this Rans Screamer (see photos) is of the recumbent geometry, the GPS idea is universal. We've procured two Garmin Edge 305s w/cadence+heartrate. Each unit can be configured for up to 3 bikes so we each use our respective Edge on our half-bikes, and then put them both on the Screamer when we ride together.

Each unit reads the "owners" heartrate, but they both read the cadence of the one wireless sensor on the tandem.

People don't believe we have dual GPSs, but they're really bike computers with GPS capability.