As I look at more and more recumbent bicycle stuff the more I notice that recumbent riders of all types of vehicles singles, tandems, trikes, etc. are just as obsessed with hills as 'wedgie' tandem riders and also feel that their chosen iron cannot climb hills as well as half bikes. Hmmmm. what is it that 'bents and tandems have in common? Could it be that on neither is 'standing' a big part of the technique? Its impossible on 'bents and advanced technique on wedgie tandems and I for one think that it is the ONLY factor in the common wisdom that tandems cannot climb as well as singles. Show me a team that can stand fluently and I bet a weeks pay that they will not find a given hill any more or less a 'problem' than either rider on a single bike! Now this is assuming that ridiculous combinations of hyper fit, super experienced rider and totally out of condition and similarly inexperienced rider are avoided. My GF is very fit, possibly more fit than I since she does more cross training in the gym. Our tandem technique is in its infancy so we avoid standing at all on hills. I ride a folder and because of its squirrelly handling I avoid standing on that too. Hills are tackled by sensible gearing and patience. I don't notice any difference in the effort it takes to get up hills on our tandem or when I climb them on my single. However when I did ride a track style bike with fixed gear back in the day I would shoot up hills by attacking them with a burst of speed and standing as the momentum dropped. I would have passed any tandem team spinning up that same hill as if they were standing still.
H