spaltzer

Hello Mike,

Rear spacing and maybe weight limits are obstacle that prevent a Tandem from being installed on a Wheel-off Smart trainer. Common Quick Release spacing for Trainers is 130mm, or 135mm, and Thru-axle spacing of 142mm or 148mm. The Hammer (H3) from Saris has a limit of 300lbs including bicycle. Wahoo KICKR is 250 max rider weight. You could add supports to lower the perceived applied weight, an upward force countering the downward force. Maybe a tandem adapter could be made to work with the Trainer? An adapter that would provide the added spacing, and support.

My plug for rollers - A long winded response.
I was able to ride a tandem on TruTrainer's Smart Load rollers linked with Crown Rollers with a friend. He used the ceiling for support, and I held onto a windowsill type hole in a wall for getting started.
youtube DOT com/watch?v=v0jV35klMgo

The Crown rollers helped keep the rear wheel centered, and the TruTrainer's flywheel smoothed everything out and keep our momentum going. You can see it takes a little while for the wheels to spin down at the end.

I my current ideal setup for a tandem on rollers would be TruTrainer SmartLoad Power Rollers for the rear wheel, and TruTrainer's Classic Rollers for the front wheel. The SmartLoad Power Rollers would provide the Smart capabilities for pairing to Apps/games for control-ability and the Classic Rollers would provide a second fly wheel to keep everything going smoothly.
SmartLoad Power Rollers - No change except move the front drum to the closest position to the rear drums, place the linking band into the groove and the existing band next to the groove and let it ride on the lip at an angle. Classic Rollers - remove the front half of the frame and position the front drums backwards from normal use. Link the belt from groove to groove, and you are set. The front drum on the SmartLoad Power Rollers is just relay. The stretched band will pull the Classic Rollers frame out of position, so some means of hold it in place is needed. Rubber feet, carpet surface that the frame can dig into. Wooden frame that both trainers can be lock into place on - whatever.

My dream setup would have a motor rotating the drum for the front wheel. The rear wheel and the front wheel would rotate independently of each-other. This setup would accommodate any bicycle wheel base length! The motor could rotate the front wheel at a steady speed, or as a function of the rear wheel speed or some other metric like power or heart rate.