Youdelr

Just acquired a da Vinci Joint Venture. My spouse (stoker) has minimal cycling experience. Our old Santana has toe clips. Considering Shimano Ultegra road pedals or Speedplays for her (my singles have the Shimanos). Any preferences from those experienced tandem stokers would be appreciated. Thanks

JTGraphics

Wife stoker had no experience at all were using Speedplays and she fills very convertible with them quick easy release and very easy to get clipped in for her.

PlanetU

I use the Shimano Ultegra pedals and like them very much. Nice platform. Easy to release.

thebearnz

Crank Brothers Quattro Road pedals and Nike carbon sole MTB shoes which have screw on tread bits (sorry can't remember the model - but there is a touring version as well).

Good solid platform - not too heavy, but allows us to walk around off the bike

My stoker uses the same pedals on her single bike and Crank Bro's Candy SL's on her MTB (so she only had to get used to one way of clipping in and out and the cleats are the same across the board).

I use Ultegra ones on my single and Time ATAC's on my MTB (so 3 pairs of shoes and cleat types !!! - one day I will get this down to just 2)

sch

Suggest you consider pedals that allow recessed cleats, for ease of walking.
Speedplay frogs, Crank Brothers and SPD all do this. Frogs and Crank
brothers are easy to clip in/out, double sided SPD ditto. Shoes with recessed
cleat are readily available in a variety of styles. Speedplay Zero variants and
Look knockoffs require road shoes with external cleats, a pain to walk on.

bikex10

We prefer to use spd's on our tandems,due to the fact that the shoes are easer to walk in if you use mountain shoes and the rides with my wife/stoker tend to have more stops and time off of the bike than when I am on one of my singles. It's not any fun walking into a convenience store with road shoes on and slip and fall on your rear in front of people.

carpediemracing 

We typically do shorter rides and do very little walking. In order to consolidate pedal inventory, I actually moved to Look Keos after I got my fiance a set. They impressed me with ease of setup, the normal ease of getting in/out, and the fact that pretty much every shoe out there will accept Look cleats. It's much easier worrying about just one type of normal pedal. I haven't finished the switcharoo (I've done two and have a few bikes to go) but my primary bike and my spin bike have Keos now.

I used to use the original SPD-Rs and although they hold well when tight, they release only a little easier than Alcatraz. I've actually broken bottle cages due to my foot flying through them when hammering my foot to get out.

cdr

mrfish

+1 re. SPD-Rs. These are great pedals for track sprinting and road racing, but not great for leisure / performance road riding.

If you are into road riding and are considering Looks, you should also consider the new Time pedals. In my humble opinion these are all-round better. The pedals are just as easy to click into and out of as Looks but cheaper and particularly at the lower end a good bit lighter. The cleat in particular is very robust with metal contact parts and walking-friendly rubber pontoons rather than the Look cleat which both wears easily and is slippery.

Old Hammer Boy

We have Shimano 520s for the captain and 324s for the stoker. The 324, in case you didn't know it, is a platform on one side and an SPD on the other. It's nice to have so I can take others for a spin who might not have cycling shoes, or if my stoker wants to wear street shoes for a short ride.

swc7916

Speedplay Frogs, front and back.

Eddie50

SPD for the captain and speedplay frog for the stoker.

robmitchell

We use the Shimano 858 MTB pedals.

Easy to get off and on and to stop and walk around in.
If you are going to do any vacation/touring typr rides a walkable shoe/cleat combo is best.

For no stop all out pedaling rides go for nice light road pedals and stiff carbon sole shoes.

Rob