Ben There

Take a 200 pound rider, put him Captain on a tandem with a 100 pound stoker. Total weight is 300pounds.
Now the captain asks the stoker to haul half the load, or 150 pounds, which is 150% of stokers weight. Meanwhile, the 200 pound stoker, pulling half the team weight (150 pounds) would be pulling 75% of his normal load. I know this is oversimplified, but Just trying to show it's ridiculous to talk about each rider doing half the work.

thebearnz

Hehe, I need to be careful as my wife/stoker reads these forums too.

Generally, yes, on a "long" climb I notice I am probably putting a little more into it. But unless you are in a "race" you will quickly be able to tell when it is time to just downshift to a comfortable gear.

We rock and roll on "rolling" terrain though as our team weight allows us to get good momentum through the troughs.

To date, the only hills that have beaten us, are ones that I have shifted poorly and dropped the chain.

Richbiker

A few years ago, I went on a short camping tour with a new girlfriend, stokette. She seemed like an avid cyclist, and even owned her own tandem. At the end of a hilly 40 mile ride towing my camping equipment, my legs simply gave up. I've never had that happen before or since. At the time I didn't think anything of it.

Then, a few months later, we were riding our singles, and I was following her. It was then, watching her pedalling style, that I realized that she was an extremely lazy cyclist. A couple pedal strokes, followed by a lot of coasting; a few more pedal strokes, a lot more coasting. That's why my legs burned out on that tandem trip. I was hauling me, the tandem, the trailer, the camping equipment, and her.

Oh, and I also learned that the adage "the stoker is always right" can be completely wrong, especially when the stoker gets impatient and wants you to do something that will get you both killed . . . like running a red light when you have bad lines of sight and can't see what's coming. On that occasion, she yelled "what are you waiting for?"; I waited some more, and within seconds a car neither of us could see came flying through the intersection. Needless to say, I've since found an awesome stokette who lets me be the captain where traffic safety is concerned, but who knows how to light the afterburners.


Rich

ken cummings

Also she controls a 5-speed shifter set in the drive train between us. She can change cadence at will pedalling as hard as she wants to. The OP could set up his tandem to allow the stoker to do the same maybe.

thebearnz

Very much over simplfied. It is not about 50% of the load. For example in our team there is a 230lb Captain and a 150lb stoker. On our singles, I (captain) would generally drop her on any longish climb. However if I give her a push, with a little extra effort (and huffing and puffing), we get to the top together at almost the same speed as I would have on my own. The Tandem makes this much easier.

Most riders who have not tried this (it is surprisingly easy to stick your hand out and help "push" someone up a hill) would probably see it as the other not putting in the effort, but what you have to remember is that the tandem averages out your differences (personally I think we go much faster than the average of the speed on our singles).

This averaging process tends to make the stronger rider (generally the captain) feel like they are working harder (and they probably are) because they expect to be doing their regular speed up a hill.

So it comes back to compromise - remember you are working as a team. Trust me, it is much easier to downshift to a comfortable gear than to burn out 1/2 way through a ride.

thebearnz

Haha, now I just got to get my Stoker to read the correct rule. This is much more logical as the stoker has no control (rather than being "right" all the time)

Xanti Andia

Equal amounts of sweat is what I'd look for, but I like to sweat. What we are really want is equal amounts of enjoyment, "The Persuit of Happiness", the best line in the US constitution, beats any riding persuit.