Tandem Cycling - Anyone ever swap teams?

The other day I was planning our next ride and speculating about tackling a century or something like that someday - I forget what exactly,:innocent: but I was greatly shocked and taken aback to hear my stoker say...


"maybe you should find someone else to ride with sometimes" :eek:

I could hardly believe my ears! But I understand enthusiasm levels may vary and I tried to give it some thought - then I asked if they would need to come with their own seatpost, and she suggested something about pedal set-ups :notamused: - so we both realised it would be a good deal more complex, never mind the interpersonal dynamics or whether I would in fact get a turn at stoking! :eek:

So I doubt it will ever happen. :o

But it made me wonder if others had experiences to share in this regard - would love to hear! :)

I might consider that century on a single bike before offering up the rear admirals quarters...

I have been sent a stink eye and verbal lashing about trying to help another team, once and only once.

That back seat is HERS, done, did you hear me say DONE, like no questions asked, don't go there, never for fear of death to a captain, well maybe not that extreme.

Let it go and settle for a nice paced 50 miles with a catered lunch stop instead. Girls can be dumb and gullible (I know, probably not a good thing to post), next week it will be 125 miles if you don't say anything more than "almost done". Honestly mine does love to ride the tandem, just sometimes it needs to be on her terms. Like most other girls though, see another team and you wonder who is the one that is possessing your stokers body.

Seriously, my stoker puts up with a lot and we'll leave it at that.

PK

All the tandem teams get together and you put your pedals in a pile on the floor. After being blindfolded you pick a set of pedals out of the pile and then you ride with the owner of those pedals.
This is based upon the hotel room keys in a basket game of the 70s.

I love metaphors. Literally.

On the tandem that we bought new in 1989, I had several different stokers. The primary was my wife, however 2 of my daughters rode it with me on occasions. Sometimes we would ride with the local club, my wife would ride a portion of the ride and then we would swing by our house and a daughter would complete the ride. They used the same pedals and seat, I only had to change the seat height.

One of the members of our club did train on it and competed in the 1995 tandem time trial, we placed third in our age group.

I have however been informed that the back seat of the new Calfee belongs to my wife, it is hers and hers alone. We have everything adjusted exactly the way she wants it and I am to leave it alone. Our youngest daughter was home a couple of months ago (she has started racing bicycles and is doing very well) so her mother said that she could take a ride with me on the tandem. I had to make several adjustments to the seat and handlebars for the daughter to attempt to make her comfortable. I did not get everything repositioned correctly for my wife and it took a couple of rides to get things where they were again comfortable. That is the reason for the statement, the back seat is mine leave it alone. YES DEAR!!!!

My stoker has told me that I am welcome to take my half of the tandem and ride with anyone I like.

All the tandem teams get together and you put your pedals in a pile on the floor. After being blindfolded you pick a set of pedals out of the pile and then you ride with the owner of those pedals.
This is based upon the hotel room keys in a basket game of the 70s.
erm.....that's a DIFFerent type of "riding"...

erm.....that's a DIFFerent type of "riding"...

It's even more interesting or scarey depending upon your views, with the one that posted the key party statement, having in his sig line

"Homophobia is so gay"

I'm quite certain the 4 pedals will remain attached to the cranks on our Co-Mo, thank you very much.

PK

My stoker/bride enjoy riding together almost as much as I enjoy riding... period. We ride as much/far as "we" can together. But we both recognize that she'll not be riding any centuries in the foreseeable future. Riding the tandem is "us" time, and we enjoy that as much as anything.

The longer rides I do on my half-bikes. I'd never dream of suggesting that someone else occupy her saddle on the tandem.

But that's us. YMMV

The other day I was planning our next ride and speculating about tackling a century or something like that someday - I forget what exactly,:innocent: but I was greatly shocked and taken aback to hear my stoker say...



Has she done a century before?

Rowan and I are doing a Century-A-Month challenge again this year, and we've ridden 7 of our 9 centuries on our tandem. Doing long distances together on the tandem can be very good. :)

For about 20 years we used to deal in tandems and also teach the intricacies of riding TWOgether.
So have actually ridden with hundreds of stokers, male/female/kids.
Most of these were test rides of a few miles, but have done longer rides.
Best one was back about 20 years ago with para-olympian Laura Offtedahl (blind).
She was an absolute powerhouse and about 20 years my junior. Just explained upcoming terrain and there was no need to get off the big chainring even when climbing steep/long grades.
On our personal tandem it would be difficult to fit most riders in the stoker position as it is custom built to fit Kay who is 4 ft. 10 3/4 inches 'tall'.
Bringing their own saddle/pedals is the best way to keep a swapstoker happy for a long ride.

Haha, great topic! When we were learning tandem, I had a great idea for a ride, called "stoker swap". We would swap stokers and pick up on all the good things other captain/stokers do. I am only admitting this idea here, because that rear saddle is for her only. Grounds for divorce.
There is a great local guy, male, hetero, cyclist who is blind, thighs as big as a horse, who stokes with the 5 tandems he owns. I have been threatened to don't even think about it.

My father has ridden with several different people. When I was younger, both my mother I would ride stoker with him. We were, fortunately about the same size so there weren't too many adjustments. But sometimes he would ride with others as well.