Dean V

We were away on holiday this week so had a chance to ride some roads that we don't normally.
Last time I did this ride I only had my solo bike and managed to get 54mph down one of the hills. It isn't a very long hill but is 15% + gradient.
This time we took the tandem and I put on a 56/11 top gear for the occasion. Our previous best was 58mph at home but the hills just don't often get much steeper than 10% there.
Anyway, we managed to get 65mph so it was a real blast. It is a sure is good fun going down hill fast on a tandem.
We also enjoyed some good climbs up these hills too. Low gear was a 30/26 which was ok, but I think if the hills got much longer (they were about 2 miles max) something a bit lower would be good.

AllezDada

Wow. Better you than me!

specbill

.....when we get over 50 my mind goes to "what if... a tire ...a deer...a wheel bearing etc etc. Kudos to you for over-riding the "what if's"...., that had to be big fun. Where were you riding if you don' mind?

Bill J.

hup

Stoker veto kicks in when we push 40.

Dean V

It was the Coromandel Peninsula which is in the North Island of New Zealand.

gracehowler

NZ, of course, its warm there!
R&J

conspiratemus1

My rationale is that as long as you don't hit something solid (like a moose, or a car turning left in front of you), if you go down at high speed you just slide farther and lose more skin but you don't die. This isn't really true, of course, especially for the stoker, but if the road is straight and wide and smooth with no intersections (and no moose-crossing signs ), it helps us both over-ride the "what-if's". Susan loves the speed and she'd go faster than I would if she had a choice.

Funny, I don't like driving my car fast at all. 110 km/hr if I'm in a hurry, otherwise 100 -- the speed limit on most expressways -- with the right lane all to myself and let all the road-ragers duke it out in the two fast lanes going 130.

Homeyba

That's why the stoker doesn't get a speedo.

Interestingly, I've been faster on my single bike, 72.4mph, than I have on the tandem. I tend to be a little more conservative on the tandem. I made my stoker cry once and learned that the last thing you want to do is make your stoker cry...

hup

We have eliminated her Garmin ..... she must have an innate speedo or something because she tugs at the jersey at pretty much the same speed now as she did before.
I don't even want to get close to making her cry!

prathmann

When I had the tandem set up as a kid-back, my daughter quickly realized that there was no need for any jersey-tugging, crying, etc. - all she had to do was yank on the bare cable running along the top tube and the bike would immediately slow down.

waynesulak

My wife/stoker enjoys going fast. My 24 year old son did tell after our one tandem ride that at 40mph he felt a little relived we couldn't go any faster. In his defense he is not a cyclist so it was all new to him. Then again he rides a motorcycle on the freeway!

Wayne

hup

Lol ~ ix-nay on the able-cay alk-tay

Chris_W

That's impressive, especially to find a stoker who is so keen. On a straight open road, my wife is OK with up to about 50 mph (80 kph). We have hit almost 60 mph once or twice, but she wasn't happy about that. On more technical sections, she's not happy above 35-40 mph (60-65 kph).

zonatandem

Have broken 50 mph (coasting) quite often in our younger days.
Have also crashed at 30+ mph on tandem . . . pilot rolls over the bars, stoker goes down with the bike.
Now that we are in our late 70s we no longer go that fast down hill.
Pedal on!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

waynesulak

I noticed you qualified that with downhill....


just joking - Wayne

2frmMI

I think it was at about 54 mph that I acquired the teeth-shaped scars in my back... She loves to go fast, but "really fast" ends abruptly at about 50 mph.

prathmann

Don't know if you remember Rudy, but a few decades ago in the pre-bike computer days, you gave (sold?) us an old analog speedometer with a wheel that touched the front tire to register the speed. Shortly thereafter we took the tandem on a camping trip to the Santa Rita mountains. While descending on the way home, we got the speed up to the pinned position of the speedometer (50 mph) just before we rounded a turn to find a bull standing in the middle of our lane. Fortunately there was no oncoming traffic and we were able to zip around him with our bright red-orange panniers only about a foot from his head - but it put a bit of a damper on our desire to go any faster.

zonatandem

Yup, remember that pre-computer!
It was a definite 'upgrade' from the old Lucas clic-clic cyclometers from the '70s!
We've got a bull story also . . . Huge bull jumped a fence in front of us while on Frontage Rd next to I-10. Big wild-eyed look as he did not see the fence between I-10 and Frontage Rd as it was covered with green vines.
He bounced off that fence and ran back in front of us and jumped the original fence back into the pasture.

steve53mg

My wife would have beat me to submission long before seeing those speeds!

Monoborracho

We've been up into the high 40's. That will probably be it for us. Now, we usually keep it in the low to mid 30's with the drag break and stoker is very happy. We're planning a new custom tandem before the year is out. I've pretty much already decided on rim brakes and the drum brake being, for us, the best route to go.

oldacura

I think our highest speed was 58 mph about 8 years ago. Since then we've gotten a bit more cautious. Not sure if it would make much difference going down at 48 -vs- 58 mph but near 50 I start thinking "what if?".

On our bike I think we've pedaled up to about 45 - 48 mph (54/11 gears). After that, it's just tucking.

waynesulak

We find that for us unless there is a tail wind pedaling above 35pmh has little benefit compared to tucking.

Wayne

Dean V

We pedaled all the way up to 65. I don't know if it would of been any better in a aero tuck as we didn't try the same hill more than once. But on the hills around home where we often get into the 50s we always seem a bit faster with a sprint type pedaling effort as opposed to an aero tuck.

oldacura

Any idea what your RPM would be at 65 MPH with 56/11 gearing?

Homeyba

I run a 60-11 and am spun out around 50+ or so. I would imagine I'd be somewhere around 150+/- rpm's at 60mph so for a 56T I'd guess it'd be a few % points higher.