Tandem bike

[Crankin]

I would rather die than ride a tandem with my DH! It's the whole thing of being "under control." I got faster and my DH slows down a bit and we are happy riding separately, together.
We do fine paddling a canoe, though.

[SheFly]

I LOVE riding our tandem(s) with my DH. We started out on an MTB tandem riding singletrack, and even racing. If you really want to see if a relationship will work, that will do it!

We've put A LOT of miles on the tandem, touring all over New England and doing dome reasonably big/hilly rides on it. We also have the current course record on our club's TT loop using out TT-specific tandem. Crazy? You betchya, but also about to celebrate 10 years of [mostly] marital bliss

SheFly

[salsabike]

I LOVE riding our tandem(s) with my DH.

Ditto. Thousands of miles, three Seattle-to-Portland rides, now hoping to do Tour de Blast (http://www.tourdeblast.com/) on the tandem this year. Love it!

[Crankin]

I can attest to SheFly's amazing ability to do the TT on a tandem with her DH. I have seen it!
I just don't want to have to take direction from my DH; I think we would actually work well together, after an initial period of arguing. I've noticed that our riding has become more and more in synch as the years go on. We almost always shift at the same time, though we may be going at slightly different speeds. But, the whole thought of a tandem scares me a bit.
A couple of years ago we went on a weekend trip to NH with our club. The leaders were on a tandem. I'll never forget as they passed me going down a hill, and the woman on the back was taking photos of me riding. They were the only people I passed going up the climbs in the White Mountains, save for 2 very slow and new riders .

[malkin]

The stoker doesn't 'take direction' from the captain!

The captain controls the bike, and the stoker controls the captain.

[Crankin]

Maybe it's just the thought of being "behind" my DH. Just doesn't sit well with me. And I'm not strong enough to be the captain.

[SheFly]

The captain controls the bike, and the stoker controls the captain.

I LOVE this! Although, some captains will tell you that the stoker actually does (can) control the bike...

SheFly

[pinkbikes]

+1. Well, I do believe that the Captain controls the bike, but if the stoker gives up stoking, you have a pretty poor time controlling it, so I think that works!

On our most recent organised tour there were couple of quite hilly days and after lunch a couple of times DD gave up the ghost and hopped on the sag wagon.

I was surprised to find I actually got up hills easier without her! I guess that answers the age-old question of whether her marginal power gain/weight gain ratio added up! Obviously she pulls well on the flats but doesn't have the muscle up the big hills yet.

Of course when you ride a tandem you find out there are only two tandem jokes. I swear that on both our big tours (and other miscellaneous rides) everybody that passed us joked..

"You know she's not pedalling on the back!"

And then when she got off and hopped on the sag and I was riding on alone...

"I think you've lost something!"

And you know it's a really savage headwind or hill when people don't tell one of these two jokes as they pass!