Rear-steering tandem. History

"The earliest practical forms of tandem bicycle began to appear on the roads about 1893 or contemporary with the pneumatic tyre. They were, of course, introduced to permit the use of a bicycle by a lady and gentleman, and all early models were designed for the lady to occupy the front saddle. Amongst the firms who were pioneers of this type of machine one remembers the Humber, the Singer, the Rudge, the Raleigh, the Whitworth and the Chater Lea.

By placing the lady in front it was thouight in those days that she must occupy the place of honour, and the fact that she was likely to receive the first brunt of a collision, not to speak of cold winds, was forgotten. Naturally, the mere male was entrusted with the steering and balancing, and to enable these functions to be controlled from the rear handle-bar the two-sets of handles had to be connected by a rod on the off side. This arrangement meants that the front rider had handles to hold but was not expected to do any steering or balancing, or she interfered with her partner’s copntrol of the machine, and by ignoring the instructions might cause a spill at a critical moment.

The early frame designs were rather crude, as might be expected, and consisted of a strengthened dropped front frame attacthed to a rear quadrilateral terminating in the usual rear fork. The rear rider’s pedal crank axle was connected to the front crank axle by a chain, so that the thrust of each rider’s peda;s were communicated to the rear road driven wheel. The frame described above was weakness itself, and much binding of chains and bearings caused the machine to run rather hard."

- The Cycle Industry, Its Origin, History, and Latest Developments

By 1897, tandem design had evolved sufficiently that the machines enjoyed a resurgence of popularity. The ‘rear-steering’ machine (whose earlier manifestation is described above) were known In America as courting bikes. The chap who could afford such a unique contrivance would be able to ride to the house of the lady of the day and collect her for an outing. Bearing in mind the necessity of a chaperone in conservative society, such adventures would undoubtedly have contributed to changing attitudes in Victorian times.

While rear-steering and ‘lady-back’ tandems were the ideal machine for collecting a lady friend from her house, ‘double gents’ tandems were also used for fast pacing, as a much higher speed could be achieved with two men pedalling. It is vitally important, before setting out with a tandem partner, to agree how to stop: the pedals are connected, so both riders must stop and dismount simultaneously to avoid falling over. This co-ordination among the riders provides a much more sociable element to tandem riding. (from www.oldbike.eu)