Tandem Disaster

We (Boris, Anna, and I) have been talking about getting a tandem bike for Boris and I for a while. According to Anna, the major challenge with all regular tandems would be that they all are built with the presumption that the bigger person is sitting in the front seat.

We knew that if we were going to get a tandem, there war going to be a custom build, but we still wanted to try on some “regular” tandem, just to have an idea. One of Anna’s friends owns a tandem, and she arranged us to try it out.

It ended up being a total disaster. I was scared to death because I didn’t feel I could maintain the balance with a bigger weight behind me. Apparently it is different from when I have a shopping bag in the rear!

I tried several times, and I was unable to go for more than five feet. Anna said, she would try to be i n the front instead of me, and she managed to make a circle that way

Still, with this particular one, Boris could not pedal, because his knees were touching the handle bars.

I still want to try and to come up with some solution which would work for us, but looks like it has to be a totally crazy design.