Weird Ride
01-18-09, 06:57 AM
#1
Grumpy Old Bugga
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Weird Ride
Walking back to the car after the opening stage of the Tour Down Under tonight, a tandem flashed past with the lady on the back waving to everyone and smiling. Nothing weird in that except that she was FACING BACKWARDS!
This tandem had been built with the rear cockpit facing backwards - bars, seat, the works. I guess she had to pedal backwards as well and they had a fair old cadence going.
Cripes it looked funny.
Richard
This tandem had been built with the rear cockpit facing backwards - bars, seat, the works. I guess she had to pedal backwards as well and they had a fair old cadence going.
Cripes it looked funny.
Richard
01-18-09, 07:58 AM
#2
astro
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Was it a recumbent?
Walking back to the car after the opening stage of the Tour Down Under tonight, a tandem flashed past with the lady on the back waving to everyone and smiling. Nothing weird in that except that she was FACING BACKWARDS!
This tandem had been built with the rear cockpit facing backwards - bars, seat, the works. I guess she had to pedal backwards as well and they had a fair old cadence going.
Cripes it looked funny.
Richard
This tandem had been built with the rear cockpit facing backwards - bars, seat, the works. I guess she had to pedal backwards as well and they had a fair old cadence going.
Cripes it looked funny.
Richard
On all the ones I've seen, the stoker pedals in the normal direction relative to the stoker.
I wondered what complicated linkage was required to convert the "backward" rotation of the stoker's chain ring to the "forward" rotation of the rest of the drive train.
When I got to see one up close, I had one of the "slap on the forehead," "of course," moments. It's amazingly simple, you just cross the chain so it runs in a figure eight.
I think the main advantage of a back to back tandem is that they can be more compact than a regular tandem. This is especially important for recumbents where the riders are stretched out. I have a tandem, recumbent tricycle and it's 11 feet long!
- Ed
01-18-09, 08:07 AM
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Riding in the rear-facing seat in my mom's station wagon used to make me sick when I was a kid. I wonder if it would be the same biking while facing backwards.
01-18-09, 09:03 AM
#4
Let's do a Century
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Don't know about most folks, but I need to see where I'm headed!! Maybe the new technology will have them sitting backwards with a widescreen LCD display showing what lies ahead????
01-18-09, 09:35 AM
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Time for a change.
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No thanks
Pics from the Tandem forum and the stoker does not have steering ability for some reason.
Pics from the Tandem forum and the stoker does not have steering ability for some reason.
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How long was I in the army? Five foot seven.
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Last edited by stapfam; 01-18-09 at 09:41 AM.
01-18-09, 10:23 AM
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Your post reminded me of another question: Those cars that have the rear view cameras - does the dash monitor display the view that you would get if you turned around and looked out the back or is it the view that you'd get looking in a rear view mirror?
01-19-09, 07:03 AM
#7
don't try this at home.
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Here's a YouTube video of a back-to-back tandem. It does look odd.
01-19-09, 09:03 AM
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Yep, that's weird!
Geeze, seems like something from "Alice in Wonderland", what would be the "improvement" over a normal tandem?
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01-19-09, 12:18 PM
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Why?
01-19-09, 12:23 PM
#10
getting bent
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Mine is selectable.
01-19-09, 12:25 PM
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370H-SSV-0773H
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i love it!
i want a 'Flevobike'!
:-)
i want a 'Flevobike'!
:-)
