Tandem Cycling - Increasing/training stoker cadence?

Been out for about 270km on our tandem and I'm starting to really notice the cadence differnce between me and my non-rider stoker (wife).

I comfortably hold mid 90-100 rpm cadence and she's more comfortable at 70-80s rpms. I find this cadence to be more exhausting and difficult to sustain.

Please help me.

Explain to her the benefit of a higher cadence. Once you have buy in that it's a good thing, then agree to work on raising your team cadence.

It will likely feel awkward, and hard for her. So you need to go slow.

Just more miles will help her to gradually feel more comfortable at a higher cadence. And you can start working in some drills. One is fast pedals, spinning at a higher than normal cadnece in a low gear fro a short period. One legged pedaling will also help her develop her pedal stroke.

High cadence comes natural to you because you've ridden a lot. It will take her time to adjust. Be patient and don't push because you want this to be fun for both of you.

Also, does she have appropriate shoes and pedals?

Also, does she have appropriate shoes and pedals?
- Ya, I've got the C'Dale fitted with clipless.

Thanks for the advice Merlin.

Show your wife articles that explain the benefits. If your situation is anything like mine, your wife doesn't accept your input as the final word on much of anything...

It will take time, but with practice and conditioning she should be able to increase her cadence. We had the same situation when we first got our tandem. Even though Pam was a pretty strong rider in her own right, when we got on the bike together, I wanted to spin considerably faster than she did.

Here's how we made it work...but you will need a computer that displays cadence. Find the point where she begins to feel uncomfortable. I didn't ask her what it was, but used the computer to note the points where she called for an upshift because she thought she was spinning too fast. Once I found that point (she was consistent about it three times in a row), because I was captain, I could concentrat on keeping our RPM's just a couple of ticks below that point and would purposely exceed it for short bursts (downhills). Over time, I was able to gently (and somewhat slyly) increase the average cadence to the point where she now tends to call for an upshift at around 96-97 RPM's, which is nicely within my range as well.

Be patient. It takes time!

We were off the tandem for a few years, when we came back my wife just could not spin much over 75. I did what 'twilkins9076' decribed above to the letter and it worked perfectly. We are now both happy at 95 +/-. good luck

Bill J.

Patience and on-road time appears to be the answer. I still remember when I first starting road bikes that my cadence was much lower than what it is now (I came from a mtb background before RR, which didn't necessarily focus on high RPM cadence pedalling...not to mention efficient pedal strokes).

I did install a CPU with a cadence sensor on her bar, which is how I've been reading out my RPMs. So far, I've been using it to check my cadence and to ask for a few more RPMs on her stroke to get us moving a bit faster on certain stretches (while indirectly getting her to do "interval" higher cadence spinning).

As far as upshifting, she doesn't fail to let me know when I need to do it. I can even tell that she's getting "spun out" before she speaks from her pedalling language (bobbing).

Thanks for all of your advice!!!

First question, is she having fun?
Second question, are you having fun?

If the answer to both of those is yes, I'd just leave it alone. Eventually she will be able to increase her cadence. If you aren't willing to wait for eventually, and either want a higher cadence or your own bike, go with what Merlinextraligh said. That would have gotten our tandem sold and him off on his own rides without me pronto.

Compromise!
Start off with cadence that is comfortable for her; gradually (over weeks/months) increase cadence.
Enjoy the ride TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

Its like boiling a frog. Put it in a pot of cold water and gradually turn the temp up. Before the frog knows the water is hot, its finished.

Agree w/ the others. Time and stealth can work wonders.

Good luck.

If you are in rolling terrain try some tricks like spinning up fast towards the bottom of the hill and try to keep it going as far as possible up the other side - shifting to keep the cadence up - (obviously explain this first). Some motivation like GO GO GO or SPIN SPIN SPIN when you want to do this seems to help with mine. (it is kind of like interval/spin training)

Soon you will be rolling up and over those little rises easily and your stoker will see the benifits of the higher cadence.

Otherwise, some long flat stretches and just slowly work on increasing the cadence (no different than when you go to your first few spin classes). e.g. some interval training etc.

Agree with Merlin but like the analogy of the frog ...
We had many a conversation about cadence and spinning over the years. There were many a stoker comment like ... are you going to shift or not ... Finally, I explained spinning in this way ... don't push down just pull up. We have been spinning ever since ...

We can spin easily at 90 while cruising. However, we can squeeze maximum team power output at about 85.

On several rides I counted our cadence (since I have nothing else to do :innocent:). Our default cadence is 96, flat road, wind notwithstanding. When we shift gears we settle into about 96 rpm.

So during our rides this weekend I had some intervals where we increased cadence to 100-105 rpm for 5 min., then backed off. We did this several times throughout the ride. It's a great way to bump up your heartrate without increasing stress on your knees, too. Our goal is to spin at about 105 rpm in pretty much every gear. Obviously this will take some work, but it'll certainly add to our ability to time trial efficiently.

I'd suggest trying this kind of drill with your stoker. Establish your (her) baseline or default cadence. Work on increasing it by 5-10 rpm for 30 sec., then a minute, then 90 sec., etc., over time. Try to have part of the ride where you can train this way for a while. Keep your time segments short -- maybe try 5-30 sec. increases then back off for a few minutes to recover, then try 5-30 sec. drills again. Gradually you can increase the length of time of the cadence increases, as well as the number of times you increase. When she says she's had enough, then you refocus on having fun.

Knowing that bike fitness is cumulative, muster your patience and settle in for the long haul. And above all, have fun!

DaVinci Tandem will allow different cadence front and rear. Some couples swear by it.

DaVinci Tandem will allow different cadence front and rear. Some couples swear by it.

I have not ridden a DaVinci, but I believe the independent coasting system Davinci uses just allows one person to pedal and the other person to coast (or pedal slower...without actually contributing to the forward movement of the bicycle).

But if we're recommending spending money to the OP: How about buying the stoker longer cranks? If I'm not mistaken, this should make a faster cadence feel slower. Hopefully, your stoker has long legs, and the change won't cause any other problems.

I have not ridden a DaVinci, but I believe the independent coasting system Davinci uses just allows one person to pedal and the other person to coast (or pedal slower...without actually contributing to the forward movement of the bicycle).


Now that I think about it - you are probably right - but when I watch my friends ride - it looks like they are pedalling at different cadences - but probably only when the stoker is pedaling really slow.

One of the things I love about my Flevo back to back is it's true independent cadence. Two drives, two chains, two cadences.

I have not ridden a DaVinci, but I believe the independent coasting system Davinci uses just allows one person to pedal and the other person to coast (or pedal slower...without actually contributing to the forward movement of the bicycle).

But if we're recommending spending money to the OP: How about buying the stoker longer cranks? If I'm not mistaken, this should make a faster cadence feel slower. Hopefully, your stoker has long legs, and the change won't cause any other problems.

You are right on the DaVinci ICS. But, longer cranks will make any cadence feel faster.

DaVinci Tandem will allow different cadence front and rear. Some couples swear by it.

Same cadence, unless someone rigged the design by changing one of the synchro. gears.

However, one of the persons may stop pedalling any time they wish, either to jump over an obstacle or for a rear-end break., so it's very easy to see both persons not in synch.

First question, is she having fun?
Second question, are you having fun?



Its like boiling a frog.



I'm with Charmed here, lets not get into boiling frog analogies regarding our stokers!

Perhaps she just wants to maximize her oxygen consumption efficiency...

http://www2.bsn.de/cycling/articles/cadence.html, "reprinted" from Cycling Science - Summer 1996 indicates an optimimum down in the 60-70 range, while most prefer a higher cadence. The higher cadence allows higher power output, and is easier on the joints. But it is harder on the lungs and heart, which means she may just need to work her way up into better overall physical condition.

I agree with one of the earlier posters that the most important time to work on higher cadence is when climbing. I used to leave my wife in the dust as we started up hills because I intuitively figured out that I need a high cadence to climb. I still have to wait at the top of any substantial hill, but not as long, since she learned about increasing her cadence to climb. When we get our tandem (not 'if', 'when'), she should be able to keep up just fine.:)

You are right on the DaVinci ICS. But, longer cranks will make any cadence feel faster.

Hey, that makes more sense: bigger circles, and all...

Another option is: use a larger crank length in front (captain).
You then tend to find lower revs more ideal.
For instance: if you now use 170 mm (probably too short anyway) try to use 180 mm ($$$ !) and your ideal cadence will initially drop in about the same proportion so 90->85rpm or 100->94rpm which could make the gap smaller between captain and stoker.