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tandem riding, standing in synch, minimizing swaying

Could use some tips and/or if someone is willing to ride with me and teach (happy to take the back seat, I should probably have that experience so I know what I'm putting my daughter through). I'm not religiously opposed to swaying, but most of the time when I'm riding the tandem, there's a heavy "tail" (weehoo igo 2 and two little passengers) and there's a tiny bit of play and some de-synchronization and awkwardness that can result so it's probably a lot better to try and plan to do with as little of that as reasonably possible.
byogman
2015-06-15 13:00:36
For a time I tried riding with my son on one of those single wheel pedal attachment thingers and was never able to overcome that rocking from him shifting sides. That thing just drove the bike all over the place. Consequently we used it very little. I never tried this but it just occurred to me, maybe put training wheels on the trailer thing. Might stop the rocking.
edmonds59
2015-06-15 13:33:13
I've gotten enough riding riding in with the tail and comfortable enough claiming lanes that under most circumstances that we're sorta ok even with the additional steering inputs. It just doesn't combine well with standing on the pedals, which is problematic when, like the other day, we lost the ability to go to the little ring on the triple. At low cadence I made it work with me as the only one standing, and that's sometimes a useful pattern for stop and go with less communication overhead and frustration. But for hill climbing? Low cadence standing just means a quick burnout. Looking to bring it up in a reasonable range to maximize available power. And of course that means I need to get my stoker going along with. She's more than willing, and in fact a couple times, before I told her not to, decided to help me up a climb or two (which resulted in quite a bit more in the way of steering inputs than I was really prepared for at the time). We just need to be in synch about this. We need a plan.
byogman
2015-06-15 14:13:31
I've never ridden a tandem, but most high-mount trailers will give you unwanted steering inputs even without the live input from a little one. Then add a newbie stoker and newbie captain and you have a whole lot of physics going on. All I can say is to try practicing each one separately if possible, and try not to press your skill limits too soon.
marko82
2015-06-15 14:44:54
We've got all the variables covered except the standing. I don't get a lot of opportunity to ride with just my oldest though that will be changing next week when her camp starts at the science center. In the spirit of variable minimization, that would be the ideal time to really put in some time, do some exercises help build the skill. Was thinking in addition to the climb home, the climb up to riverview park would be a good add-in, whatever route is open/good (been a long time since I've been there).
byogman
2015-06-15 15:33:35