Clayton

Do any of you place your tandem on a stationary trainer for riding indoors during that time of the year when you can't ride outside?

If so, what kind of trainer do you use? Please share any thing you deem pertinent about the use of a trainer with a tandem and what your experience has been.

Thanks!!

gregm

When's that, exactly?

(ok, so it almost never gets below freezing here... I understand what you're asking. )

-Greg

ElRey

I've got three trainers and have seen lots of styles out there; I haven't seen one I thought would hold up a tandem. ONly ice keeps me indoors.

TandemGeek

We no longer do so, but back in the '97-'98 time frame we successfully used our Cyclops Fluid II resistance trainer with our 160mm rear-spaced '96 Santana Arriva tandem for some indoor training sessions with our cycling club and I will still occasionally use it to check Debbie's riding position on our 145mm rear-spaced Ericksons.

You should avoid using a fancy allow rear skewer as the Cyclops holds the bike by the skewer ends. A front wheel block is also necessary to level the tandem. Mounting is accomplished the same as usual with Captain first & Stoker second; however, you WILL need to have something to stand on when mounting given that the tandem will be a few inches higher than normal. Moreover, exercise care when mounting to keep you weight centered over the frame as much as possible to prevent the tandem and trainer from tipping over. When riding, DON'T try to stand and hammer out of the saddles as the trainer and tandem can begin to tilt from side-to-side and could conceivably fall over. Otherwise, it will support most in-home training regimes.

NOTE: In previous threads on other lists some have suggested that using a trainer could be abusive to your tandem's frame, etc. and those concerns were soundly put down by several of tandem frame builders.

merlinextraligh

I can't think of anything less pleasant. Bad enough training indoors, but on a tandem where you're locked into your partner's cadence (and staring into their back) doesn't sound like a fun time.

galen_52657

Kurt Kenitic claims that thier trainer will work with tandems spaced at 160mm. I am thinking of purchasing one.

As far as boredom goes, I only ride my single for 45 minutes to an hour anyway. I warm up for 10 minutes, then do 30 - 40 minutes of intervals - 2 minutes on, 3 minutes rest, then a cooldown. I would think if you got a training DVD, set up the tandem so you could both see the TV/computer screen and hook up a fan to keep you cooled off, it might be fun! Then, you could roll around on the floor all sweaty...oops...TMI!

bidaci

galen,

Looking at the Kurt Kinetic website it lists the "Road Machine" as a tandem approved trainer, but under the bike compatibilty tab it says "Our trainer is approved for use with tandem bikes with 145mm dropouts and both riders mounted." You may want to double check on the 160mm spacing. If you get it let us know how it works.

bockwho

ive been thinking about the same thing my I need to get my wife a single bike but not sure when that will happen. I dont have to ride it with her but it could be fun as galen said.

TandemGeek

Well, there's always riding behind a captain who decided to have a bean burritto and beer for lunch...

But, to your point, no it's not a lot of fun and that's why we stopping doing it. Debbie didn't complain, she hardly does about anything, but it was clear that sitting in front of a fan and spinning on the tandem wasn't a good time.

TandemGeek

I bought Debbie a single a few years back -- the by product of a discussion regarding proper pedal cadence which ended with, "and then you can pedal at any cadence you like". However, since she had not ridden a multi-speed road bike by herself in many, many, many years I set her up on the trainer in front of the fan and Cyclops training video that came with the thing and used it to teach her how to shift and to get her tandem riding position "tweaked" for riding a single bike. It worked quite well and make her transition to the road much easier since that essential aspect of operating the bike (noting that we have a short 8% grade leading out of our subdevelopment) far less demanding of her attention and allowed her to focus on bike handling. She's really gotten hooked on riding her bike over the past few months and has been logging 25 miles a day in the afternoon after she gets home from work. Daylight savings will probably put an end to that as I'm not sure she'll warm up to riding in the dark so I may find her sweating up a storm when I get home from work.... Hmmmmm?

zonatandem

Clayton: As a 'displaced AZ Wildcat' you realize we do not use trainers in winter in Tucson.
However, when we lived in the Thumb area of Michigan we would ride in wintertime at 20 degrees if roads were dry . . . shorter rides to be sure, but it kept us from gettin' cabin fever
Had ridden rollers on single bike back in the 70s; lots of concentration/sweating and short intense rides. X-country skiing is also a great alternative and not as boring as trainers/rollers.

Clayton

Zonatandem, if I still lived in Tucson, (born and raised there), a trainer wouldn't even be a topic of discussion. But since I live in the panhandle of Idaho now, and am unwilling to ride on ice and snow, my wife and I have been using Minoura trainers for our singles. However, she has begun talking about how we will train during the upcoming winter and wanted me to find out if we could use the tandem instead of the singles on our trainers. Would we potentially damage the frame/dropouts etc? Hence my question.

I guess I'm very fortunate in that my stoker reaffirms her enjoyment of the tandem experience every time we ride. She hasn't ridden her single once since we brought the tandem home and I wouldn't miss the howls of delight I hear behind me for anything in the world. It doesn't seem to matter what the distance is, where we go or how fast we go; she just likes to stoke.

Thanks for the advise! I'll check into the Kenitic trainer as it is a very tight fit for the Arriva on our Minoura trainer.

Big H

Just a quaestion.... would the lenght of a tandem not cause undue stresses on the frame. With a half bike on the trainer it is posible to see the BB flexing. Would this not amplified to the point wher distortion takes place on a tandem frame. My tandem fundi advised us against it. We both use our half bikes in our stationary trainers. We her do not do it becaue of cold, rain or heat..... we are to damn scared of the minibus taxis to train too much on the road

Big H