72andsunny

The Mrs. has been complaining that her handlebars are too far away, so we have a longer stem on order. After looking at this picture, I think her seat might be a little low (or the Tamer seatpost might be a little too loose); Also, her back looks a little arched, which probably has the effect of making the handlebars feel farther away. Anybody have any thoughts on easy adjustments I can make to increase her comfort?



P.S. We're I don't think we're really that pasty...the picture must be a little over exposed.

ken cummings

Try contracting Santana for advise. Their number is 800-334-6136. They built it they should know how to make it fit without selling you a new bike. If no help there you might consider the Bilenkey site and try one of their semi-recumbent tandems. One of them solved my wifes' problems.

Bill G

We went to a 1 1/2" riser mountain bike bar in 31.8mm oversize due to new stoker stem being set up for a 31.8mm diameter bar on our new Robusta. The bar is cut down to fit the wifes shoulders with bar ends to solve the same type of problem you are having. Our other Tandem is a Supremo the one in the pic that is blue & silver. It is done the same way with a 26mm diameter bar. Moutain bike riser bars come in 1", 1 1/2", 2" and I think 2 1/2" rise bars. I hope the pics belows show the new bar set up ok.

Take Care & Ride Together
Bill G

Bill G

This item may also help with your problem. Here is a Pic of a handle bar riser that Santana sells that will raise the bars you have up and allow you to adjust forward and back by rotating the bar adapter. I do not know the cost of this item but Santana will have it in stock.

Good luck,
Bill G

zonatandem

An extra-long adjustable stoker stem with drop bars.
BTW from the photo looks like both of you need to relax those arms a bit . . . don't lock up those elbows, relax 'em a bit!
Asides from that: a real good lookin' tandem duo!

galen_52657

Her position looks good. Reach is not an issue. She slouches a bit. Could be a lack of saddle time or core muscle imbalance between back and stomach.

mrfish

Well fit positions normally get the back straight or slightly rounded. In men typically the back ends up rounded because the pelvis is not flexible enough to rotate forwards to straighten the back. In women, the opposite can occur because their backs and hips are more flexible, giving the concave back position you noticed.

Agree that your stoker's fit looks odd. I couldn't decide if it's because she's moving on the bike / trying to see over you, or whether it's truly a fit issue. Best to set up your tandem in a turbo trainer and see what it looks like without you in the driving seat. I am a bit confused about your stoker's comment that the bars are too far away - if anything the back curves if the bars are too close.
Anyway, set up the tandem in a turbo trainer and start experimenting.

So what could you do? I would start by carefully marking all current postions so that you can put it all back if she doesn't like what you end up with.

I like two approaches - one is to measure everything and set up the position for a single bike. The Hinault / Genzling method (google it) is quite well accepted from the measuring side and gives an excellent start position which you can fine-tune. Most measurement-led fit techniques are more-or-less similar to this.

Alternatively you could use the cyclingnews.com fit expert's strategy, which is much more qualitative - you could read the cyclingnews pages, but the key concept is that moving the seat back takes weight off the hands, and could allow your stoker to be comfortable in her current length of position.

Hope that helps.

Bill G

I tend to disagree here. It is hard to tell from the pic, but it does look like her saddle is low and there is a reach problem. The captain is short like me. I am only 5.8" tall and my wife is about 5.4" tall but our true inseam measurment only differs by 1". The problem is the stoker stem can only be raised so far on the captains seat post when the captain is a shorter guy. With that being said, this limits the stoker bar height adjustment causing her to reach or lean forward to much. This was the same problem my wife had, but after changing the bar configuration like the pics above in my other post, the problem was solved. My wife has now ridden in comfort for a lot of long miles. The pic above by 72andsunny looks a lot like the way my wife had to reach for the bar at one time on our first tandem causing her to put to much weight on her hands and making her tend to lock her elbows. It also caused her to crawl the saddle or slide forward to relieve the pressure on her hands, which in turn, caused other problems with proper fore and aft saddle adjustments, wich affects the neutral knee position in relationship to the peddle spindle. A knee position to far ahead or to far behind the peddle spindle can be a problem as well, a neutral knee or slightly behind position is normaly recommended. This is accomplished by dropping a plum line from the front of the forward knee cap and have it bisect the peddle spindle with the crank arm facing straight forward siting in the proper riding position cleated in making sure not to rock the hips side to side while making this check.

Tandem fit and single bike fit can be different for different people and if done correctly it can be very comfortable but if done wrong, will make the miles long and uncomfortable. There are some proper guide lines to start with concerning bike fit that work very well. The method I use for bike fit was designed by Greg Lemond and it has worked very well.

Take Care & Ride Together,
Bill G

TandemGeek

Based on the photo -- and some assumptions given the poor angle -- I'd suggest:

1. About 1.5cm (2cm max) up on the shock post to compensate for sag, or perhaps 1cm up + increasing the pre-load on the suspension post to reduce some of the sag.

2. About 4cm - 5cm up (not back) on the stoker bar height for the time being.

3. Check the nose angle on her saddle. If it's down or flat level, consider tipping the nose up just a little to correct her posture.

After making these adjustments, have someone ride behind you and make sure that her hips aren't rocking. If they are, drop the saddle about 2mm at a time until she stops rocking her hips.

If the bars still seem to be too far away after raising their height relative to her saddle height, before moving the bars back make sure that her saddle isn't sitting too far back on the seat rails / seatpost mast. If the saddle is well back and, or if its 1/2 way back on a set-back seatpost, consider moving the saddle forward vs. moving the bars back.

Continue to make one adjustment at a time until you get her dialed in to where she feels comfortable after a long ride. If something is adjusted and doesn't work, remember to keep a record of where things were so that you can back track to the previous settings before trying something else.

72andsunny

Thanks everyone for all the feedback. I'll get to work tonight...

My stoker wanted me to report that we had just finished a 70 mile ride (5 extra miles due to some construction on PCH), so our form may have been slightly worse than when we started.

bockwho

try competive cyclist .com .. they also sell bikes but have a great fit calcuator .. make sure you pic the road set up. and not the tri setup..

really close .. or as acuratley as you can measure