My wife and I both cycle, me for longer and further than her. We do go out together at times but for her it is further and harder than she would like and for me it can be a bit of a pootle, which is nice sometimes but not always. Would a tandem be a possible solution, especially if I was the stoker? I've never ridden one but it seems possible and she is up for trying it.

Comments?

If your talking offroad on a tandem then put the more experienced rider on the front as a tandem can become a bit of a handful and can take a bit of upper body strength to muscle around in tight situations.

Tandem is good fun though, did 30 miles on ours yesterday but can be hard work.

Where are you based? If your down south your welcome to try mine out!

Thanks but I'm in Scotland. Would mostly be on raod but I hear what you are saying.

Tandems are great fun and do even out fitness levels a lot. Me n Ms Hooter use solos off road and have a tandem for road rides and a bit of touring. Best to have the most experienced cyclist up front. Definitely try before you buy, some couples love them but some hate them.

Thanks. There is a place in Pitlochry that hires them for £20 for half a day so we'll try and give that a go and see how we get on.

Cupra – my wife and I bought a tandem for exactly the reasons you state and we love it. There is no way she would dare to go off road with me on a tandem so we use our solos off road. However, on road it is ideal. I never have to worry about going too fast, she never has to worry about riding too slow and we can chat as we ride along.

There is lots of good tandem advice on the web but my summary is as follows:
Firstly, your stoker must have confidence in you (assuming you will pilot). This means taking it easy to start with and listening to them regarding their preferred descending and cornering speed.
Secondly, keep your stoker happy. Agree on a mutually comfortable cadence, shift to a lower gear when they ask, stop when they want, freewheel when they want, etc.
Thirdly, keep your stoker comfortable. Fit a comfy saddle and suspension seatpost for them.

Once your stoker has confidence in you, knows you will keep them happy and will be comfortable then you will enjoy many hours riding together.

The other advantage is that it will make your solo bike feel ultra manoeuvrable when you get back on it after a tandem ride.

Get a MTB tandem instead of a road one.

Loads of fun on trail center stuff

Has anybody mentioned you need to keep your stoker happy? That may include reigning back what you do on it – just because you like trail centre type stuff doesn't mean she will – if she's not happy riding it on her own then it's unlikely she'll be any happier on the back of a tandem. In my case this even means going down hills on the road far slower than I'd choose to.

i stupidly did the 'downhill' course (non competitive) at Malvern Hills classic as stoker with Matt 'Bloody' Farmer (team Raleigh) at the controls…

that was a mistake… brown pants time

*looks around to see if my stoker can see me*

aracer you want to MTFU and show the stoker who's in charge.

*looks around again to make sure i've got away with typing that*

Another 'yes we were in your situation' response chiming in here. My wife was a complete non cyclist and would be left 'in my dust' (ha ha, where is Glupton when you need him) within a couple of miles.

I even bought a tandem without her knowledge (not neccesarily recomended) and we had a ball from day one. Probably helped by her not 'competing for control' and trusting me to do the best for us both. This is often where tandeming couples come unstuck.

As has been mentioned, the default is 'stoker is always right'. Call braking, bumps and gear changes to give her fanny a chance and when she wants a gear/stop/go/shandy etc, comply.

Mrs Boblo went from novice to century rider within 3 months and has completed some really long tours (e.g. LeJog, Euro north/south end2end, Auckland to Christchurch, Sidney to Melbourne, Portugal end2end etc etc). Not bad for a non cyclist 🙂

Go on, join the fray 🙂

Cupra
We were kinda in the same position and hired an orbit road tandem for a w'end. We were sold, although it was on strict instructions from Mrs Duke that we never venture off road! Safe to say we've never looked back and are on our second tandem. Any advice, give us a call.

Tandems are awesome although she would probably prefer to be the stoker (in my experience anyway). Two things you may want to consider are getting a suspension seatpost (as she won't see the bumps coming up) and working out how you are going to transport the thing.

For the seatpost 'thudbusters' rock
For transport I don't really know. If the tandem is small enough you can put it on a boot rack with the wheels off

Do it – they are great

Flippin expensive for anything decent tho…

working out how you are going to transport the thing.

The main specification for my current car was that I could fit the tandem inside (no, I'm not joking – visited the main dealers with a tape measure, and thought seriously about actually taking the tandem in!) Before that it went on the roof – I already had one of these for carrying kayaks around, so drilled a hole for an axle to hold the fork and strapped the rear wheel on.

The tandem was the first thing we owned jointly.

Ours goes on a rack on the rear of the car.
With the wheels removed it's only a tad wider than a solo with wheels in.

Ours goes on the back of our camper now

the first one we bought secondhand then realised we only had an old k plate astra 3 door to take it home in !

Fitted it inside and got both of us home tho

Does anyone have one near East Anglia me and the missus might be able to borrow for a day?

Yes, PE6. Not that close to you tho….

Orbit used to do a hire service. They posted us a tandem for a week. Think it cost around £80. Well worth it.
Second the comment about suspension seat post for stoker. Kinda invaluable really.

Thanks all. Your input is very much appreciated. I shall let my stoker in waiting see this thread and go from there. There is a hire place 40 miles from us so that is a good starting point armed with your input.

Hmm, seems a lot of trouble and you are looking for an excuse to buy a tandem ? (Do you always have to go first etc etc)

I used to train with a bloke loads faster than me, he used to come out on his heaviest mtb with chunkiest tires on, I would bring the road race bike with super fast tires. Worked for us but the wee fecker would still drop me on the hills (you know who you are…)

You could appply same principle, give her a nice light road bike she can actually use on her own or with her other friends and without having to stare at your back for 7 hours at a time. You then bring a big heavy bike with chunky tires, fire some bricks in the panniers et voila same workout.

Sorted… no need to thank me.

And some folk get car-sick on tandems I have heard.

Tried that so there is no need to thank you, she hates road bikes as well. A few assumptions in your post. We also won't be riding for 7 hours, more like 1-2. This has been discussed with my good lady in advance of asking on here. I should also add that I'm from Fife so any opportunity to spend money is actively avoided. 😆

Cupra, we're in Dunoon over on the west, but Glentress is a fairly common destination for us on a Friday or Sunday. If you fancy a trip from the kingdom of Fife to GT and meeting up there so you and your good lady can have a go on an FS tandem then drop me an email.

We've even got our old Cannondale tandem frame in the garage if you fancy building your own.

Rob

Cheers Rob, I'll keep that in mind.

We, like you, had disimilar skill & fitness levels that meant riding solos together did not work too well. We hired a tandem as a 'trial', and am pleased to say had a great laugh and could see the potential.

We purchased a cheap one and messed around on some easy rides, we upgraded to a Cannondale 18 months later and engaged on more challenging rides, gradually increasing difficulty and distance until we had down all the trail centres in Wales & Scotland and lots of Peaks District riding. Having got completely hooked on the two's up we progressed to a Ventana full sus and went to the Alps!

A few years on & now the wife now has her own bike and enjoys regular off road rides including trail centres, Peaks rides, Lakes rides. The tandem riding built her fitness and 'acclimatised' her to technical trails and what is possible.

Just take it steady, start easy and build up and have fun. 😀

tandemonium,
you sound suspiciously like Paul & squealling nic from NATS?

Rob (& Sandy, ex of NATS!)

Not trying to hijack the thread but tandemwarriors is your Cannondale frame up for sale?