Nowadays it seems that nearly all tandems are ridden with a guy in front and a gal in back. This seems silly.
I see photos in Jan Heine’s “Bicycle Quarterly” magazine showing 2 guys on a tandem about half the time. This seems very sensible.
In tandem canoeing or tandem kayaking, anyone fits anywhere.
It seems to me that it should be size/weight/skill that determine placement in tandems.
In tandem bikes, if there is adjustability or if riders are similar in build and skill, then it would seem to give a lot of fun and natural variety to change where each rider is on the bike, especially on a long ride.
I see the point of the “relationships” angle in modern tandeming. In the only current magazine on the subject I recall romance and relationships as being part of their pitch for tandeming — with “couples weekends” listed, etc.
But of course everyone is involved with “relationships” and is pretty much as involved with them while on single bikes as on tandems. Gender is irrelevant. But of course a tandem is explicitly a team. …Though in group riding we all work together for fun and safety, too. And bikes are in relationship with cars for safety as well. We are all in it together. No islands here!
Then, too, two men can often be very strong and fast. A 2-man tandem may well be able to blaze away considerably faster than a guy/gal tandem unless the gal is a standout — which is common enough but less so than with dudes. Dudes on tandems might hugely increase the thrill factor of speed and the mileage potential for cycling.
One example of how this might apply is that Ann Arbor, MI, is a nice town about 58 miles away from East Lansing, near where I live. It takes likely 4 hours to bike there. 3.5 if going fast. 3 hrs if blazing away. Basically, it’s kinda tiring and time-consuming for me, anyway, to ride it very often. But if two fit bike pals got on a fast tandem, say, with an aerobar on the front and aerowheels below, I wonder if it might seem like those miles go by in hugely much shorter order. If you take turns as captain it would also be more mentally restful.
Anyway, I see benefits to revising the gender bias in tandeming.
Of course, our macho culture has a hand in our current situation. What’s goofy is that 2 guys blazing away, or even just riding together, is actually more macho, if you think about it. Consider how seldom 2 guys are seen on a motorcycle. It’s just silly.
