Tandem Cycling - Child stoker handlebar options/opinions?

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Phantoj
11-13-07, 08:34 AM
I bought a tandem a month or so ago - a big green 1998 Cannondale RT1000 with low miles. It's pretty nice.

The tandem is sized to fit my wife and me, but I'm wanting to set it up for our oldest child (currently a very tall four-year-old). I'm planning on getting the child stoker kit from chucksbikes.com (PM me if you have a kid stoker kit you want to sell). But I can't figure out what to do for the handlebars for the kid.

I guess the smartest thing to do would be to set up a complete captain's seat assembly with special kid handlebars attached. So I'll need another stoker stem - probably a long one. And for handlebars, I know I could use flipped road bars, but I don't have any in my junk drawer... I was thinking of grabbing a bar of bars off of a kids' BMX bike. What do you think? What do you use?

I can't wait to get this thing set up!

simsi
11-13-07, 01:15 PM
There are various ways of doing this. I opted for having a wrap around bar arrangement, for a bit more piece of mind for my almost 4 year old. Take a look at this:

http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc266/betaglucan/th_tandem2.jpg (http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc266/betaglucan/tandem2.jpg)


I used two sets of old drop handlebars, connected with broomsticks. The cross piece is from an old aluminium folding chair.

Cheers

Ian
zonatandem
11-13-07, 04:41 PM
An extra long adjustable stoker stem + check with LBS and see what they have in their parts/junk box in old handlebars.
The extra pilot seatpost/saddle set-up with kidz bars/stem is ideal. Swap out to proper setup for child or adult stoker.

aggie_grad
11-14-07, 07:55 AM
If you have an adjustable stoker stem now you don't need to replace it or the captains steat assembly. I cut down a long seat post and added a road stem. For the bars, I cut down a cheap mountain bike bar. The hardest part is getting the shim needed to adjust the 1" seatpost to the adjustable stoker stem. Now I have two sets of handlebars that can be swapped by loosening the two bolts on the adjustable stem. See the picture to see what I am refering to.

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee58/aggie_grad/6-2-2006-05edited.jpg

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee58/aggie_grad/6-2-2006-07.jpg