Tandem Cycling - Do you and your stoker (or captain) like to climb?

I do. But she doesn’t. So we don’t.
What about you?

why doesnt she like to climb?

No, but we like to descend.

Ditto. I do, she doesn't. Funny thing is though, she's pretty d#@%$d good at it!

why doesnt she like to climb?

She can pedal 50 flat miles, at a pretty good clip, and enjoy the whole ride. But last weekend we did 35 miles, with only 1500 feet of climbing, and there was a lot of belly aching.

Pretty sure she does, problem is she thinks we are at the top about 200 feet before we actually crest. Then she gets upset I tell her don't stop now. Descending she is fine with up to a certain point. Luckily at speed the wind blocks some sounds. As church lady as my stoker is, I thought I heard some evil flying off her tongue.

PK

I do and she indulges me from time to time, as the route dictates. I am sensible enough to avoid the major climbing challenges I relish solo, but some training hills have become part of our ride (we live on a hill so it takes a particular route to get home along the ridgeway!) and I remember a year or so back when she first made the climb cleanly as I coached her through it that there were quite a few whoops at the top!

Not sure if that counts as enjoying a climb, but she does take satisfaction from completing them with me and we were pretty pleased to pass a lot of walking solos on our recent 100k sponsored ride when we came to the major climb half way through!

Boy Paul, Pat and Jeanne are so much alike! You have described Pats feeling about climbing to a T. Pat likes climbing more than descending but is OK with it as long as she can't tell what speed we are going. We are both lucky to have such fun loving stokers!
Ed and Pat Gifford

No, but we like to descend.

+1 We hate climbing.

My kid stokers jabber away happily whether we're climbing or not... of course, they don't really put any effort into the climb...

Neither of us "like" to climb BUT, since we live in Colorado, we do it anyway, LOL! I'll admit, if we can find a way around a climb, not adding a lot of extra miles, we will "do it". We don't have a way cool, super lite tandem and neither of us are strong, single riders either so why beat ourselves up, just to prove we can? I know, were WIMPS, oh well, if the shoe fit's wear it with pride, ;)

My kid stokers jabber away happily whether we're climbing or not... of course, they don't really put any effort into the climb...

+1

It can be like carrying luggage around sometimes. Of course my girls are only 4 so they have an excuse.

If there isn't a good amount of climbing I don't feel its even a bike ride.
Flat rides bore the heck out of me and I don't have the power to go fast on flats like some bigger riders do.
My wife can tolerate a little bit of climbing on her single and is much slower than I am.
On the tandem we do much more climbing but avoid the extreme stuff I do on my single.
Our uphill speed is slow but steady and we both enjoy it.
It may be your stoker needs to gradually become conditioned to climbing.
Using lower gears and not pushing too hard may also make it more enjoyable for her.

We are not any good at it but we do enjoy climbing, particularly the part when we get to the top.

We are not any good at it but we do enjoy climbing, particularly the part when we get to the top.
+1

The first couple of times that we rode a local route with some hills we had to use the smallest of three rings up front and the biggest of eight sprockets in back. (In other words, the lowest gear on our bike.) On our most recent ride on the same route, we didn't use the small ring up front at all. We were able to climb using the middle ring. We were quite proud of ourselves, especially when we passed most of the solo riders!

Here's a more philosophical response...

If you want to enjoy riding a tandem, you need to very carefully accommodate whatever it is that your stoker wants to get out of riding. Otherwise, you'll end up riding by yourself!

If your stoker likes to challenge themselves physically and gets a thrill out accomplishing something they have not done before, you may be able to turn climbing into a challenge. Do something like timing yourselves whenever you go up a particular climb, and work with your stoker to improve your times. Reward yourselves with a beverage of your choice or something else you both enjoy if you beat your previous effort or get to the top without walking.

On the other hand, if your stoker looks at riding as a chance to relax and enjoy the scenery while also partaking in a little physical activity, you're just going to frustrate both of yourselves by climbing. Instead, go to the beach or lake or whatever scenic route you have nearby, and just enjoy the ride.

We both like to climb. I am fortunate.

I guess the whole climbing (mostly descending) thing is why we got a tandem in the first place. My wife likes to climb, but her ideal ride on her own bike, would be to climb to the top and then get a ride back down. She just does not feel comfortable descending.

The strange thing is that we now do most of our riding (including lots of climbing as well) on the mtb tandem. The singletrack just makes it more interesting. If you think you get a lot of comments and looks on the road tandem, try offroad, people look at you like you are from another planet!

She likes climbing more than the flats. If we get in 700'/10 miles, she thinks it was a good ride. 1000'/10 miles is pushing it. She loves to descend too.

Have you got a cadence computer. It really helps Try to spin 60-100 rpms especially when climbing hills

We both like to climb. I am fortunate.

I guess the whole climbing (mostly descending) thing is why we got a tandem in the first place. My wife likes to climb, but her ideal ride on her own bike, would be to climb to the top and then get a ride back down. She just does not feel comfortable descending.

The strange thing is that we now do most of our riding (including lots of climbing as well) on the mtb tandem. The singletrack just makes it more interesting. If you think you get a lot of comments and looks on the road tandem, try offroad, people look at you like you are from another planet!

No lie there.

FWIW, like Colotandem, we too, accomplish most of our training off-road. The grades are more intense for our location, and no appreciable momentum. If we know an upcoming road tandem ride will involve climbing or short duration big efforts, we train specifically off-road with climbing. This makes the road bike sometimes have a feel of much less effort to ride faster.

Regardless, of if dirt or paved, the stoker still believes that the climb is completed before cresting over the top.

PK

Both love to climb. Both love to descend. But what we particularly love is scampering over rises in the road.

Both love to climb. Both love to descend. But what we particularly love is scampering over rises in the road.

^^^This.

Surfing the rollers is a blast. Makes me feel like I'm 10 yrs. old again.

We do now! Before we bought the new bike when my stoker saw a hill she would say s**t, but with the new bike her whole attitude has changed she actually enjoys hammering through the few hills we have here in Central Illinois. We rode the Tulsa Tough back in the spring on the néw bike and she found out that with the new lighter bike climbing is no longer the chore it was on the old bike.

Some say that a lighter bike does not make that much difference, you can believe that if you want.

Wayne

On her single, she's done 2300 feet within 8 miles about 15 times, 3000 feet within 14 miles about 5 times and 5000 feet in 21 miles. Says she doesn't like it but she has a choice to stay home but she chooses to ride.:D

On the tandem, we've done a century with maybe 5000 feet of climbing. Done some steep sections of road like the base of Baldy Rd a few times. Says she doesn't like to climb on the tandem because she feels she makes it harder on me. But I've got this urge to do GMR (2300 ft in 8 miles). I'm just not happy about tandem descending on winding roads.:eek:

3000 ft
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l267/gulpxtreme/IMG_7702.jpg

The day she did 5,000 ft with some forum members...if we ever do GMR, I'll be sure to get a picture on the tandem. Should be a pretty clear picture because we won't be moving very fast.:D
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l267/gulpxtreme/111410P.jpg

Surfing the rollers is a blast.

YES! Roller Surfing R Us!! We love this, and our half bike pals love that we love this! The ones who are tuned in to our riding will grab us when they see it coming and go for the ride. We even get the occasional "Yeeee Haaaaah" from them. Stoker loves 'em and starts planning in advance of the known ones, prodding captain to get to the outside so we're not trapped. She is unbearable if we have to brake inside a pack on good rollers, so captain has incentive to think ahead, too.

Where I live there are hills. May not be the long drawn out ones and no climb is more than 800ft but they are steep at around 10 to 15%. Problem I found as stoker was the differing cadence that both like. Took a bit of compromise originally but when the Team came in it worked fine. Seeing as how the hills are offroad aswell- cadence can get a bit low in our lowest gear of 24/32.

Only way to get used to hills (Not like them) is to do more hills.

218285 218286 218287

If you like to climb, here is the link for epic sierra climbs in CA. If you do them, you need to be self-sufficient. Saw uspspro last year on the WMD. He and Ruth were screaming up the first climb (20 miles/6100'. After that, you only have 160 to go) They are animals on the tandem.
http://www.bikecal.com/bill/columns-detail.asp?bRecNo=13

My stoker hates to climb, yet on a recent ride we were passing single riders like crazy. Had a single rider comment on how fast we could climb, that made her feel good. I keep us spinning about 80-90, she initially would complain about 85 RPMs, but on a ride over the weekend we were on occasion spinning over 90 and she never realized it. I guess that means she is getting FASTER!

We like to climb, if climbing liking bring.

Saw uspspro last year on the WMD. He and Ruth were screaming up the first climb (20 miles/6100'. After that, you only have 160 to go) They are animals on the tandem.

There are a couple other posters that are animals on the tandem. One team "Alex and Deya", they take first place on timed climbing events vs singles (I thought tandems couldn't climb:)). I saw them fly by me on Ride Around The Bear. Plus JohnR, holds the Everest Challenge tandem record on the tandem. I've seen them post in other sections of this forum, not sure if they post here though.

I laugh when JohnR suggests we go for a ride, yeah like we'll keep up.:D

We both like to climb. The challenge is that we each prefer different techniques when climbing (sitting vs. standing) but we seem to be working it out.

If you like to climb, here is the link for epic sierra climbs in CA. If you do them, you need to be self-sufficient. Saw uspspro last year on the WMD. He and Ruth were screaming up the first climb (20 miles/6100'. After that, you only have 160 to go) They are animals on the tandem.
http://www.bikecal.com/bill/columns-detail.asp?bRecNo=13

Maybe screaming in pain! ;) (I am sure we were under 5mph for the entire top section). Thank you for the compliment though. I'm sure we would have actually done much better on that climb this year, but we couldn't make it out to WMD this year. The climb Vault mentioned is a 6000 ft climb (starting at around 4000 ft above sea level, ending at 10,100ft).
"Lucky" for us we get to do it in a couple weeks at Everest Challenge, but this time as the very end of a 2-day stage race with over 29,000 ft of climbing, rather than after a nice 1hr warmup like at WMD.

We like to climb, because of the challenge, and feeling of accomplishment. Of course, suffering on climbs gets us down sometimes, but working through that is rewarding in its own way.

"Momentum rollers" are always fun on the tandem... but when the roller is just that little bit too long for the power you put out in an attempt to fly over it....OUCH... oh crap ...shift shift! haha

..."Lucky" for us we get to do it in a couple weeks at Everest Challenge, but this time as the very end of a 2-day stage race with over 29,000 ft of climbing, rather than after a nice 1hr warmup like at WMD.


Good luck with Everest Challenge in a couple of weeks!! You two are gonna rock it!

Rowan likes to climb, but I'm not that keen on it. So we do a minimal amount of it. Some of our rides do include climbs, and we can do an 8-10% grade all right ... I just don't particularly enjoy climbing.

Rowan also likes to descend briskly ... but anything over about 45 km/h scares me half to death. I do not like speed on a bicycle ... it's frightening. So if we climb, we don't descend very fast.

Descending, my Stoker has an "eyes closed" speed. She's gradually worked that up to 42 mph. She's very quiet with her eyes closed, so that works well, but then she's always quiet. Riding a motorcycle got me used to 2-wheel speed.

Descending, my Stoker has an "eyes closed" speed. She's gradually worked that up to 42 mph. She's very quiet with her eyes closed, so that works well, but then she's always quiet. Riding a motorcycle got me used to 2-wheel speed.

My wife was a passenger on our motorcycle for 20+ years, she's short so she NEVER saw the speedo, when we were flying at 100+ mph, (sport touring), it's the same way on the tandem so it doesn't bother her, when we fly down a hill! :)

One of the things with Machka was that she tried too hard. I like to pace my climbing -- get into a gear and pedal at a rhythm that feels comfortable. Often I would feel her pushing through the pedals, and I had to say "Ease off, Honey, you're pushing too hard".

I could tell also by her laboured breathing. I then put HRMs on both of us and used them to gauge the effort we/she was making at any given time. It was an interesting exercise co-ordinating our heart rates.

Anyway, long story short, Machka has improved her climbing a lot. She and I pace well, she has reduced the surging she was prone to at the start and we enjoyed the little bit of climbing we did on our century yesterday.

Interestingly, too, is that she is keen to enrol us in the 7 Peaks Alpine Ascent Challenge, climbing the seven highest peaks in our area. It will be done on singles, but the fact she is keen to do it is something of a revelation.

Oh, and on the descending side, I think I've just made a big mistake by installing a bike computer on her handlebars. Now she will really know how fast we are going on the descents!

Yes, the HRM thing is really effective, isn't it? I think many couples have too many control issues to be able to do that, so good on you. We notice that for the first hour we aren't syched up with HR, and have to tell each other HR fairly often, but after a couple hours we usually stay within a beat or two of similar effort, automatically. We went out today, trying to keep up with a bunch of fairly fast singles for a 50 miler. We only climbed about 2500', but we haven't been riding much lately, having been on a 10-day backpack and then just resting up after. Ooops. Can't do that at our age. We had a very painful ride. Stoker started cramping up with two more ridges to climb. I had to do some extra effort and I was very close to cramping, too. Have to get back at it next week.

Sometimes, climbing, we'll remind the other, "Circles, dear. I can feel your pedaling." All that interaction is one of the great things about tandeming.

Yes, the HRM thing is really effective, isn't it? I think many couples have too many control issues to be able to do that, so good on you. We notice that for the first hour we aren't syched up with HR, and have to tell each other HR fairly often, but after a couple hours we usually stay within a beat or two of similar effort, automatically.

Of course this all assumes that a couple are (close to being) physiologically identical and that closely matching efforts is always a good thing.

As a counter-example, if a team is composed of one member with excellent aerobic strength but poor anaerobic strength while the other member has the opposite properties, they may employ entirely different strategies for success.

YMMV.

We are in our seventies now (79/76) and don't do much hard climbing on our tandem any more.
However, after moving from MI to AZ back in 1978 it was a mattter of local conditions/terrain.
From a few rolling hills when we lived in in southeast Michigan to near constant up/down and hiils/mountains in AZ we adapted; climbed many times to 9,000 ft. elevation in northern AZ.
Our toughest-ever ride was a 3-day event in AZ that included a century on day one, another century on day two and a 125 miler on day three with a total of 22,000 ft. of climbing.
Temps ranged from cool 50s early morning in Prescott to 103 degrees at the finish line on day three in Phoenix.
Well, we were several decades younger then . . .
But no, we really never did 'like' to climb!
Pedal on 2gether!
Rudy anbd Kay/zonatandem

We normally try to stay away from the hillier rides if we can, but a bunch of our friends (on singles) like the hillier rides, so we just spent the weekend riding with them. 91 mile ride on day one (my wife's longest ride ever) we had 3800 feet of climbing and we paced out (singles love drafting tandems, don't they?) the entire faster lead group for 80 of the 91 miles. Day two (yesterday) was a 63 mile ride with 3100 feet of climbing and we definitely felt the workout from the day before and could only hang on the lead group for about 45 miles, then we had to drop back. We were the only tandem there and we still finished ahead of the other groups. While this ride (to our friends perspective's) isn't really a hilly ride, it was for us and to be able to hang with these faster riders through most of the weekend was a great accomplishment for us. But like the saying goes... if it doesn't kill you, it will just make you stronger!

The nice part of riding our tandem, is that my wife never would of attempted this weekend on our half bikes!

Of course this all assumes that a couple are (close to being) physiologically identical and that closely matching efforts is always a good thing.

As a counter-example, if a team is composed of one member with excellent aerobic strength but poor anaerobic strength while the other member has the opposite properties, they may employ entirely different strategies for success.

YMMV.
\Have you tried it? I think it might surprise you simply on the basis that the climbing effort, as a percentage of each individual's fitness, is probably the same.

You can reference a relatively recent thread on climbing speeds on a tandem, and the conclusion was that usually the speed was slower than the strongest rider would do on a single, but faster than the weakest rider would do on a single.

I admit I was a little surprised when we embarked on the experiment. The nature of my employment involves a large degree of physical effort, whereas Machka is in an office job, so I was fitter anyway. At the time, we were on the way back to cycling more seriously after some personal and physical issues.

Anyway, it worked for us and I think it is something worth experimenting for other tandem riders if they are considering more hilllclimbing "in sync" with their respective fitness levels.

We each use our Garmin 305 from our single bikes on the tandem to gauge our heart rates. We are now within a beat or two on the climbs and and can balance our efforts through out the day so nither of us bonk. Depending on the strength of the single riders on our weekend hammerfests we can target 160 to 165BPM and hang with or pull past them by the top of the climbs. Always fun to look in their faces as we go by and they realize it's the tandem! :)

\Have you tried it? I think it might surprise you simply on the basis that the climbing effort, as a percentage of each individual's fitness, is probably the same....

....I admit I was a little surprised when we embarked on the experiment. The nature of my employment involves a large degree of physical effort, whereas Machka is in an office job, so I was fitter anyway. At the time, we were on the way back to cycling more seriously after some personal and physical issues.

In all honesty we have not tried it, but our background is also quite a bit different from yours: Stoker and I both have 30+ years (each) experience riding and we both do our *training* on singles while riding the tandem for longer rides, typically once a week. As a result, over the years we have developed a good handle on what our anaerobic thresholds feel like on our singles and on the tandem.

We have used heart rate monitors in the past, though we opted to discontinue use many years ago. If we were to adopt a training tool now, it would hands down be a powermeter.

As an example of how we handle hills, we're well tuned on the steady state aerobic effort we can use on a consistent grade, and as you state, it works out to about the average between her and my speeds on singles.

Where our physiology differs is in anaerobic efforts, where she excels in very short intense outputs, while I'm better suited to longer, less intense outputs.

This weekend we climbed one of the tougher roads we take the tandem on. Most of this road was consistent enough in grade we just rode close to our anaerobic threshold, standing for the occasional steep pitches.

There is one hard hairpin on this road where the pitch at the apex is pretty extreme (it's too short to measure, but I'd eyeball it at 20+%). I was able to get a good line which made it a little easier, then she went anaerobic to get us through the hairpin while I stayed aerobic. This worked well - so well that we went through the hairpin seated, something we had not done previously. By not overtaxing myself, I was able to pick up the slack when she backed off to allow recovery. Still was nice to get to the top, though!

As always, YMMV.

We did a ride the other day that had a hill at about 15% for maybe 1/3 of a mile. We were all the way down in the granny (30-34) and had to zig-zag across the road to get to the top. However, we beat two bikers who were walking it!