Tandem Cycling - Unspoken tandem "danger"

Went for my first 1/2-bike ride in 3 weeks yesterday. My stoker/wife is on a short trip to visit relatives and friends in St. Louis. I apparently have become too dependent on my stoker getting us going while I leisurely clip in on our daVinci. Clipped my left foot in and gave a casual power stroke and started to fall over to the left while fiddling with my right foot. Barely got my left foot out in time; this at the start of a group ride with a bunch of folks I didn't know. Lesson learned.

I used to topple regularly when I was new to clipless pedals. Everyone in our local bike club was terrified of me stopping next to them. After one season in those exceptionally tight, and very old Look pedals, a new bike and some Speedplays solved the problem.

... And people wonder why we use platform pedals on our tandem.

As a stoker my most unspoken danger is remembering to steer my half-bike when I ride it. :rolleyes:

Red Rider,
No problem remembering to steer (as a Captain), but my single sure was wobbly for 1/2 hour. Also need to remember to lift off the saddle for bumps I wouldn't even feel on the tandem.

Red Rider,
No problem remembering to steer (as a Captain), but my single sure was wobbly for 1/2 hour. Also need to remember to lift off the saddle for bumps I wouldn't even feel on the tandem.

That wobbly thing is weird!!! I went out today and the first 10 minutes were wobbly...But the half bike absolutely jumps up to speed soo much faster. The bumps did seem to jump up and smack me in the butt a little bit harder than they do on the tandem, in addition the road vibration that I feel through the pedals is much greater.

Stoker jumped on her single for the first time in a year and was amazed to discover she didn't remember how to steer, shift, or brake. She could pedal good, though! Thankfully she was on a bike path.

I went for a ride on my anything-but-lightweight Trek 520 yesterday after a 10-day loaded tandem tour. I almost crashed several times due to "twitchiness"--it felt like a feather!!!

I used to feel that wobbly thing on my hybrid after being out on the tandem with stoker/wife. Not an issue going from the tandem to a recumbent: it's so dissimilar that you have no expectation that it will feel the same.

The front wobble can be reduced by always having low-rider, front panniers. They seem to stabilize the steering. I also have entirely different handle-bars from tandem to single; no problem switching riding styles.