Tandem Cycling - Tandem Crash Stories

Being new to tandem riding, I find that the tandem seems to be much more stable than riding single. I'm a careful descender with an extreme case of respect for bombing a steep descent fast on any bike. Also, being the captain makes me responsible for two people. Since I haven't heard of anyone crashing on tandems (OK, I don't actually see many tandems on the road), I thought it might be interesting in hearing about those that have.

Thanks

Well, Googling tandem bicycle crash finds this video (http://www.craveonline.com/sports/video/tandem-bike-crash-32747).

...and this thread (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=467630).

Well Dan, tandem crashes do happen!
Depending what you call a 'crash' . . . hit by vehicle; crash at high speed; falling over (like capt. forgot to unclip), etc.
Been hit on the tandem by a car and crashed: way back in 1978. New teenage driver 'did not see us' after stopping at a 4-way stop and looking both ways and turning left into us. $2,000+ worth of damage. No broken bones. Driver ticketed.

Hi-speed crash at 30+ mph descending. Chain bounced between dropout and cog creating an instant STOP. Front wheel buckled, pilot did paratrooper roll over handle bars, stoker can' t roll and went down with the bike. Lotsa road rash, no broken bones. 3 days later we were riding a 200 mile 3-day loop at the Grand Canyon with a new front wheel.

Hit from behind by a pickup truck at +/- 45 mph. Passenger mirror hit stoker in the back, breaking the mirror. Emergency room visit; no broken bones. Driver was ticketed and license revoked (he was on a restricted driver's license). Driver stated: "but I did not see you" although we were wearing bright orange matching jerseys. At impact pilot held his line as swerving to the right would have put is in a ditch. Never fell down.
However in our 225,000+ miles of riding TWOgether on tandems, we feel like we've beaten the odds . . . so far!
Stuff happens!
Pedal on!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

punctured a front tire ---managed to get to ditch before going down --nothing broke just a lot of sore spots in the morning

You wanna talk tandem crashes? Ask US champions Jerry Ash and Leigh Barczewski. They were riding for the world championship tandem sprint in 1978 when the Czech team crashed them with some dirty riding. USA should have had two rainbow jerseys. Instead they got silver medals.

I can't find any video of it, but I remember Jerry and Sheila Young-Ochowicz telling the story whe they got back. Nasty crash. Jerry broke his collarbone.

Don't know if this qualifies as a "crash" but my honey of 35 yrs and I did our first club ride on the new Lambo tandem. We were about 18.5 miles out and 1/2 the group decided to head back. We decided to join that group.

I told the stoker we were going to the end of the road to the "T" so we had enough room to make a u turn. I took a wide turn, but the wheels went off the road and into some deep sand. We were going real slow, so only our egos were slightly bruised. Back on the bike and homeward bound. It was a great 37 mile maiden voyage.

See it here: http://ridewithgps.com/trips/1984

Only had one serious incident and that was offroad.Fast lumpy downhill at about 35mph and a snakebite (I think) on the front tyre. Pilot had time to say "We've got a" ------- and we were bouncing down the trail. Few bumps and bruises and the tyre was shredded so had to call for the sag. I had taken the spare folder out of the Top bag the week before as we had never used it and as it was only a local training ride it wasn't necessary:innocent:

This was the first front blowout we had ever had. Punctures that gave us time to stop-yes- but never an instant blowout. In Hindsight- I had changed away from our normal tyres- Panaracer Fire XC's in 2.1 size to IRC at the beginning of the year. Don't know what it is about the construction of Fire XC's but they are advertised with a side wall to help resist snakebites. In comparison between the two makes- I think The Fire XC blurb is right. During 3 years use on the fire XC's- we had never had snakebites. In the 4 months use of the IRC's- we had 4 on the rear and this one on the front. And this was despite raising tyre pressure to 65 PSI on the IRC's.

My Stoker and I had two crashes on our MTB Tandem during the first year of ownership. I managed both an off road and pavement crash before learning the difference between single & tandem cycling. The first was a medium/low speed MTB crash while trying to ride through a creek; no injuries, but lots of mud & water. Crash two was a real respect winner for the pilot. The front tire peeled off the rim while blasting through a roundabout at 40 kph, and the end result wasn’t pretty.
Lessons learned:
What you can get away with on a single bike won’t always hold true with a tandem. Yes, I could have shot across the creek on my single MTB. I might have been able to carve through the roundabout with low air pressure in the front tire on my single, but no way on a tandem. If it isn’t 100% operational don’t even think about!
You got the right idea; “the pilot is responsible for the safety of TWO people”! Once I got this message I’ve had 9 years of non tragedy fun. Yes! I knocked on wood after writing that!

So far, the worst has been falling over sideways when coming to a stop and not clicking out fast enough. Knock Wood!

So far, the worst has been falling over sideways when coming to a stop and not clicking out fast enough. Knock Wood!

May it only be so, never again! The Force be with you.

I've had a couple of incidents over the 18yrs I've been riding tandems. One was starting to lean the bike the wrong way when trying to trackstand for to long. I flicked the bike upright so that I could unclip with my left foot as normal and I thought all was ok until i heard the angry screech from my stoker who was lying a couple of meters away after being flicked off the bike. Long time before I was allowed to trackstand again!
A couple of years ago we had a car pull out into us with no warning. I received a badly broken right thumb and a torn left rotator cuff that took a long time to heal. My better half only received a couple of scratches and a fright.
The most spectacular photos of a tandem crashing are of Rob Templin and Scott Martin crashing at speed on a downhill when the front tire blew. A photographer with a motor drive camera took a series of photos of the crash which were published in Bicycling magazine. I think Rob has them on his www.secondsummertours.com site as a pdf

I've had a couple of incidents over the 18yrs I've been riding tandems. One was starting to lean the bike the wrong way when trying to trackstand for to long. I flicked the bike upright so that I could unclip with my left foot as normal and I thought all was ok until i heard the angry screech from my stoker who was lying a couple of meters away after being flicked off the bike. Long time before I was allowed to trackstand again!
A couple of years ago we had a car pull out into us with no warning. I received a badly broken right thumb and a torn left rotator cuff that took a long time to heal. My better half only received a couple of scratches and a fright.
The most spectacular photos of a tandem crashing are of Rob Templin and Scott Martin crashing at speed on a downhill when the front tire blew. A photographer with a motor drive camera took a series of photos of the crash which were published in Bicycling magazine. I think Rob has them on his www.secondsummertours.com site as a pdf

The most spectacular photos of a tandem crashing are of Rob Templin and Scott Martin crashing at speed on a downhill when the front tire blew. A photographer with a motor drive camera took a series of photos of the crash which were published in Bicycling magazine. I think Rob has them on his www.secondsummertours.com site as a pdf

The Crash Pics (http://www.secondsummertours.com/Articles/SCOTT%20MARTIN%20PIECE-%20BICYCLING%20MAGAZINE%20TANDEM%20CRASH.pdf)

Also heard a story from Pete Penseyres about him and Rob riding a Schwinn Paramount tandem and the fork broke. In 25 years my wife and I have never crashed or come close to it. My biggest fear is suddenly losing pressure on the front tire on a downhill.

The same truths that apply to single riding also applys to tandems. If you put in enough miles, sooner or later your going to crash. Just pray its a slow speed solo crash, maybe a tip over or something like that. The thought of crashing at high speed scares the S*&t out of me. Thats why I take every precaution to avoid this. Keep your brakes in perfect working order, and keep good rubber on the bike. Tandems are like diesel trucks, they take more room to manuver and longer distances to stop. In group riding always try to leave yourself a out. Stay away from inside of the pack up against the curb. If you stay on the road side of the pack you have somewhere to go in case some bozo crashes in front of you. I have been riding my tandem for over 4 years with differet stokers, I completed the Everest Challenge in 07, and have not crashed yet. I have seen a few bad tandem crashes, most of them are equipment (tire) related or getting mixed up with single bikes. Remember, a ounce of caution is worth a pound of your flesh getting scraped off on the pavement.

The Crash Pics (http://www.secondsummertours.com/Articles/SCOTT%20MARTIN%20PIECE-%20BICYCLING%20MAGAZINE%20TANDEM%20CRASH.pdf)

I ride with Rob, He still talks about this crash...Ouch!!!!!

Our "crashes" have generally been situations where we road off the edge of the rode and kind of got bogged down in sand or mud and just kinds tipped over. Not dramatic, just embarrassing. I'll take embarrassing over dramatic any day though.

FDGB (Fall-Down-Go-Boom) crashes are nothing like having some type of failure of tire/frame. Have broken 2 tandem frames and one (experimental) tandem fork. Neither caused a crash or injuries. With frame and the fork breaking, it gave a hint that something was amiss. A thorough check when we got home showed that a tube had cracked; on the fork issue, checked out front wheel/fork by removing wheel . . .Clang! . . . forkblade fell off!
Have had several blowouts (front/back) but was always able to control the bike by NOT braking. One was at +/- 30 mph on the front. Was like riding a bronco . . . stoker was quite shook up but we managed. These things are never planned; good reflexes are a huge +.
Keep it rubber side down.
Pedal on!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

We've been on the tandem (road only) between 3,000 and 4,000 km per year for the past four years. We had our worst crash last year, at the end of the season. The front tire lost all pressure while we were carving an off-camber turn. Just some observations:

- the stoker absorbs most of the impact; she stays with the bike and takes the weight of the tandem and the pilot. My stoker had to be driven to the hospital, and I rode the tandem back.

- the pilot is protected by the stoker's handlebars (they function sort of like "crash bars") and will usually get away with fewer injuries. Don't tell your stoker.

- a tandem will usually survive a front blowout as long as it's going straight. Tandems are remarkably stable in a straight line (you can ride thru loose gravel with far more control than on a single). It's only when you need to change direction that things get sketchy.

The front tire was a Conti Gatorskin wired-on. I have been switching to folding Vredesteins; I've never been happy with the sidewalls on Contis. You'd think the Germans would be more efficient. The Vredesteins appear to be as puncture-resistant, and the sidewalls are far more durable. Forget putting any cheap tires on your tandem; tandem tires are a critical application.

We've had great luck with Maxxis Re-Fuse folding tires, 700x25s, the past couple years.
Agree, straight line travel when having a blow-out is preferred.
Yes, stoker does not get to roll over the bars in a crash like the captain does; that 'x*^%' captain gets in her way and she goes down with the ship.
Oh, one of the other joys of tandeming TWOgether!
Pedal on!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

The thought of crashing at high speed scares the S*&t out of me. ..., I completed the Everest Challenge in 07, and have not crashed yet.


Apparently, not enough to keep from doing 60mph or so down the descents on EC.:)

At EC on 07 it was cold and the roads were wet. I never let the bike get over 40 mph. My stoker is married and I had this death fear of crashing and trying to explain to her husband how I injured his wife or worse. I love climbing on the tandem, when you have a stoker thats able to stand in sync with you it's awesome. There is a lot of stress piloting a tandem downhill. We have kicked around the idea of doing it again, but not this year. I will be there on my single enjoying the views and having a no stress race.

Uh, people, can we stop this thread? My wife-stoker may visit upon us!!!!

You'll have to do a search for our last crash story. It was 2 yrs. ago, in August, but to repeat it might jinx us and I'm not willing to dredge it up again.

It was ugly. Road rash was involved. The stoker was p*ssed. 'Nuff said.

At EC on 07 it was cold and the roads were wet. I never let the bike get over 40 mph. My stoker is married and I had this death fear of crashing and trying to explain to her husband how I injured his wife or worse. I love climbing on the tandem, when you have a stoker thats able to stand in sync with you it's awesome. There is a lot of stress piloting a tandem downhill. We have kicked around the idea of doing it again, but not this year. I will be there on my single enjoying the views and having a no stress race.

Second day, second descent, I'm pretty sure you guys came flying by me. I was working with a guy off the back of the Pro 1,2, and we were moving down the descent, and had to work to get on your wheel.

Seeing you guys on the tandem gave me the bright idea to try EC on the tandem in 08.

Second day, second descent, I'm pretty sure you guys came flying by me. I was working with a guy off the back of the Pro 1,2, and we were moving down the descent, and had to work to get on your wheel.

Seeing you guys on the tandem gave me the bright idea to try EC on the tandem in 08.

Due to my old age and alzhymers I can't remember back that far. I do remember having trouble with the brakes on the first day, they were sqeeling like a stuck pig. I replaced the pads with XTR mtb pads on SAt night and had no problems on Sunday.