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Like any sport, there are fringe groups in cycling. We have of course the roadie vs mountain bike split, but two groups that are way out on the bell curve are tandems and recumbents.
There are actually quite a lot of similarities between the two groups. Both have their own vocabulary. I don’t know much about recumbents (which, like any good journalist, won’t prevent me from writing an article about them) but the tandem world has terms like “boob tube” (not the telly, the long fat tube that connects front and back on the bottom of the tandem), “stoker” and “captain,” for the rear and front riders. A topic that inspires religious fervor is whether to have the cranks in phase or out of phase (“OOP” to the cognoscenti). Recumbent riders spend a lot of time talking about various geometry options, basically where the rider sits in relation to the other parts.
Both have somewhat disparaging names for what we would consider “normal” bikes. Tandemists refer to them as “half bikes” and recumbent riders refer to them as “wedgie bikes” for obvious reasons.
At the risk of being stoned in the courtyard by members of both groups, I’ll venture to say that it’s harder to climb on both type bikes. Yes, I know, there are many cases of strong riders laying waste to a pack of singles, but put the same riders on single diamond frame bikes, I would unequivocally say they would climb faster. On the other hand, they are lots faster on the flats and downhills (don’t think I’ll get any argument there). A regular feature of the last few CRW centuries is a few recumbent riders who blast off the front at the start. The pack gives chase just like the dogs at Wonderland, and usually catch up (at least for a while) when the climbing starts. As a tandem rider, the usual scenario is to get passed by everybody on the climb and then blast by everyone at some outrageous speed on the downhill.
Both groups have a tendency to evangelize. The recumbent rider will extol the virtues of the beach chair setup, wondering how they ever could have subjected their tender buttocks to the harsh unyielding saddle. On frequent occasions, after overhearing couples talking about disparities in riding ability, I’ve been known to say “You need a tandem.” Since we own two, one of which is hardly ever used, this is usually followed up by an invitation to borrow one. Haven’t been taken up on my offer very much for some reason.
Both groups are viewed somewhat askance by the “normal” riders. Sure they have two wheels, but are they really bikes? It looks interesting, but I’d rather ride a “real” bike, they say. Even I, a tandem rider, tend to be somewhat of a recumbent bigot.
And then there’s the recumbent tandem ...
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