[Litespeed]

My husband and I each have single bikes and also our tandem. I want to calculate my total miles for the year and told him that I will count the total miles we have ridden on the tandem along with the mileage from my single bike. He said I should only count half of the miles on the tandem. I say I have right to the entire mileage just as he would because I rode just as many miles on it as him. What do you think?

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[zonatandem]

That's absurd! Your husband/captain needs to learn a true fact about tandeming: the stoker is always right!
Besides, if he will not let you count your tandem miles as mileage ridden by you, let him pedal the tandem by himself.
My stoker, Kay, does no longer own a single bike; does that mean she does not get credit for riding over 200,000 miles with me on tandems since 1975?
Chauvinism is not tolerated in the the tandem world . . . or any place else for that matter. Sounds like a stoker's revolt in the making!!

Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay, Zona tandem

[TandemGeek]

My husband and I each have single bikes and also our tandem. I want to calculate my total miles for the year and told him that I will count the total miles we have ridden on the tandem along with the mileage from my single bike. He said I should only count half of the miles on the tandem. I say I have right to the entire mileage just as he would because I rode just as many miles on it as him. What do you think?

Really.... Well, I think you should ask him how many years you've been married. When he tries to take full credit for all of the years tell him he only gets 1/2 of the years; let him figure out why.

Bottom Line: Like all other things in relationships that include tandem cycling, and for better or worse, tandem miles are ridden together. Therefore, unless you're getting off the bike 1/2 through each ride and walking to the end while he rides alone, you get credit for every mile ridden just as if you had been riding single bikes together (Period).

Of course, that's just my humble opinion.

[SDS]

Count them all. You have twice as much weight on the tandem. You did half the work, which is the same as single bike work and/or miles.

[Michel Gagnon]

Wait a minute! Starting, stopping and hill climbing are more difficult than on a single because co-ordination is a key issue, but riding on flat terrain takes less energy because you are two to break the same headwind. So here is a "new and improved" formula:

- Count all climbing miles and multiply them by
1 + (% of grade)/3.14116
- Count all the miles in stop and go traffic and multiply them by
1 + (number of stops or red lights per mile)/3.1416
- Count all the miles you have been riding on relatively flat terrain, excluding those with a headwind, and multiply them by
0.8
- Count all the miles you have been riding with a headwind, and multiply by
0.667
- Finally, count all the miles, and multiply them by a "rear end factor" that takes into account the number of bumps you didn't see. Multiply by
1.1


BTW, your pilot should do exactly the same calculations, except the "rear end factor" should be replaced by a "added steering effort factor" of... 1.1

[galen_52657]

I can't believe you husband would even proffer such a suggestion. I am sure you have come home after a long tandem ride just as whipped as after a long single ride. I know I have…and sometimes more!

[Trsnrtr]

I'll bet your husband is counting all of the miles on his log and is telling you to count half just so you won't have as many miles as him at the end of the year. :)