Originally Posted by
Trakhak
Never heard that one. For most of the time that they've existed, almost all tandems (other than a small proportion of custom tandems) have been designed with the expectation that the larger (and probably stronger) of the two riders is in front.
Whoever would argue for the stronger rider being in back has a fundamental misunderstanding of how tandems work.
Well, he was in the bike industry so maybe, like everything else, opinions and best practices change over the decades. Or maybe he was just being contrarian, which would not have been unusual.