Bike Forums - View Single Post - Why can’t I put out more power as a stoker?

06-19-20, 12:04 PM

#37

TrotterDK

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Marilena

Hello everyone! My husband and I have been riding our tandem for the last 2 years, primarily as an equalizer, so that we can enjoy riding together. A little bit of information about us. My husband is 6’ tall (183 cm), 80 kg and has an FTP of 4.2 w/kg and I am 5’2” (157 cm), 54 kg, and I have an FTP of 2.7 w/kg. We both regularly ride our singe bikes and we have Garmin power meter pedals (his are vector 3s and mine are vector 2s) that we use on both the single and tandem bike to track our rides. As I have been getting stronger on the bike I have noticed that my power output is limited by how hard my captain is going. For example, when we are riding up a climb and my husband is averaging 220-230 w, my average power cannot be more than 110-115 w. No matter how hard I push the pedals. I can average around 153 w, only when my husband is riding at his threshold or above. I have no idea why that is happening. I have no problem getting my power as high as I want on my own bike, but there I control what gear and cadence I wanna be in. My husband does not understand it and tells me to just put more force on the pedal. But that simply doesn’t do anything. It is very frustrating for me to not be able to go as hard as I want. We are reaching the point where tandem rides are either recovery or extremely easy effort for me, whereas my husband can go as hard as he wants. Given how much lower my FTP is compared to his, I shouldn’t be limited to go harder, right? The only hypothesis I have is that the different crank length between the stoker and the captain is setting this power limitation for me. His cranks are 175 mm whereas mine are 150 mm (I am very short, and anything >165mm is giving me really bad pain on my hip flexors). I think that for a given gear and cadence we are locked in my torque is significantly reduced compared to his and that is what is limiting me. Am I crazy to think this is the case? What do you think is the reason? Has anyone else had similar problems? Are other stokers finding it impossible to put as much power out as they want? I would love to be able to get as good of a workout as I would like on the tandem. Right now that is not possible. It only happens if my husband wants to ride really hard.

Any suggestions/interpretations would be very welcome.

The problem you are addressing here is probably very common among tandem couples. It is not often that both riders have the same powers. My wife rode very restless when on tandem, but not when she was on her own bike. We have tried everything in the world to make our tandem ride more steady but not with much succes, including 90 degrees OOP. But one day I put the cranks in a 180 degrees OOP position. All of a sudden we were able to ride a stable and calm bike. More than that, we cycled much faster. With the changed crank position we had better balance as if our movements and force now are equalized. She can now use her strength better because there is more "room" for her. We do not find any significant disadvantages of running 180 degrees OOP. We have revised a little on our driving techniques. Uphill we no longer get up at the same time. Instead, we switch to do it, or stay seated and just use the gears. Hope that our story can be of some help.

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