cdahlen

My Wife had a stroke 4 years ago at the age of 36. a few months ago she said it would be nice if we could go bike ride. well that got me thinking of building a bike for 2. i have looked at side by side bikes but they have 2 sets of pedals, so im now thinking something like a recumbent bike with a 2nd seat/frame attached, like a sidecar. has anyone built or seen anything like this?
thanks

CycleCommuter

Yes I have seen many bicycles / human powered vehicles similar to what you are describing. Check out books on Human powered vehicles such as Bike Cult by David Perry for some ideas, there is another one on HPVs with a lot of designs, I will look on my bookshelf and see if I can find it.

​​​​​​I would really recommend that you considered a tandem such as the Blinkley Viewpoint Tandem. This has a recumbent front connected to a standard rear triangle tandem. The recumbent front can be used by children or adults and they can pedal as little or as much as they like. There is one on eBay right now that have travel couplers, someone please buy it so I can stop dreaming!

VegasTriker

Since you are looking at a recumbent for an idea, I'd suggest you go to Bentrideronline and look at their homebuilder's section Homebuilders - BentRider Online Forums. What you are describing with a sidecar would require a third wheel for stability so you are really describing a trike. Anything that is side-by-side is going take up a lot of room. That's why tandem bikes and trikes are end-to-end rather than side-by-side. There aren't many roads I ride that I would be comfortable on with double the width of my current trike. I had the chance to test ride a very expensive Greenspeed tandem a few years ago. The one thing that really turned me off was both riders had to pedal at the same cadence since they were linked together with one chain. Both had to stop pedaling if one wanted to stop pedaling. When my shoelace got caught in the chainwheel it was panic time.

cdahlen

Thanks. I was thinking having the 2 seats next to each other she would enjoy more. then we can talk easier and enjoy the ride together. i will check the sites that was mentioned.

groth

My late wife used a walker. We got a Greenspeed recumbent tandem tricycle. There were various options. We got the one where the Captain's (front seat) pedals are connected directly to the rear wheel (something like 17 feet of chain). The Stoker's pedals are connected to the Captain's pedals with a freewheel, so the Stoker need not pedal.

I believe there are other options to allow independent pedaling.

On an upright tandem, the riders are so close together that they must pedal in sync - otherwise there is the possibility that the feet would collide.

- Ed

cdahlen

thanks for the reply. i dont think my wife would like that kind of bike.

v2505

great picture of the two of you