Collected my Helios :-D

[john the sparky]

Collected a Circe Helios today

unfortunately Lucy is off to work tonight, so we just had time for a quick blast up and down the road

Tom (: kept loosing his feet off of the pedals

Ella (12): lost her feet a few times, but she kept trying to stop pedalling

Lucy : didn't enjoy the bumps... and felt very out of control (but used to happily sit behind me on a motorbike)

Toms face sums it up I think



(apologies for my face being in there too, and I have steristrips on my ear if you were wondering.... I got all Van Gogh yesterday :-(    )


so any tips or advise welcome

John

[Butterfly]

Yay! Fun, aren't they? You could try half clips to help with the slipping feet. 

[tom_e]

Brilliant.  I'm catching Tom's grin just looking at that picture. 

[marcusjb]

Yep - that is a happy chap! Enjoy the bike!

[Canardly]

Enjoy.

[Kim]

Yay! Fun, aren't they? You could try half clips to help with the slipping feet. 

Yeah, some sort of stoker foot retention would be a good idea.  With a small child, they can probably sit astride it on the propstand, so proper toestraps would be an option.  Otherwise those half-clips are better than nowt, or maybe even PowerGrips (gateway drug to SPDs).

If you run a length of elastic from each of the stoker's pedals to the corresponding captain's pedal, it'll automagically keep the pedals the right way up (with the stretch in the elastic taking up any changes in angle as you pedal), so no faffing about trying to flip pedals over to get feet into the whatever, and they won't rub on the ground when stokerless.

Make sure you give warning of the bumps.  Stokers get upset and make squawking noises when you forget

Brilliant bikes.   

[CrinklyLion]

We have toeclips and straps, with (goth-compliant Kim-approved-and-fitted) elastics between the pedals and it works a treat.  We've also accumulated some essential pilot/stoker communication standards in addition to the more common 'bump' 'car up' 'hole' etc... so all the small people who stoke for me know that if they lose the pedals they need to shout 'feet' loud and clear

[Kim]

Yes, it's important to colour-coordinate the elastic.  Obviously BLACK is goth-compliant and matches the bike, but red elastic should mean you pedal faster...

[CrinklyLion]

That's why we have red bottle cages

[Butterfly]

If Lucy is going to ride it much, put a suspension seat post on the back. I have a thudbuster with a saddle ready to swap out if I have an adult stoker. (Well, it would be ready if I hadn't nicked it for one of my other bikes ) That makes it easy to change between adult and child stokers.

On the train heading to the tweed run

At the tweed run - you can see the thudbuster (I was stoking)

My lovely pilot

Working out a system is a definite plus. I get the stoker to set the pedals when they are ready, so I know they are on and ready to go. I usually want them to keep pedaling even if I'm struggling to set off, but stop means STOP. Stokers do the indicating (my new one (9) is just learning this, but she's doing well learning the Jazz Hands!) I warn about bumps and so on, but most of my on going dialogue is with the 7 year old on his own bike and so I have to be very clear when I mean her

[john the sparky]

thanks 

I will go looking for half/full clips tomorrow.... I think maybe full clips and tighten them in, not sure how Lucy will get on with this though (she views my SPDs as witchcraft....possibly)

the black elastic worries me, I don't want it getting all emo in the garage and self harming whilst not in use..... so may have to use a brighter colour to lighten it's mood


the kids quite enjoyed doing the signalling (I still found myself doing lifesavers before manoeuvring though..... couldn't quite trust them  )

will have to start a code

[CrinklyLion]

My system with the EldestCub (12, but very nearly 13 as he'd be at pains to point out) is that I tell him to indicate (give me a right/left) and he repeats back the 'right' or the 'left' as appropriate - which means I know he heard, that he heard the correct one, and that he's doing it so I can concentrate on the looking and steering stuff and not need to check.  Jolly sensible system, and one for which I take no credit whatsoever since he spontaneously implemented it!

Following a couple of 'no, the _other_ right!' incidents early on with the SmallestCub (7 now, but this was when he was 6) the New! Improved! system I developed with him is that he pats me on the bum with the relevant hand then indicates....

[john the sparky]

well toe clips and elastic (it was black) worked with Tom tonight

we did about 10 miles with no problems

started with codes, stop (pedalling), gear (to change, mainly on hills), bumps!, pedal (when finished coasting)  and used crinklyLions patented 'bum tap signalling system'   which worked a treat


thanks..... I'm sure I'll have more to ask soon

[CrinklyLion]

Hurrah!  It's great when it works well, isn't it

I just managed the 8th consecutive day of school run and/or commute by tandem.  Must put a bit more air in the tyres though, the SmallestCub has expressed the desire to use it again tomorrow which is fine for the less than a mile each way to school and back but there's also the matter of the 15 or so stokerless miles in between....

[john the sparky]

yeah, he asked if we can go out again tomorrow


I'm miles away in the morning tomorrow, but if I get back in time.... I'm hopefully going to swap to the rack and chuck some gear on and go wire some gates (the job is 3 miles out of town, and traffic builds up on the ringroad after about 3.... so it should work like a dream :-/ )

so I'll see what it's like without a stoker tomorrow.... I have got a 23" bottom gear though, so fingers crossed

[CrinklyLion]

CrinklyUncle found it relatively hard (or at least slow) going when he was riding back from Hull to York stokerless after completing the FNRttC to Hull with the EldestCub on the back - he commented that he realised then how much work his Nephew had been doing all night then!  I generally find that I'm not really any slower on the tandem than on my normal bike, but then that is a sensible and fairly sturdy disk braked hybrid.  Not hugely heavy, but not exactly weight-weeny-friendly.

[Butterfly]

I used to commute 8.5 miles each way on mine by myself. It was easy to ride but a bit tiring sometimes, especially when there was a head wind.

[Kim]

CrinklyUncle found it relatively hard (or at least slow) going when he was riding back from Hull to York stokerless after completing the FNRttC to Hull with the EldestCub on the back - he commented that he realised then how much work his Nephew had been doing all night then!  I generally find that I'm not really any slower on the tandem than on my normal bike, but then that is a sensible and fairly sturdy disk braked hybrid.  Not hugely heavy, but not exactly weight-weeny-friendly.

Probably one of those power-to-weight-ratio things.  Us slow and lardy riders never seem to notice a difference between bikes.

The Helios doesn't lend itself to a particularly aerodynamic riding position, either.  That's going to make a difference when you're stokerless, especially into the wind.

[clarion]

I used to commute 8.5 miles each way on mine by myself. It was easy to ride but a bit tiring sometimes, especially when there was a head wind.

That was over a hill, mind.