jacks1071

Thought I'd share these images with my Son. I've used crank shortners to bring the cranks down to 115mm. The seat height from top of seat to centre of crank is about 44cm. I can get the cranks down to 90mm by using the top hole in the crank shortners but my lad had no problem keeping up with my cadence with the 115mm length and we have it setup pretty much exactly the same as his track bike.

I plan on installing some 36cm drop bars in the next week as the bull horns are a mile too wide for him and as such he only has one hand position.

We did our first ride yesterday, 40km and the average speed was only 2km/ph less than I'd do on a single by myself and I wasn't really pushing myself. I should be able to hang on to the "fast" bunch rides and in time my lad will start producing more power.

Interestingly, we were able to both stand on short power climbs quite effectively. Something I havn't mastered with an adult stoker and I'm not sure if it was because the stoker was too inexperienced or if the bike was flexing too much but with my son we can stand up no problem. With some practice I think we'll be able to sprint on it out of the saddle which should be quite interesting.

This setup was SO MUCH FASTER than the trailer bikes we've been using and more speed = more fun.

professorbob

I put my son on the back as soon as he would fit. We had some fantastic rides! It's such a great experience!

car knocker

I have a Co-Motion Periscope that I use with the crank shortners that I take my 6 year old granddaughter on. This year we went on a overnight camping adventure, 40 mile round trip. She and I both loved it,and hopefully next year we will do the Pittsburgh to DC adventure.
Merry Christmas to everyone and Happy Tandeming.

cyclesteve

Those are some great pictures. I think he is hooked. Be careful on the sprints you don't shake him off. My grand children will be visiting this summer. I hope my grand son is tall enough now to ride the tandem. Be sure to post the pictures on the Pictures of Happy Tandem Couples.

howeeee

Really cool, Somebody gave me a Town and Country tandem I am in the midst of refurbishing it. My grandson is 6 been riding a 2 wheeler since 3. In the spring I pick him up on the bicycle from school, I hope I can make him fit on the Town and country. I think I can.

WPH

Good to share, thanks for the information and the nice snaps.

JanMM

Great pictures. Both captain and stoker look to be thoroughly pleased with the setup and ride.

dwmckee

Good show! I started my oldest son at 6 on a trail a bike and dis an MS 150. The next year we moved to a tandem setup similar to yours. When my second son hit 6 we put the old TAB on the back of the tandem for a poor-man's triplet. We have been doing week-long tours as a triplet ever since. Next summer my oldest hits 13 and will be touring on his own bike and the younger moves up onto the tandem (glad to finally see the TAB get sold!). You will have many happy miles ahead I an sure. If you get up to multi-day tours you will find you have the best conversations ever with your kids spending 8 hours a day right over your shoulder...

qspencer

My kids are what got us into tandems. We pulled them around in a trailer until they couldn't fit in it any more. The next step was a trailer bike, but we bought a cheap one and weren't particularly happy with it. After a crash involving the trailer bike, I decided a proper tandem was safer and we now have two of them. They are a bit low-end, and we're now considering upgrades. I'm wishing there were more options in budget-friendly tandems that could fit short stokers.

B. Carfree

When my son was just big enough to sit on a saddle and hold on, around age two, we put him on the back of an old Huffy one-speed tandem. After a few months, a friend with a cheap welding unit and a penchant for making things modified that old tandem and made it a rear-steer tandem with a kiddie crank. The kiddie crank was just a bottom bracket cut off of a discarded bike and strapped on. It was cheap, but it worked fine as a town bike. I guess the point is that the DIY option is always available and can be quite cheap.

hartphoto 

Same thing we went through with our 2 little ladies.

If you can do a little bit of maintenance/refurb/repair work....Shop CL as you can for a Trek T900. We got ours (a 2009 model) for a bit over $600 in nearly new condition. It fit our girls at 4 and 5. Once our girls were old enough, or 9 (with leg length) we added a 2001 Santana Sovereign in a Medium/Small. It was almost new, still had the original tires on it (just had to do a bit of shifting adjustments) for a bit over $1200. This is an Ultegra equipped bike originally at $4500!

Basically $1800 spent on the bikes that originally retailed at over $5700.....

My wife takes the T900 with one, I take the other on the Santana.

My 11 year old and I are training for the 'Freeze your Fanny' ride Feb 1 in Longview....hopefully to pull the 40 mile section off. So much fun!

jacks1071

Our kids ride with clips and have done since they were 5 years old, the two children big enough to fit on the Tandem race Track & our lad also races BMX. Unless I go down, there is no-way they are going to fall off the back :-) My daughter did stop pedalling once or twice which was interesting but I don't think that'll be an issue once we get into sync...

jacks1071

I'd love a co-motion triplet or quad, I have priced them but so expensive. That is the long-term goal.

aprieto28

I want to get a kit for my grandson. Any suggestions on make and where to buy?