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Compagnon
Compagnon
Family cycling is rarely easier or safer than when your child rides with you on a tandem. Compared to riding on separate bikes, you can ride farther and faster, and you don’t need to panic in traffic. The Compagnon tandem has another advantage: your child gets to sit up front. This gives your child an unobstructed view of the road ahead, rather than a view of your back. And since you sit higher up, you still get a clear view from the rear seat. Your child can even take a hand in the steering Ð though the adult’s bars, which are connected to the forks by a steering arm, are wider, giving you greater leverage and allowing you to guide or override your child. By sitting in the ‘driving seat’, your child will feel more involved in the ride. This is more interesting and helps develop an awareness of the road, and of how to behave in traffic. As your child will be steering with you, it can even help develop a sense of balance, which is invaluable for young children when they begin riding their own bikes. The Compagnon fits children aged from four to ten. Quick-release seatpost bolts mean that the saddle heights are easily adjustable, whether to fit a different-sized child or a different adult at the back. For growing families, the Compagnon is especially useful. With a childseat behind your saddle, and an Add+Bike trailer bicycle fitted to the rear rack, one parent can set off with three children aboard. The Compagnon is built from steel tubing and has a maintenance-free SRAM Spectro P5 hub gear. Wheels are 24", and are stopped by V-brakes front and rear. One nice touch is that there’s a bell for your child as well as for you.

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In Germany, the Compagnon costs DM2650, the Copilot costs DM4500 and the Add+Bike DM620. Prices will vary worldwide.


Manufacturer
Robert Hoening specialises in making the world of cycling accessible to those who might otherwise not get to enjoy it: specifically, families and disabled riders. His growing range of specialist family machines includes the Compagnon and Add+Bike for families, featured elsewhere in this Encycleopedia. For disabled riders he offers the Rollfiets wheelchair tandem, also known as the Duet, and trikes: the upright T-bikes. There’s also a similar machine to the Compagnon called the Co-Pilot, which can accommodate disabled children with a back-support, seatbelt or many other appropriate accessories. His machines are distributed through agencies in individual countries, as he believes special needs are best understood at the local level.

Robert Hoening Spezialfahrzeuge GmbH
Ulmer Strasse 16/2
Leonberg
71229
Germany

phone: +49 7152 979490
fax: +49 7152 979499
email: r.hoening@t-online.de
web: www.hoening.com


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