New respect for tandems

rogerthecat

Okay before today I thought tandems were just a way for you and your partner to enjoy the country side; however after belting along the A303 at 35mph on the tail of a de rosa with areo bars and a funky helmet this Tandem flew past us, I am not joking, not a crawl, not drawing level and then passing at a degree faster than us, but left us dead in the water.

So then to all tandem riders out there; Respect!

JohnCleland

Here too,

I chased one for the last 10 miles of The Tour Of Pembrokeshire, I gave it my all and came up short.

It looked like a heavy bit of kit but it was really shifting, and I fancied my chances - plus the view I had was fine ,

rolf_f

rogerthecat wrote:

Okay before today I thought tandems were just a way for you and your partner to enjoy the country side; however after belting along the A303 at 35mph on the tail of a de rosa with areo bars and a funky helmet this Tandem flew past us, I am not joking, not a crawl, not drawing level and then passing at a degree faster than us, but left us dead in the water.

It's a twin engined bicycle - what did you expect

Pokerface

I train with tandems all the time and can confirm they can really shift when they need to. I have drafted off the back of them and struggled to keep pace. Often. :oops:

arthur_scrimshaw

I've heard up to 80% of the work you do on a bike is to overcome air resistance (assuming you're on the flat) so with approximately the same frontal area but twice the HP it's a foregone conclusion surely?

rogerthecat

Yes yes I agree, it just never occured to me thats all.

markos1963

Wait till you get to a TT with tandams included, you'd better hope you've got a start time well in advance of any of them

father_jack

And why exactly would you want to overtake?

LangerDan

Pokerface wrote:

I train with tandems all the time and can confirm they can really shift when they need to. I have drafted off the back of them and struggled to keep pace. Often. :oops:

Chatting with one of your teammates yesterday - those tandems are seriously quick .

Said you were too slow, though

Pokerface

LangerDan wrote:

Pokerface wrote:

I train with tandems all the time and can confirm they can really shift when they need to. I have drafted off the back of them and struggled to keep pace. Often. :oops:

Chatting with one of your teammates yesterday - those tandems are seriously quick .

Said you were too slow, though

You ain't lying!


Who were you talking to?

LangerDan

Pokerface wrote:

LangerDan wrote:

Pokerface wrote:

I train with tandems all the time and can confirm they can really shift when they need to. I have drafted off the back of them and struggled to keep pace. Often. :oops:

Chatting with one of your teammates yesterday - those tandems are seriously quick .

Said you were too slow, though

You ain't lying!


Who were you talking to?

Fran
( An Post were sponsoring a local sportive and she had turned up in full team kit for PR purposes, though riding solo)

I piloted a tandem - once. When we hit 50 kmh, I thought we were all to to die When Fran mentioned they hit over 80 kph, my jaw was somewhere near the crossbar.

andy162

A couple of lads who ride with us rode a TT tandem in a race some years ago. I've no idea when or where this happened but the story goes that they overtook wagons on a downhill bit, not a steep hill more of a drag...

Recently one of the 2 tandem pilots rode our Saturday chaingang with another loon. They got round no problem. The bike was a Cannondale off-road tandem, scaffolding pole frame, v-brakes, knobbly tyres. It weighed about the same as a small car! Respect definately due...

Pokerface

Fran
( An Post were sponsoring a local sportive and she had turned up in full team kit for PR purposes, though riding solo)

I piloted a tandem - once. When we hit 50 kmh, I thought we were all to to die When Fran mentioned they hit over 80 kph, my jaw was somewhere near the crossbar.[/quote]


Fran rocks. Savage rider.

I was doing 80KPH on my TT bike on the same course. But they were going faster!

Velonutter

Did 63mph on a Tandem going down Langley Vale in Epsom in the 70's, copper stopped us cos he couldn't believe it.

Skeltron

My girlfriend and I got a Gitane tandem at the beginning of the summer. Yes indeed they are rapid, we often leave people for dead. Yet to fit a speedo on it, will be interesting to see what speed we can get up to (as long as she doesn't keep pulling her bloody brake! - she isn't keen on going fast.)

kettrinboy

A few years back Michael Hutchinson national TT champ and ex TDF rider Sean Yates teamed up to break the 25 mile TT record, and did it in 43,39 and they were hitting around 60 mph in places, so comfortably ahead of the solo record.

father_jack

60 mph? :shock:

John Stevenson

Father Jack wrote:

60 mph? :shock:

Downhill, having twice the mass of a solo but only slightly more drag makes tandems insanely fast.

Our tandem max is a shade under 60 and would have been quicker if I'd not wussed out as the corner at the bottom of the hill approached. (I'm a super-cautious captain. Lel's always encouraging me to go faster.) And that's on an MTB tandem with slicks and a top gear of only 48/11. Throw in a more tucked position from drops and a bigger gear and 60 is highly doable on the right road. I've heard reliable claims of 65ish.

mroli

We've done 50mph downhill on our fully loaded tandem (70s peugeot job) and that was kind of just coasting with my wife (who doesn't like going fast) on the back. If we can do that sort of speed, I shudder to think what two proper riders on a proper "racing" tandem can do. Have you seen that there are some blokes who have had a Santana specially built for them so they can do a 6 man JOGLE? That could get up some speed (if they had the cojones!)

redvee

Has anybody seen this two-up?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej-HoqKoRds

Pokerface

If you want to go fast on a tandem - you need one of these:





Specialized Shiv Tandem

mrushton

What a ridiculously fast looking bit of kit!

i know 2 couples who have tandems and going uphill is the hard bit although people often fit v.low gears but flat or downhill they are ridiculously fast. Modern ones have disc brakes esp.the mtb models. i always wanted a mirror finish C-dale or Litespeed do a Ti one. A tandem will often weigh less than 2 bikes but you have the power of 2 riders and going downhill the gross weight enables v.fast acceleration.

father_jack

Not sure if I want to be on drops behind another guy :shock:

kettrinboy

Father Jack wrote:

60 mph? :shock:

i forgot to say that Hutch and Yates were spinning out on a 64x11 gear which would explain the 60 mph speeds

rake

the only time ive ever ridden a kind of tendem was about 15 years ago when me and a friend were into building/welding in his garage. both into cycling. i dont know how it came about but we decided it would be a good idea to build a tendem out of two old bikes. :shock:
we carefully cut the headtube in half vertically and welded it to the back of the seatube on another bike with the rear triangle sawed off. then adding a piece of box section between the two bottom brackets the frame good to go. we lashed the cranks together by driving the rear wheel with the outer chainring and using the two inner chainring to connect the cranks.
no strengthened wheels or anything. i still dont know how the welding managed to hold together, arc/stick welding with holes blown all over the frame. we even plucked up the courage to go down a short but steep hill. how stupid we were yet everything went smoothly, although the handling wasnt up to much. covered about 6 miles on it but i certainly did notice the performance potential, even this wreck cruised at a good solo speed with little effort.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDBHO550rdw

TommyEss

kettrinboy wrote:

Father Jack wrote:

60 mph? :shock:

i forgot to say that Hutch and Yates were spinning out on a 64x11 gear which would explain the 60 mph speeds

To be fair, I've hit 56mph on a downhill stretch in Oxfordshire all on me'own - can't remember the name, but it's straight down - perfick!

So add two of us, yeah, deffo - don't the TDF guys manage 70-ish mph downhill?!

markos1963

I was at a TT last year and a tandam tricycle turned up. I started 2 mins after and caught them on a hill at mile7 but then got overtaken on the downhill section. They looked positivly suicidal going around corners :shock:

stonehouse

I saw a couple early on in the year when there was still ice around, flying down Toys hill, the woman on the back looked absolutely terrified, she clearly thought she was going to die!

bam49

I was alongside a tandem in this years Etape du Dales, just before the climb of Fleetmoss.. I asked the guy in front ' how do you decide who steers and who stokes ? '
Bloke on the back says ' that's easy - I'm blind ! ' I was gobsmacked :shock: , some of the descents are pretty hairy anyway let alone if you going down them blind.. They had a good speed along the side of the river but were on for a tough day out on the climbs ....

TommyEss

Yep - one of the local riders with AW Cycles was in Mallorca or similar earlier in the year, training as a pilot for a blind stoker for the paralympic team. They're rapid, as obviously blindness doesn't affect their speed the same way as limb-loss would.

El Gordo

mroli wrote:

We've done 50mph downhill on our fully loaded tandem (70s peugeot job) and that was kind of just coasting with my wife (who doesn't like going fast) on the back. If we can do that sort of speed, I shudder to think what two proper riders on a proper "racing" tandem can do. Have you seen that there are some blokes who have had a Santana specially built for them so they can do a 6 man JOGLE? That could get up some speed (if they had the cojones!)

We clocked 52 mph fully loaded complete with Bob trailer hanging off the back. We'd also regularly storm past serious looking roadies on the flat just for the shear fun of it.

You have to be careful though because if there is any sort of uphill those same roadies will come past like you're standing still undoing the whole smug feeling.