Tandem cycling

Julia and I are considering doing a bicycle tour of Europe. We're looking into gettting a Tandem bike to help even out the differences in our fitness and cycling experience.

I found some interesting info pponline:

In conclusion, recreational cyclists, specifically the stoker, exhibited lower physiological stress when bicycling on a tandem compared to a single bicycle…In practical terms, when physiological stress was comparable between bicycles, cyclists were able to cycle from 4.8 to 8.0kph faster on a tandem than when they cycled individually on a single bicycle. Apparently, stokers can add to power output without adding a significant amount of wind resistance.

• Stokers demonstrated significantly lower physiological stress cycling on the tandem than on the single bike, with heart rates 16-22% lower and lactic acid levels 23-70% lower over the four velocities

• By contrast, no such differences were observed between trials for the captains

• When riding single bicycles, captains exhibited significantly lower HR, RPE and LA values than stokers

• Cyclists were able to ride from 4.8-8 kph faster on a tandem than a single bike at similar levels of physiological stress.