In 2005 we'd been home a few months and we wanted to try something a bit different for our cycling. We were both curious to try a tandem, but Julie was adamant that she had to be in control of the steering, and even more importantly, the brakes! St Johns said that their Raven Twin for a small pilot / medium stoker should just about stretch to it, and here it is:
It took a bit of jiggery-pokery to get my saddle high enough and Julie's low enough (I am 6'2" and she is 5'2"). As well as a very long seat post I have an extension brakcet under my saddle which lifts it and moves it backwards about 50mm. Julie meanwhile has 160mm cranks to bring the pedal up a bit (she would normally have 165mm) and we modified her saddle clamp with a file to save a few more millimeters. It is a stiff frame (it's a double marathon design - two diagonal tubes) and has wide pilot's bars, it probably wouldn't work otherwise. We think it is great way to have a tandem, this is the view I get from the back:
Best of all, there is even room for a third person, if they are small enough!
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We've used it for cycle-camping in the UK and in Holland, done Mont Ventoux on a holiday in France and regularly use it for day rides from home. With the SS couplings it fits inside an estate car for holidays or car-assisted day rides, and it has 200mm disk brake in addition to the rim brakes for confidence on down-hills. We've had a lot of fun riding it, and it has allowed us to keep cycling together when pregnancy and other factors have caused us to have quite disparate fitness.