srw
It's a bit more complicated than that...
We've always had the tandem set up the way it came out of the box - with the stoker's and pilot's cranks in synch. By which I mean that when my cranks were at 12 o'clock, so were hers. It's a Rohloff, and we've had a couple of problems with hub flange failures. Reading around the subject one of the causes of this appears to be a strong (!) tandem team over-doing the torque.
In my very simplistic world in which I know nothing about engineering, if both riders are pushing through the transmission at the same time this will double the torque transmitted, and there will be a peak twice every revolution. So I've experimented with putting the cranks out of synch. Now when my cranks are at 12 o'clock, the stoker's are at 9 o'clock.
Does this actually smooth out the torque transmitted and reduce the peak, as I think?
Has anyone else experimented like this? My initial reactions are favourable - it gives a smoother ride, and a much better transmission of power for hill-climbing. On the downside, starting off is trickier, and it's more difficult to find a "dead zone" in which to change the hub gear. And it makes honking out of the saddle impossible rather than merely impractical!
In my very simplistic world in which I know nothing about engineering, if both riders are pushing through the transmission at the same time this will double the torque transmitted, and there will be a peak twice every revolution. So I've experimented with putting the cranks out of synch. Now when my cranks are at 12 o'clock, the stoker's are at 9 o'clock.
Does this actually smooth out the torque transmitted and reduce the peak, as I think?
Has anyone else experimented like this? My initial reactions are favourable - it gives a smoother ride, and a much better transmission of power for hill-climbing. On the downside, starting off is trickier, and it's more difficult to find a "dead zone" in which to change the hub gear. And it makes honking out of the saddle impossible rather than merely impractical!