Quote from robert.j on Feb 8th, 2008, 4:54pm:This came up at lunch today. Never having ridden a tandem I didn't know the answer. Do the two riders pedal independently of one another or do they both have to maintain the same cadence/gears.
The standard setup has both riders pedaling in unison. Clipless pedals are very important if you use this setup, since one rider suddenly starting to pedal could throw the other rider's feet off the pedals. The captain (front rider) should call out things to the stoker (rear rider) like "Coast", when he stops pedaling, to help things go smoothly.
You can also install an IPS (independent pedaling system) on most tandems, which makes the two cranks independent of each other. This is probably a better setup for occasional stokers or child stokers. If it will be the same stoker and captain all the time, and the two can work out cadence levels that work for both, I think the standard crank setup is better (or course, that's just my .02).
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