Originally Posted by
Carbonfiberboy
My wife and I have been riding a tandem since '07. My wife does all her riding on the tandem and I ride my single only a few times a year. We ride 2,000-3,000 miles/year. My wife rode her single before we got the tandem. Her fitness increased greatly after starting stoking, I think because I can kind of take the edge off the hard efforts so she can ride both longer and harder on the tandem that she could on her single. We mostly sport ride, by ourselves and group rides, and have done some loaded touring, which we really like. We bought a used CoMotion Speedster, a 36 lb. steel bike with touring braze-ons and room for big tires and fenders. In perfect condition, it cost us about 1/2 of new.
My wife had displays for both her HR and mine. I don't see hers. She works to approximately match my HR, which is how we distribute the effort to make it fun for both of us. We love riding tandem together.
I ride stoker on our tandem. I really enjoy the fact that I can simply bury myself on the climbs, knowing that if I completely bonk out my wife can provide enough power to keep us going while I recover, albeit at a much reduced speed. I rarely go as deep into the red on my half-bike, in fact I often find myself dogging it on the approach to the last big climb of the day just so I don't burn out.
I also think there's something magical and entrancing about both riders on the tandem pounding up a hill. It's like a strenuous modern dance that no one wants to cause to end by backing off. Many times we have both been surprised to have arrived at the top of a familiar climb without really being aware of where we were or how we got there.