Learning to Captain a Tandem

Wow! I have newfound respect for my husband and wonderful Captain Thom! I did my first ride today as a captain with a friend from my local club. We're planning on doing Cinderella on the tandem. Thom has coached me on how to stop and start. But it's a whole different ball game when you're out on the streets, having to do it and with a first time stoker.

But we survived and only nearly dumped the bike once. (Much bigger turning radius needed than I thought. OOPS!) We did 9.3 miles on our maiden ride. The guys riding with us were impressed with how well we were climbing, even though we didn't get out of the saddle. Maybe next time. The funniest thing, the tandem has STI. My Riv has friction shifters. I've never used STI. As we're tooling along Joann, my stoker, is telling me how to shift. "Big paddle right hand." I shift. "No your other right." It was fun.

Veronica

cool! and neat that you plan to do Cinderella on the big bike :)