I’d like to ride a tandem with my wife, but she is much shorter than I am and says that she doesn’t want to look at my back for the whole ride. Every tandem that I’ve seen has the smaller person in the back. Does anyone make a tandem that puts the smaller person in the front, or can this be done with any standard tandem?
Thanks.
About 15 years ago I had a custom tandem built. It was a road tandem using 26" wheels. The frame had a front cockpit that fit my wife, 5’2" and myself 5’11" using a mountain post and an adjustable stem. We built this design as we had growing kids and didn’t know who would be captain of the bike. Yes is did theoretically work, however when my wife tried to captain me, she either wasn’t strong enough to stabilize the bike.
A better solution would be either to use a longer stoker top tube, giving her more room in the back, or use a mixed recumbent/regular design tandem, Bilenky Cycle Works make a beautiful bike of this design, http://www.bilenky.com/Bilenky%20Models.html
Steve