Originally Posted by Co-Mo
Reason for the email is: Last night on a hill climb without warning, the bike just stopped struggling/jittering/drifting on me. Our Co-Motion seemed to have finally figured out rythm and rocketed up the climb with the slight rocking motion of how it's done on a single. At the top I asked my stoker how she felt (knowing she'd tried something new) and she said "did that help you on the climb, better or worse?" She'd lifted out of the saddle by about and inch or two, and not tried to fight the bike and muscle it for leverage. She powered up the climb letting the bike "use her for leverage" and do what and where it (bike and captain) wanted. She's learned a very HUGE lesson, what I'll call "the art of light hands". How to be fluid on a climb and not fight the bike.
I used to have a problem with stoker that used to rock the tandem. In fact it was becoming impossible to ride on slow uphills offroad, as the rocking movement was affecting the steering so much that it was impossible to control. This was cured, by the stoker putting hands on the pilots waist. This cured the problem completely, but was not very pleasant having a 14 stone muscular bloke put his hands around my slimmer, more athletic, male torso. A compromise was reached in that he nows puts his hands in the centre of the bars, hence getting less leverage and no rocking. It works.
Incidentally, we have now changed roles as the tandem is better balanced with him up front, and the problem nows comes in that he is still rocking the tandem. I am a "naturally" smooth rider, and it bugs me that the tandem sways from side to side, even at low pressure riding, so has anyone got a cure for for this problem?