My stoker is clipped in and keeps her feet up when stopped - this makes for much tidier takeoffs. In order to do this I have to keep the bike bolt upright when we stop and not let the bike lean a bit like you do with a halfbike - it's a trust thing - this means me coming forward off the saddle - both feet on the ground to stop. She pedals backward to bring the right pedal up for me in anticipation of start and has learnt to watch where my legs are and not whack me in the shin.

I call "coast" for coasting - usually in anticipation of corners, although her cranks are shorter it would be a bit of a disaster to ground one in a corner.

Sometimes I call for coming bumps too - if the pedals are horizontal she can stand a bit over the bump, there's carbon bars and a thudbuster post on the back but these can only do so much.

I also call for hand signals, I never let go of the bars, she can of course.

A final rare call is for coming gear changes - the Rohloff doesn't like changing under heavy load. Usually me easing off takes away more than half the horse and all is well - but if I've fecked up and left an uphill change too late then I need her to ease off too. Also sometimes I roll to a halt in too high a gear and need to wind back a few gears before we start, sometimes she's on the pedals with me holding the bike on brakes - I can usually manage to ease off for the gear change by lifting the right pedal with my toe.

The last trick we have is sometimes for fiddly maneuvering with me walking astride the bike - I can avoid having to push by gearing right down and asking her to pedal slowly.

She's just the *best* stoker.