Small person on the front

[LEE]

I know nothing of these beasts but, due to a shoulder injury, my friend is thinking of one for him and his wife.

The problem being that she is short, he is taller, but his wife needs to do the steering part.

It struck me that I've never seen a tandem pair where the smaller rider is on the front.

Is this do-able?

[Kim]

Given the right bike, certainly.

I know the Circe Helios is unusually forgiving of this sort of thing.  There are probably full-size geometries that work well too, though I've no experience of them.

Coupling delta recumbent trikes together is an alternative solution, used to good effect by barakta's blind former colleague and his much smaller wife.  The advantage here is completely independent drivetrains, as well as stability.


Actually, if the issue is a shoulder injury, how about the darkside generally?

[Tim Hall]

Some friends of mine do this. His visual impairment means steering isn't the best plan for him. She's five feet and a little bit. They've got a a regular tandem or two, with short front end, tall back end and a long seat post (he's 6 feet tall).  At least one of their tandems is a Chas Roberts (I think), so built to order.

[L CC]

I've taken my mum (we're probably the same weight but she's 5'8" and I'm 5'3").

I think Steve Bateman is taller than Julian Dyson and they manage fine.

You need more upper body strength on a tandem than a solo, and the heavier your stoker the truer that is.

[The French Tandem]

Riding a tandem is easier when the heavier rider is on the front seat. It's really a matter of weight, it's not about height.

Having said that, it is perfectly feasible to ride with the lighter rider on the front  seat, the handling will just be a little bit more delicate.  The first time I rode a tandem was when I was asked to be a volunteer for captaining a blind man. At that moment, I was around 85 kg, my stoker was 110 kg and definitely in a poor shape. It took us maybe an hour before we had a half-decent balance on the tandem, but after that, everything was fine.

[Kim]

It's not the handling when you're riding along that's the limiting factor though, it's the moment about the pivot point when you stop (in a hurry, on slippery ground, with steep camber).

[Wowbagger]

Some friends of mine do this. His visual impairment means steering isn't the best plan for him. She's five feet and a little bit. They've got a a regular tandem or two, with short front end, tall back end and a long seat post (he's 6 feet tall).  At least one of their tandems is a Chas Roberts (I think), so built to order.

I had a chance meeting with this pair in a pub near Maidstone once. We had a good natter. IIRC the pub was The North Pole.

[peliroja]

I wonder if we could find a system which would allow Woolly and me to cycle together, with him in a position that doesn't put pressure on his upper body. As he weighs about 40kg more than I do, I think it may be tricky.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Recumbent is the answer. Bent tandems are generally pretty big,  though the http://www.kinetics-online.co.uk/uncategorized/ovo-tandem/ isn't. I've played with one and it is very nice.

[peliroja]

Woolly's tried a recumbent round here (albeit it a trike) and didn't get on with it because of the unavoidable hills. The blood drained from his feet and he kept having to stop to get some feeling back into them.

[Kim]

My take on recumbents and hills is that it's mostly Not About The Bike.  The aerodynamics makes you faster on the flat, which gets shown up on hills.  Trikes make you slower overall, but don't have a minimum speed.  Tandems have similar hill dynamics to recumbents (more aerodynamic and lower power to weight than solo DFs).

No idea about the feet thing, though, other than bottom bracket height.  Recumbents make my feet cold, but that's only an issue when the temperature approaches zero (and worse on trikes, as you have less reason to put your feet down).

[blackburnrod]

I (6ft1) on front, timetrialled with son (6ft5 1/20) on the back for a few years withsome success and  no problems.

(Peli,you may remember me joining a ride you organised a few years ago from Colne to Settle)

[peliroja]

I remember, blackburnrod. One of these days I'll organise another.

@kim - the main problem Woolly had was that his feet were higher than his body given the steepness of the hills, so became numb and pins-and-needly quickly. One hill he attempted was the Herders Road from Colne to Haworth - we had to give up and come home. Such episodes led to me having to discard my bike and help him do an ungainly dismount from a feet-in-the-air position, while trying valiantly to stop the trike rolling back down the hill.

[Kim]

That sounds pretty severe then.  Maybe a CLWB would be better, but I can't imagine those being much fun on hills (in either direction).

[Bledlow]

I know nothing of these beasts but, due to a shoulder injury, my friend is thinking of one for him and his wife.

The problem being that she is short, he is taller, but his wife needs to do the steering part.

It struck me that I've never seen a tandem pair where the smaller rider is on the front.

Is this do-able?

Couple I used to know had a custom-built tandem so the taller one could go on the back. Can't remember who made it, though.

[clarion]

I know nothing of these beasts but, due to a shoulder injury, my friend is thinking of one for him and his wife.

The problem being that she is short, he is taller, but his wife needs to do the steering part.

It struck me that I've never seen a tandem pair where the smaller rider is on the front.

Is this do-able?

We can ride the Circe Helios with Butterfly on the front.  I'm taller and heavier.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Isn't there a design where the stoker is at the front and recumbent while the pilot is at the back and upright? Hase Pino or something? Maybe that would be worth looking at.

[Kim]

Isn't there a design where the stoker is at the front and recumbent while the pilot is at the back and upright? Hase Pino or something? Maybe that would be worth looking at.

Hase Pino and Circe Morpheus are the common ones.  No idea what they're like with a heavy stoker, but I expect the lower centre of gravity helps when stopped.

[Morat]

My wife's first go as tandem captain was on a gravel farm track and with me on the back. I'm easily 4 stone heavier but she did fine and was amazed at how I was able to balance and "disappear" as she put it.

[Wowbagger]

Jan and I met a couple in Kent a few years ago. She, very slight, was on the front, he, a blind, tall chap, was on the back. The tandem had been specially made for them.

Tim Hall knows them, apparently. You are always welcome to try our tandem. Maybe the front would be a bit big for you, but you might be OK. I suspect that you wouldn't be able to hold Woolly up when clipped in and stationary. I find that the height of the saddle is more important in this respect than the mass of the stoker. Woolly, of course, would require a high saddle and is Not Small.

[Russell]

Jan and I met a couple in Kent a few years ago. She, very slight, was on the front, he, a blind, tall chap, was on the back. The tandem had been specially made for them.

You probably mean Liz and Mark.  We ride with them quite often and they are a very competent and confident pair.