Hi, all,
I’m organizing a bicycle trip through Napa Valley and some of the persons invited have never learned how to ride a bike.
Is there any chance we can pair an inexperienced person with an experienced rider on a tandem bike? Or am I just waiting for a disaster?
phil
It can be done - but don’t expect efficiency. If you pair a strong, experienced biker with a complete novice it will work, from the point of view of staying upright and actually going somewhere, but it won’t be very elegant. You want the guy who knows what he’s doing to be the one steering, I think. And the better biker will need a lot of patience.
And that’s “stoker,” not “stroker.”
Go to town - I’m a novice bike rider (I can ride, but not in any great way)
I drove all over Vancouver (a very bike unfriendly city) on the back of a tandem bicycle with no problem whatsoever. My BF at the time was a really experienced rider, and he sat in front and did all the steering - No worries.
Al.
yes, a tandem will work. i am a speed whimp, so if i am with a group of cyclists that will go faster than slug speed i ask for a tandem. if you can’t find a person to tandem try one an adult tricycle for the non-cyclist.
This is completly off subject, but how many people don’t know how to ride a bike. I have never met anybody(excluding physical ailiments) who didn’t know how to ride a bike. are you sure they’re not just being overly modest? or is it a foreign country thing?
wolfman:
I couldn’t ride a bike if I had to. I just don’t have the balance to ride a bike, nor do I have the patience with stupid mechanical objects to learn.
Until Derleth posted, I was the only normal, non-disabled adult human I knew who did not know how to ride a bike.
We had a fellow in our cycling club who was not just legally blind, but completely unsighted.
For some reason, he was never allowed on the front seat of the tandem.
My mom has never learned how to ride a bike - she’s scared to death of them.
The second person on the tandem needs at least to have enough confidence to be able to lean into the corners properly when travelling at speed, otherwise it could cause difficulty for the person steering. The same is true of passengers on motorcycles.
I can ride a bicycle well and a motorcycle kinda ok. But there is NO WAY I can ever be a pillion passenger on either. I try to steer or something. Actually, I’m not sure what I do, but whatever it is, it makes the person in control… well, slightly less in control.
Well Loaded Dog summed up the other side of experience pretty neatly.
Every person rides a bike differantly, braking at differant times, leaning differantly, changing gear at a certain pedal speed.
Even an experienced rider will take time to develop confidence and they may well try to lean the machine over when the front man does not want it.
The trust can take a long time to develop, and working together is a skill that has to be learned. Communication is important.
I’ve seen two lads on a tandem who were so mentally connected that they could even climb away from good solo riders, and tandems are usually notoriously slow uphill.
I’d say that balance is necessary, a good tandem team can learn to lean together and not upset the handling.
The best way to prove balance in this respect is to be able to ride a machine solo.
I have seen tandems with conversion kits that allow one parent to do the driving and one of their children to sit on the back and kake their contribution via an extra set of pedals affixed to their seat tube. Some of those children possibly cannot ride solo.
If you are a cyclist and you are ever in the UK you absolutely must go to the Cyclists Touring Club(CTC) rally in York sometime in June - you’ll find links on the net, here is one for you.
http://www.amkirby.demon.co.uk/NYDA/YorkRal.htm
You will see more odd bikes, trikes, tandems, tandem trikes, triplets, maybe even a 4 seater than you will see anywhere else and all being used.
If you are interested then e-mail me and I’ll dig up more info and maybe act as your guide for the weekend.
Thank you all for your thoughts.
I won’t be having the inexperienced riders use tandem bikes. We’ll get them to drive and meet us riders at each winery.
phil