I turned 50 and decided to ride a tandem. After much research I went with Bob Brown. This has been a wonderful process - he has been painstaking in his communication by e-mail throughout and I would recommend him to anyone who wants a custom bike. He built and delivered this elegent tandem the day before my birthday and I thought I would share some pictures of this bicycle and also ask more experienced tandem riders for their wisdom (I have only managed a few miles so far). I attach my Flkr link for pictures - you can also see my Mercian 1980 frame and see its influence upon the Bob Brown tandem:
Bob Brown fully lugged steel tandem
This bike has a number of nice features. It includes S and S coupling, ICS system from daVinci, an Avid mechanical ball bearing disc break on the rear wheel. It has a Reynolds tandem road racing fork, Tandem wheels with Chris King tandem hubs humming at the back. Most of all it has Bob Brown's supreme craftmanship.
He has blogged the manufacture on his site with photographs and detailed descriptions at each stage of its fabrication:
March 2007 archive - here is where he begins
April 2007 archive - most of the work
May 2007 archive - the final pictures I have also placed on my flkr site

As a novice tandem captain my initial brief rides have been down our more-or-less flat street with my brother (165 pounds) or my 14 year old son (125 lbs). My first impression is the swaying from side to side with the weight of the stoker shifting in or out of synchronization with my swaying. As my brother Mark put it - there is a danger of resonating and falling. We found after a while this was much reduced. However, it is still there starting or slowing. I have therefore not embarked on any longer rides as I want to feel more confident. Any suggestions?

I have a 12 and a 9 year old I want to ride with and haven't figured out how to start. Also, I don't want my wife to be a stoker until I have become more experienced as I don't want to put her off with my fledgling rides! At present the stoker starts peddling as I support the bike and then I balance the bike and click in my pedals as the stoker provides the intial acceleration. My 12 and 9 year old will not be able to do this. Please help me with these basics so I can start to clock up the miles and get to my first rally this year.

Thank you for your wisdom!

Adam

congratulations..that is a beautiful bike.


As to starting the bike, I'm not sure it is the "correct" way..but what works for us is I straddle the bike with the stoker clipped in and ready to pedal....with the pedal I want to start out with (my right foot) in about a 2:00-3:00 oclock position, I stand on that pedal and settle into the seat....the bike has started..and I hope the stoker has started to pedal.

Sheldon Brown's website has several good articles on riding and starting, including this: https://sheldonbrown.com/tandem.html#starting

Enjoy your new bike.

That is one of the most amazing and beautiful bicycles I have ever seen. Hope you soon get the hang of riding it.

Very nice/beautiful old-style lugged frameset . . . with 21st century improvements in componentry. A combination of craftsmanship/artistry!
We were owners of 2 lugged 531 tandem frames: Assenmacher in 1976 and a Colin Laing in mid 80s. Now have a carbon fiber Zona with, you guessed it: c/f cut-out lugged frame.
Puzzling on why you ordered a custom tandem and had never mastered the tandem riding technique before investing lotsa $$.
Learning to handle/ride a tandem is not too difficult, really.
The independent coasting could throw off your starting up a bit, 'til you get used to it
Pilot mounts tandem first, holds both brakes and keeps both feet flat on the ground. Stoker mounts
tandem and clips in. Seeing that you have IC, there's no need for stoker to pedal backwards and bring up pilot's pedal to the correct start-off position.
Make sure stoker does NOT try to steer, or look over pilots' left or right shoulder . . . sort of sit still like a sack of poatatoes (that pedals) 'til you get your act together after a few rides. A bit of a learning curve, but not bad, you'll soon get the hang of it.
Pilot's responsibility is to call out everything he's doing on that tandem, so stoker can hear it. Pedal, coasting, braking, shifting, stopping/slowing/left or right turn. Stoker does all the signaling so pilot keeps hands on the bars. Also pilot will call out all the bumps . . .stoker can't see 'em and is best forwarned.
Stopping the tandem; call out stopping; pilot puts both feet on the ground holding the brakes. Stoker dismounts and says "Off" after she/he walks away from the bike. That way, no unexpected karate kick by pilot to unsuspecting stoker.
Good idea to keep spouse of the Brown Tandem 'til you learn how to handle it properly . . . then have lots of patience!
Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

In a perfect world, you'd want to stick with in-phase or out-of-phase until you get a feel for riding a tandem. It would take a lot discipline on the part of you and your stoker(s) to stay that way but it would make the handling more predictable during your initial outings since each type of phasing creates a different "feel" to how the tandem handles.

However, that's not what you bought into so you'll just need to stick with it and wait for you and your stokers to come up the learning curve on how to pedal smoothly. In this regard, try to do most of your riding in gear combinations that are easy to spin at a relatively high RPM, e.g., 90ish. Keeping the revs up tends to eliminate pedal mashing and the associated side-to-side body English which I suspect may be part of what you're experiencing... but it's just a guess. The "death roll" that your brother mentioned was, as Zona intimated, exacerbated by his movements on the back of the tandem. Similar to riding two-up on a motorcycle, what you don't want are passengers who tend to be back-seat drivers as they can really muck up the works... particularly if they are as tall, taller and/or heavier than the captain.

Starting with the younger and smaller kids on board would be accomplished just as you did with your 14 year old: let them saddle-up like they would a horse and have them give it their best effort in terms of providing power as you start. Up front, just ignore the presence of the stoker and start out just as you would from a dead stop on an incline (exept that you'll want to keep the tandem perpendicular to the ground vs. leaning it over as you would your single bike)... use a short gear and get your down foot up and on the pedal as quickly as you can. Don't worry about "clicking in" until the tandem is carring enough momentum to coast in a straight line and then readjust your foot to engage the cleat.

Unless your spouse is similar in size to your brother (height more so than mass), stick with the 14 year old as your stoker using the higher cadence and practice coordinating your ability to stay locked in the same phasing... this is a still you'll want to have when you introduce your spouse to the tandem. Aside from that, easy as she goes. Be an attentive listener and encourage real-time feedback from your stokers on when the tandem feels unsteady so that you can try and correlate it to what you're gearing and cadence is and/or what type of riding situation you're in, e.g., climbing, slow-riding in congested areas, or losing focus while fiddling around with something else or sight-seeing.

It's just a big bike: just do whatever you can do to relax and to put your stoker at ease.... which does put a high demand on patience.
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Thanks for the helpful reply. I started with a custom tandem as I felt at 50 with kids between 9 and nearly 14 I wanted to have some enchanted years of tandem riding. I assumed there would be a learning curve and that we would be off on some longer rides before long. I also discovered Bob Brown's tandems while researching/dreaming about them and loved the aesthetics of a fully lugged steel tandem made with lighter contempory alloy tubing. Bob Brown's craftsmanship is so artful, I feel this is a tandem my grandchildren will still be happy to ride!
Your fully carbon lugged tandem is a great solution quoting those lugged steel bikes you rode previously and must be very light. I have to say I love my Mercian lugged 531 frame single bicycle and it remains a favorite for putting on the miles - commuting and longer rides. I enjoy my Spectrum titanium bicycle when I am training with my son for a triathlon or trying to keep up with friends who are 20 years younger on the hills around Ithaca, NY.

My question: What is the best starting techique for my skinny 9 year old daughter. Should I use the same technique? I am concerned she might not be able to propel the bike for the crucial first few meters while I am clicking into the pedals.

Adam

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I like your comments about starting from a dead stop on an incline as an example of how to start with light children. I will follow your advice. The independent coasting is paying off in other ways - cornering and getting used to pedalling cadence. My wife is an equestrian and I am hoping the tandem will be her way of cross-training - the penalty is I am likely to end up on the back of a horse which seems to me to be like a tandem with an attitude!

You may have not have run into this yet in your first forays. The ICS will allow an inexperienced stoker to put their inside pedal down through a corner causing a pedal strike. Unnerving at least but potentially dangerous. You should not run into this unless you start getting more aggressive on your corners. It can also happen more easily if your stoker points their toes down especially with older cage style pedals and toe clips. Although it looks like you have clipless pedals from your pic. With freedom comes choice .

What a wonderful tandem Adamlaw, congratulations! Bob Brown is truly one of the great builders in our business and one of the few who make tandems and especially lugged tandems! I wish more people knew what a great alternative custom frame makers are.

It may surprise some to find out how many of my customers are not necessarily very experienced riders. What they do know is that they love cycling and would rather not go through multiple bicycles getting to the one they should have. It often even saves money in that one is not buying 2 or 3 bikes that depreciate heavily before they get what they really want. Hopefully that is where the custom frame builder can guide the customer.

Have many great adventures on that bike.

Dave Bohm
Bohemian Bicycles

Finally had a few minutes to look at the photos. Nice work from Bob as always.

You'll excuse my critical eye, but I can't help myself... I'm somewhat surprised the pointed coupler sleeves weren't carved into a fleur de lis or a similar design to compliment the lugs. I'm also a bit curious as to why you didn't have the fork painted to match the rest of the frame? Finally, did you consciously opt to use "The Stoker is Always Right" instead of the actual quote, "The Stoker Makes No Mistakes"?

Again, beautiful frame and workmanship.

Fleur de lis - what a great idea. I will send the frame back to Bob! No, seriously, I didn't think of that at the time.

I didn't paint the fork because it matched the black of the rims - I debated having Bob fabricate a steel fork, but he felt Reynolds made the toughest forks in the business.

Bob Brown told me this phrase in an e-mail. He told me it was the only rule for tandem riding. Actually, I prefer it to the actual quote as it is more prescriptive. I felt my wife would be more likely to get on board if she felt she was going to be listened to when she had requests like - slow down or isn't it time for a break!

Adam

Dave: you put it very nicely. Bob Brown is both a custom tandem builder and also a tandem rider. He is able to build something that has a great likelihood of being the one tandem that will work right from the start. I will be making up the experience rapidly!

Adam

I thank you for drawing my attention to the cornering issues. I have been using older style cage pedals for the stokers until they get used to using clipless. However, I always make safety my priority and will build this into stoker education!

Adam

Thanks. Again, it's a beautiful frame. Just had those three linger questions that I needed answered.

- Trust me, there are various things that I didn't think about with all of our custom tandems... in fact, adding couplers to our first custom tandem would have mitigated the rationale for the second.

- No doubt that the Reynolds is beefy; again, just curious was to the driver behind going "nude" vs painting to match the frame.

- The "stoker's always right" vs "makes no mistakes" both apply in most successful tandem couples; I was just curious as to the origins of your phrasing.

Adam:

David Bohm (BohemianBicycles) has done gorgeuous S&S fittings with fancy drillings/designs for some of his customers.
That's icing on the cake, so to speak and costs only a 'few' $$ more . . . let's face it, we are the ones who want the tandem and design it to suit our needs/whims!
Would not worry too much about scraping a pedal in a turn unless you get into a racing/leaning way over mode. However, do be aware of some of these speed bumps/humps . . . we bashed a Phil Wood platform pedal (way back when!) into a speed bump when crossing over the Mexico/US border. We do pedal 90 degrees out-of-phase, somehing that would/could happen with ICS.
Don't worry about the lightweight younger stoker . . . powert-to-weight ratio comes into play and most kids are more adaptable than a lot of adulsts.
We can be philisophical about why we spend so much $$ on bikes/tandems, but ours is: 'It's an investment in our good health!'
Photo attached of the rest of our c/f Zona tandem.
Enjoy that new rideable work of art!

That is quite a bike - it has a art nouveau quality to it with very fluid lines.

You are right - I took my 9 year old out for a spin tonight. She was the easiest stoker so far. What is more she loved it and is asking me if we can go out again after dinner. I think this is the beginning of something big!

Adam