A Timeless History
Tandems appeared in the 1880s and 1890s, in the same rush of invention that produced the safety bicycle: Archibald Sharp's 1896 treatise already describes several designs. Harry Dacre wrote “Daisy Bell” — a bicycle built for two — in 1892, and it became one of the best-known songs of the era. It then acquired a second life nobody could have predicted, seventy years later, in a laboratory.
SourceArchibald Sharp, Bicycles & Tricycles (London, 1896), §142 · Library of Congress, National Recording Registry essay “Daisy Bell” (C. O'Dell) — loc.gov · Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, RP-F-F01164-54-8 — rijksmuseum.nl
Science In Action
Air — at road speed, pushing air aside is most of the work; the second rider sits in the first one's wake • Frame — twice the load on a longer span: Sharp found the bending on a tandem frame over three times a single's • Brakes — twice the mass, the same two patches of tyre to stop it • Balance — not the gyroscope: in 2011 a bicycle built without gyroscopic or trail effects still stayed up
SourceKooijman, Meijaard, Papadopoulos, Ruina & Schwab, “A bicycle can be self-stable without gyroscopic or caster effects”, Science 332:339 (2011) — science.org · Archibald Sharp, Bicycles & Tricycles (1896), §239, figs. 321–324 · D. G. Wilson & T. Schmidt, Bicycling Science, 4th ed. (MIT Press, 2020) · Encyclopaedia Britannica — britannica.com
Arts
In 1961 engineers at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey, programmed an IBM computer to sing “Daisy Bell”. Arthur C. Clarke heard it on a visit to his friend John Pierce there. Seven years later he had HAL 9000 sing the same song as it was shut down — which is why a Victorian bicycle song is the last thing a dying computer sings in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).
SourceLibrary of Congress, National Recording Registry essay “Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two)” — Mathews, Kelly & Lochbaum, 1961 (added 2009) — loc.gov · Encyclopaedia Britannica — britannica.com, “2001: A Space Odyssey” · NASA Ames image ARC-1961-A-28284
Applications Today
Tandem racing is a Paralympic discipline for riders with a vision impairment: a sighted pilot in front steers, the stoker behind pedals, and both race flat out. Tandems were there from the start of para-cycling in the 1980s; track racing joined at Atlanta 1996. It is the one place in cycling where the tandem is not a curiosity but the standard machine.
SourceInternational Paralympic Committee, “Para cycling” — paralympic.org/cycling · Wikimedia Commons, “2008 Summer Paralympics, Tandem” (I. Holton, CC BY 2.0)
On most tandems a second chain links the two cranksets: both riders pedal in step, like it or not.
Twee Franse jongens op een tandem (Two French boys on a tandem) — from the album of a French amateur photographer (family, the Delizy & Doistau Fils distillery, the army and sights in France) — anonymous; daylight (printing-out) paper print, 84 × 122 mm — c. 1900 – c. 1910 — Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam — RP-F-F01164-54-8
