Originally Posted by
Phantoj
IMO, the big problem with poorly-synced teams is that the riders aren't in sync with how they modulate their efforts. I.e. if I'm captaining the tandem, I might want to increase the team power output to 150% of the team's combined sustainable power to close up a gap or power up a short hill. If my stoker keeps his power output at 100%, I might have to surge to 200% to close the gap. So I'm killing myself, really going anaerobic and wearing myself out extra quick, when if we both upped our power output to 150%, we could close the gap without "burning so many matches".
Yes, right on. Stoker and I both wear coded HRMs. The really weird thing is that after the first 5 or 10 miles, our HRs are synched up. We call them out to each other just to make sure, but mostly we're about the same. If I power up, she powers up. If I back off, she backs off. If I want to attack, I say "Accelerate" as softly as I can. Otherwise, I usually don't have to say anything. We're not exactly sure how this works, but I'm sure it's something about the feel of the pedals.