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I’ve been a member of tandem@hobbes, an email list for tandem riders, for some time. Over those years, I’ve seen some recurring themes.
One that always pops up with the newcomers is “Why don’t we go faster,” which inevitably leads to trying to determine if the stoker is pulling his or her weight (those that feel obliged to add “rather substantial weight” are usually looking for a new tandem partner in short order). It would seem to me that discussions of this nature would be treading on mighty thin ice, but this does not seem to deter those who see this as a serious problem. I think someone actually suggested mounting a strain gage to keep tabs on stoker output (engineers, you can’t live with them, you can’t have them euthanized). I suggested (in jest) that we could model ourselves on the livestock industry, and mount an electric shock device to “remind” the stoker when they were slacking off. This caused a heated discussion of the best place to mount the device, whether it should be front or rear wheel drive, what batteries to use, etc.
One topic that amazes me is a discussion of walkie talkies for captain/stoker communication. Considering that Susan’s face is inches away from my butt, we have ample opportunity for intimate communication. Susan might claim that most of my communication comes out of this orifice anyway. She obviously doesn’t appreciate my bon mots, like when I never fail to say “The train’s been here, it’s left its tracks” every time we cross railroad tracks. So not being able to hear the captain ranks as a feature on our team. In any case I fail to see the need for electronic devices between two people that are separated by inches. But I am obviously wrong, since this subject has been debated ad nauseum on the list.
An ever popular thread is something that has come to be known as “Bill Bashing.” Bill McCready, president of Santana, the largest tandem manufacturer, posts occasionally to the list. This would seem on first glance to be a good thing, but Bill’s posts are highly opinionated and never fail to provoke the non-Santana devotees. Whenever I see a post from SANTANAINC, I know I’m in for some amusing repartee.
Then there’s the discussion of OOP (out of phase). This refers to having the captain and stoker pedals 90 degrees or so out of phase with each other (the “or so” in itself has provided dozens of emails). The OOP people are a very vocal minority and this always provokes discussions of religious fervor. Susan and I were inadvertently OOP once, when the timing chain (the one that connects front and back pedals) fell off, and being phase-ignorant then, just put it back on in some random orientation. Didn’t take us very long to figure out that we were in-phase people.
Another topic that evokes similar zealot pronouncements is how to start the bike. The popular approach is for the stoker to clip in while the captain holds the bike steady, and then for the captain to push off. This has the unassuming name of “The Right Method,” and there are volumes of archives about why any poor benighted soul who attempts anything else is pitiable indeed. Susan and I have been using the Wrong Method (both pushing off together) for about fifteen years now and are no worse for wear. But still there’s the nagging question if we could have had a fuller, richer life by adopting the “Right Method.”
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