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History: Misha and I have enjoyed riding our Bike Friday TiLite tandem, but Misha has trouble with her neck and thus has also struggled a little with being comfortable. So I pulled down an early DoubleDay recumbent tandem prototype from the rafters at work, spruced it up somewhat, and we have been enjoying riding it - with Misha very happy on the back - since. The stoker position is basically stock, but to get myself comfortable on the front took a bit of work. First I turned the toptube clamp over, effectively lowering the top tube by a few inches, and thus enabling a lower seat height (and correspondingly maximising the seat to crank distance). Then I fabricated new mounts to enable me to mount an Optima carbon seat in place of the stock Bike Friday mesh version - I have always gotten on well with a rigid seat. Originally the bike had underseat steering, but not only do I not like this position, but there was play in the linkage that made steering somewhat of a challenge! I ended up using the same bars, mounted upside down in a regular Bike Friday stem; this keeps my arms in my prefered stretched out position and just gives room for my knees under the bar. The bike is still a bit twitchy on low speed climbs, but I am getting better at holding it steady. I put fenders on the bike, but it turned out that at speed spray would come off the front wheel, over the crank and up to hit me in the face! An additional fender on the front of the fork took care of this. Purpose: Comfortable tandem cruising with my honey!
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