Ramona_W

I've been a stoker for much of the last three years and I've enjoyed it. Going places together and at the same pace, learning to work as a team, encouragement to push myself further like finally making the leap to clipping in: These are all great aspects of a tandem. What I don't enjoy is that on nearly every trip, someone has to say to my captain "She's not pedaling back there". Bystanders, runners, other cyclists- never other tandem riders- and once a little old lady who was was walking her dog, stopped, shook her finger at us and said in a shaky voice "You do know she's not pedaling, don't you?" Wut?!

So, what's your response to these folks? Do you ignore them? Do you shrug off their comments? Or do you have some wisdom or a snappy comeback you'd like to share? Oh, and FWIW I really am pedaling back there.

Stick69

Very rare for us to get a comment like that. I once said "that's OK, I'm not steering".

B. Carfree

No one said anything like that at all today as I rode along with my two stokers, one on a trail-a-bike thing (Burley Piccolo). All we got were cheers and compliments. It likely had something to do with the fact that my stokers were my three and just-turned-five-year-old grand-daughters.

When it's my wife and me on our other tandem, I ride stoker (you should see the looks that gets, particularly from the women riding with men who never realized they could ride captain). I never take those not-so-witty comments seriously. The people just want to say something in the moment it takes to pass them by and they can't think of anything original. I accept it in the friendly spirit it's usually offered in and just smile and say, "Shhh, she doesn't know."

Paul J

Similar to my comeback, "she better be because all I'm doing is steering". :-)

tkramer

Since I ride with flat pedals, I simply pull my feet off and let my cranks spin. The only exception being climbing which is about 50% of the time. Otherwise I just laugh sardonically like I've never hear it before. My stoker might be giving them a dirty look or rude gesture. I don't know for sure.

Sprout97 

"That's o.k. She's taking me to Longhorn steakhouse tonight." That's my usual response. I try to limit the irritation factor.

New2Two

I shout back "That's OK, she's management!"

KD5NRH

"She's trying to drop back after that Mexican food I had for lunch."

DCwom

I'd rather have them say "Shes not pedaling" than throwing bottles at us. I take it as a pro comment about cycling rather than a negative thing, we usually smile & wave.

oldacura

"She's not pedaling back there" is one of my wife's least favorite comment. She feels that there is a general consensus that the Stoker isn't working as hard as the Captain. I try to convince her that these people don't have the first clue about Tandeming and just think they are being clever. She wishes that she had a snappy comeback but I don't think there is anything that could be said that could be understood in a second or two and not come off as angry. These people think that they are the first ones to think of this and most Stokers have heard it wayyyy too many times. The best approach is to ignore it and not let others' comments have any influence on you (easy for me to say).

marciero

Comments on the proportion of work being done can be annoying but I think people are just trying being friendly or sociable. Also a tandem is a curiosity to many people. I will say that we do get some smiles.

jethro00

Well, I sometimes reply: "I'll take the strap to her." The look on their faces is priceless.
Sometimes, I respond by reaching back with an imaginary riding crop and act like I am whacking her legs.
I think people are just expressing their amusement and I try to reply with amusement.

act0fgod

"nah this bike is like a porsche, engine in the back"
"nah this bike is rear wheel drive"

Alcanbrad

We get the same range of comments all the time and it doesn't bother us at all. We enjoy seeing folks smile at us and make comments. We view it as us being positive ambassadors for the sport.

My favorite response is "Thats OK, She's the NAG-I-VATOR".

alias5000

Yup, I think with people being used to constantly having to adjust to one another on singles, they get stuck in the 'singles' thinking of being alone on a bike.
People really don't want to accept that I refuse to single out individual tandem rider's proportional contributions and comparisons to single speeds. We're a team and that's it. If the team changes, speed might change, but then the physically less strong person feels under-appreciated when there's a notion of competitiveness.

oldacura

Agree 100%. Some have asked if I knew how much power was contributed by each rider. My reply: Even if I knew, what would I do with the information? It doesn't matter. We are a team.

waynesulak

The "she not pedaling" can be hard take for my stoker and since we are a team and I was raised to always stand up for your teammates when they are attacked its hard for me to take as well.

That said we know it is usually just thoughtlessly said in a lame attempt to be funny so we usually ignore it except when it is a cyclist standing on the side of the road I sometimes reply
"she pedaling harder than you are!"

Once in a charity ride we were slowly passing a guy who got in behind us to draft and then he made that comment. Since My stoker had plenty of time to think about it she said told the guy that she charged a dollar every time she was told that by someone drafting. Just as she finished that sentence we passed another guy who made the comment. The wheel sucker explained about the dollar fee! Pretty funny but no money was collected.

Nick & Chris

Good discussion of this same topic a few years ago on this forum:


https://www.bikeforums.net/tandem-cyc...-pedaling.html

Stick69

I like the way you think. We just tried a trainer for the first time and now have an approximation of our combined power. I like the idea of building that number together. Of course I have to own about 85 percent of our potential to reduce the denominator in P/W equation. The W is little hard to hide even under a loose fitting mtb jersey.

mwandaw

It probably doesn't make sense to people who don't ride tandems, but I usually say something like, "Oh, believe me... I can feel her pedaling back there!"

More important is to realize, as others have said, that people are just impressed by the sight and idea of a tandem, and they feel they need to say something clever. Don't let it ruffle your feathers.

longbeachgary

When we rode the tandem we'd get that all the time. I would say, "Damn, neither am I."

B. Carfree

Love it. Funny how no one ever says that when they're on our wheel (big guy rides stoker).

waynesulak

As an example of the little understanding other riders have of a tandem, a guy on a local team pedaled up to us on a hill and commented that we were really good at pedaling in sync. I just said thanks as I didn't have time to explain that about the sync chain.

geranimo57

we always get the standard, best was a guy that rolled down his window to say we were doing twogether!

Carbonfiberboy 

The comeback my stoker liked best: "Always a good time for a sexist remark, isn't it?" Of course that assumes the stoker is female. But it gets to the heart of it. I've never heard of that being said of a male stoker. Yeah I know, a little hostile, but sometimes I just get sick of it.