Originally Posted by Veloduo
My question: is this just bad luck, or do stokers inherently suffer because they don't see the fall coming? Wife claims she saw the dog and considered shouting, but her instinct was that she'd startle me, or the dog, or both of us, or something. Given this, I'm tempted to think that she has to kind of learn HOW to fall -- I know that sounds ridiculous -- but I remember having these kinds of conversations with my racing mentors back in the day. "Learn to relax and just go with the fall, don't fight it, don't try to brace yourself, etc."
I certainly accept responsibility for both incidents. Captain of the ship and all that. But what are we doing wrong if she keeps getting the worse end of it?
Thanks, yall.
We do a fair bit of off-roading on the tandem. And yes, the stoker suffers more from crashes. We feel the captain has more "insight" in what's going on, even when the bike unexpectedly slips like you did on the algae. Therefore, the captain's reaction time is shorter which gives better chances for coming out relatively unscathed. Also, the back end of a falling/sliding/flipping tandem makes a bigger turn than the front end (at least I think so).
And for the record: in the first years of off-roading I mashed my dearest stoker (who BTW resembles yours in her moves and flexibility on the bike) into the odd tree and rock. But in 2003, we fell hard for the first time. In a slight left hand turn down the Ballon d'Alsace (France), the rear tire suddenly blew. In retrospect, this was because the sidewall had degraded far more than I ever managed to notice - sheer negligence, your Honour
Anyway, we ended up with a dachshund with a broken leg, a wife/stoker with two fractured ribs and me with ...... well ....... two bruises
