All of the advice given above is very good and I would also endorse and advise "Key Word" signals.

When I was learning to sail many years ago, I discovered the wisdom of having a few, very specific words for commands to direct exact manuevers without question or discussion.

By the time we started tandem riding I had limited rotational movement in my neck, so when we are approaching a straight 90 degree intersection, I check the left and stoker checks right. If there's nothing coming on my side, I call "clear left" or otherwise "stopping", but I don't enter the intersection until I hear "clear right", or I call "stopping" immediately if I hear "car right". Often the "car" is really a truck or motorcycle, but the signals are always the same and clearly indisputable.

If the intersection is diagonal and I know I'll be able to see right easier, I'll call "I've got right, check left" in advance and we switch signal calling, left for right/ right for left.

When we are preparing for a left turn I'll ask her to check our 6:00 by calling "left turn traffic?". The expected answers are "car back" or "clear". The few times I heard "clear back", I didn't move over until the question "clear or car back" was answered". I haven't heard "clear back" for a long time.

When we mount up, I straddle the bike and she gets on and clips in both feet. If we're standing around for a minute or two waiting for an event start or something, she might move the pedals to the 9:00/3:00 position, but when I'm ready, I call "up" and my right pedal comes to 1:00 and we get a good power stroke to start.

I shift a lot, hey we paid good money for all those gears, we're gonna use them. I’ll call out, and we'll ease off from extreme effort, for shifts on the front derailleur, going big ring to middle or middle to small going uphill. But we're pretty seamless going in the other direction, or shifting the rear under load in either direction with our Campy equipped bike.

Other than that, our most common signals are "Bump" when I see them well in advance and "Bump, oops, sorry Dear" for the surprises.

Communicate verbally a lot when you start riding tandem and you'll soon find yourselves automatically communicating non-verbally more and more as your experience increases.

Enjoy.

I have the great good fortune of my wife also being our stoker. We manage the technical communication in much the same way as described (Move left? Clear. Ready? Go! etc.). But we also spend much of the time during our ride engaged in conversation. I check in about the speed/cadance. We plan dinner, comment on the sweet aromas (sometimes not so sweet) of rural Utah. We pretend we're in the Irish countryside... The only interruption is when I holler "Bump!" or some other technical riding situation arises. It's one of the things we enjoy about riding zu zweit.

Mark...thanks for the clarification. I didn't know the history, just always heard that expression. And of course I knew it didn't literally mean we're accurate/correct... simply that it pays to keep the stoker happy by listening to her (or him as the case may be). And thanks for the welcome. Great group here.

Sheila

Among the things that you will learn as tandem newbies are these:

1. The captain needs butt breaks. You will need to either stand and coast, or stand and pedal. You'll have to communicate about this.
2. The captain needs to think about when to drink. If you're in the habit of drinking just when you start an uphill, it's a really good idea to downshift before drinking.
3. The stoker is likely to not be as tolerant of the bike leaning during a turn as the captain is at first. What doesn't seem like much lean to the front seat is more lean to the back seat.
4. When you're starting or stopping the bike, you cannot lean it as much to the side as a single bike. Your stoker is sitting on the bike, and the weight of tandem + stoker is harder to balance and steady. Be cautious about leaning the bike during starting/stopping until you get a feel for the relationship between your arm/shoulder strength and what your max angle of control is. Dumping the stoker on the ground while she's clipped into the pedals makes her very upset. Where you are used to having 1 foot on the ground at a red light, you may need to put both feet down for most of the duration of the light, then put 1 foot on a pedal right before you start riding.
5. You have to look and think farther ahead when captaining a tandem. It takes longer to stop. Think of it as a truck without power steering.

Esther

Intercom systems on the tandem are not just for the hearing impaired! They are a wonderful way to make "normal voice" conversations possible, and they also remove the necessity for figuring out your own personal set of one syllable close-order drill commands! The wireless variety even allow those conversations on your singles while in a paceline!

Sheila said there are two choices, but actually there are now three. The third is the BlueAnt Interphone wireless, and although it is designed for motorcycles, it has many features that make it an order of magnitude better than the other choices for some.

I will be doing a full review of it with its advantages and disadvantages (hopefully) by the weekend, but our preliminary take on it with a few pics can be found in one of the current posts on the front page of our tandem blog. http://billnmaggi.tandemrides.com/

I have, incidently, figured out a good neckband setup for it that anyone can make in 10 minutes with some double-faced tape, adhesive-backed velcro and a pair of scissors.

Our 2¢ worth:
When we go too fast downhill for the stoker's comfort level, she taps me on the back a couple of times: once we're above 40mph on a downhill run, the wind makes it hard for me to hear her, so the the tapping has been perfect. But don't ask what I do to deserve a "pinch his butt" communiqué...

Also - we used to both have a leg down for the start, but we switched to the stoker staying clipped in for starts and it's become a MUCH smoother and more dependable start for us.