In article <bun96n$mh3$1@blue.rahul.net>, Darin McGrew wrote:
>Louise Bremner <log.NO.SPAM.HERE@gol.com> wrote:
>> Don't know what a "stoker" is in this context. Maybe I'm better off not
>> knowing, since I never really learnt to ride a bike myself? 
>
>On a tandem, the person in the front is the captain, and the person in the
>back is the stoker.

The captain steers and the stoker doesn't. Almost always, this is the
same thing as saying the person in the front is the captain, but not always:
http://www.kinetics.org.uk/html/pino.shtml