# Exact crank sync setup question



## Rmabus (Jun 12, 2012)

So I was thinking last night. for balance sake it would make great since to have both pedals roughly in the same position, but I was wondering if anyone has played with the little differences in order to see if one person can offset the dead spot in the others crank motion. Any thoughts on this?


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## Okayfine (Sep 7, 2010)

It's been done by some. I've found that offsetting the cranks even one tooth from the stoker results in issues when we stand and coast - someone's pedals won't be flat, and that can be uncomfortable. Also when we start my stoker resets the cranks parallel with the ground and with my dominant pedal forward. When we had the cranks offset it resulted in my pedal being higher than is comfortable to start out on.

We noticed both of those issues, but never really came to an agreement on if/what we noticed as far as the dead spot. We went back to synced and my stoker just offers a "smooth" when I start mashing.


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## Fleas (Jan 19, 2006)

180* out of phase worked - that is, we made it work, but that's about it.

Maybe those DaVinci folks know more about this.

-F


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## phill77 (Aug 31, 2008)

We have tried 90 deg, 180 deg and just a few teeth out of sync.
90 o.o.s was best on the road because my wife prefers to coast with one leg down, and it felt like she was able to make more of a contribution to the power input (I am a much stronger rider). It was a real pain off road though because of ground clearance. 
A couple of teeth o.o.s seemed to make a noticeable difference, but it made for slightly awkward starting and stopping.
We always go back to in phase whenever we have played about with this stuff.

My wife is a bit of a gear masher compared to me so I would love to try an independent pedaling setup with different gear ratios for front and rear.


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## PMK (Oct 12, 2004)

phill77 said:


> We have tried 90 deg, 180 deg and just a few teeth out of sync.
> 90 o.o.s was best on the road because my wife prefers to coast with one leg down, and it felt like she was able to make more of a contribution to the power input (I am a much stronger rider). It was a real pain off road though because of ground clearance.
> A couple of teeth o.o.s seemed to make a noticeable difference, but it made for slightly awkward starting and stopping.
> We always go back to in phase whenever we have played about with this stuff.
> ...


Never rode a Davinci so I may be speaking improper...ICS, by them is Independent Coasting System,

I believe the real benefit would be as you mention. Independent Cadence System with the bonus of independent coasting.

@ the OP, road tandem captain is 2 teeth advanced, off-road synchronized,

PK


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## AUSSIE ECdM (Jul 15, 2012)

*Oos*

My wife and I have been tandem riding together for more than 20 years. A long time ago, we set our pedals OOS with stoker 90' behind the captain stroke. For us, this creates a much smoother ride especially on the road and cruisy off road stuff. If we ever drop a chain and reset the cranks in sync, we only travel a couple of revolutions, then stop and reset 90' OOS! Also, any time we hire or ride another tandem, we always change the pedals to our 90' OOS preferred system, otherwise we dislike the chug chug of the full power coming through. On the other hand, our Schwinn Beachcruiser tandem allows either rider to freewheel-and that is a strange feeling cheers Tim


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## giff07 (Jun 7, 2010)

We have tried some "phase shifting on the road and found it not beneficial to our style of riding. We settled for a while at 2 teeth Out ,captain leading and eventually went back to "in phase" as out of phase affected our ability to stand and attack. On the Ventana it is strictly in phase so I know where the pedals are for log overs or other obsticles. As stated previously , its only a sucessful manuveur when her pedal don't hit!
Ed and Pat Gifford 
the Snot Rocket tandem


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## Rmabus (Jun 12, 2012)

Thanks for the input all. Interesting feedback.


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## reamer41 (Mar 26, 2007)

We've been riding two teeth out for several years. Joyce always felt I was "stealing the pedal stroke" when we were in phase. We experimented with her leading, me leading,1, 2, & 3 teeth out. 

Road tandem is a fairly new addition and we haven played with than one yet. I thing we'll try 90degrees out.


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