Originally Posted by
jethro00
I see this in response to a question on the Amazon page for the bike that has been ordered (Kahuna Lua Tandem):
"it will apply brakes if you back peddle."
Since the pedals will keep turning when feet come off the pedals . . .
Presumably the OPs will have figured out by now that this is not correct. On a bike with a coaster brake, the internal ratchet (if not gummed up from years of neglect) allows the pedals to stop turning when feet come off the pedals, just as with all bikes that don’t use a fixed gear. If there was no freewheeling allowed, it would not be possible to activate the coaster brake by back-pedaling. Now it is true that if only the stoker’s feet come off while the captain keeps pedaling, then yes her legs may be struck by the pedals (unless she learns to perch her feet up on her handlebars!). And if the captain wants to brake, the stoker needs to learn to back-pedal, too.
Coaster brakes are useless for anything except bicycles for small children today, on a tandem even more so.