72andsunny

Just got my oldest out of the child stoker kit. I'm happy to be a few pounds lighter!

The primary cranks on the bike are 170 mm, which is a bit long for her and is causing a hitch at the bottom of her pedal stroke. Before I wreck her knees, hips, or whatever, I figure I should do something about that.

So does anyone have a set of crank shorteners, shorter cranks, or anything else that would be useful laying around that they'd like to part with?

I had been planning on using the child stoker cranks, but I'd have to reverse them to get the chainrings on the correct side and thinking about the pedal threading is giving me a headache.

Leisesturm

I would check on Tandem Classifieds dot com and also on Ebay and your local Craigslist. Shorteners are not only used on tandems. You might find them anywhere. You won't find them free. I saw a set that I was interested in for my wife. They were running about 1/2 of new and that is about as good as you will see. But, just saying, there really isn't such a thing as 'too long cranks'. If there is a 'hitch' in her pedal stroke then her seat is too high. Maybe it can't go any lower? That is a different problem. What kind of tandem is it? Was she really done with the child stoker kit? Seems to me with the little info I have on it that another season with the kit on would be the cheaper solution?

Paul J

Yes, Tandems East has two options for shorteners that will fit your cranks or for a much higher cost the da Vinci cranks with pedal holes along the crank arm.
https://tandemseast.com/cranks-eccen...edals-related/

72andsunny

You are correct--removing the child stoker kit was mostly because I have a ten year old teenager and I could no longer handle the constant complaining. With the kidback on, her handlebars were a couple of inches lower than her seat, which she found uncomfortable--and was leading to constant complaining. A lesser man would stop trying to bicycle with his children. I had considered a longer stem, but the stock stems are already pushing the limits of what's commercially available. I had attempted lowering the pedals of the kidback, but this caused the primary cranks to collide with the spider of the stoker cranks. Her seat is now about a half inch from where it needs to be due to the handlebars behind her which are taking up pretty close to 2 inches of seatpost. I'm now leaning towards a set of shorter cranks, but the availability is so limited right now.

72andsunny

Thanks, I like the da Vinci option, but I'm figuring this is a problem that goes away in less than 6 months.

72andsunny

Broke down and ordered Ride2 shorteners from Modern Bike. They'll ship them free to Hawaii, so that made the $130 more palatable. Hoping Stoker #2 doesn't have a growth spurt and also demand to have her kidback removed.

Rick

I had crank arm shorteners and a trailer cycle with a child cart hooked to the trailer cycle on our Tandem. I'm waiting for my grandson to age enough for the trailer cycle. In the mean time I am looking at the Singletrailer and here is my favorite review of the Singletrailer.