Need advice for custom tandem

[zoom-zoom]

I would look at Co-motion. For a few more dollars you can get them to custom fit a frame to you.

In regards to climbing and tandems- the thing that makes the most difference is the riders. Tandems will always climb slower than single bikes. Put two fit guys on a tandem and yes they will go. Improving fitness and losing weight off the riders would be the biggest improvement to climbing.

You are going to need a triple crank for climbing. Even a compact it's not going to do it unless you are elite riders.

But you will HAUL @SS down the hills!!! I can pass my hubby and kid on uphills, but on the downhills they blow by me like I'm standing still (and my son likes to make this face: ).

[Kiwi Stoker]

Yeah, we hit 103km per hour going down a certain hill. Lots and lots of fun!

[Jaclyn]

My husband and I sold our Santana a few years ago after we acquired a used Co-Motion Primera Co-pilot with the S&S couplers. We love the Co-motion. We feel it fits us better, has better handling, and take it apart often for travel. However, it is quite heavy. We use it for general riding, brevets (we completed the SR series of 200-600km rides on it the past two years), and both credit card and fully loaded touring.

Last year we added a Calfee carbon tandem to our fleet of bikes for fast club rides and hills.

Since you do not want carbon, I'd recommend the Co-Motion Speedster or Supremo for the lighter weight since you want to climb hills. We have friends who both of these and they are very happy with them. The Co-Pilot option is expensive but will allow you to travel easily - even by plane - with your bike. We took ours to France this year as well as many trips in the US without paying any additional charges.

I am 5-1/2 inches tall and both our small/small Co-motion and our medium/small Calfee fit me fine. Both have more room in the cockpit (by at least an inch) than our Santana Sovereign. As others mentioned, Co-motion will custom size your tandem for a small up charge.

If you are not in a hurry, I recommend checking eBay and the Tandem Magazine online classifieds weekly. If you are patient, you will find a used tandem with couplers for 1/2 to the 1/3 the price of a new one.

Good luck, and keep us posted.

[TsPoet]

If money were not an issue, I would love a Calfee. Not sure they make anything but carbon, though. I know two couples with Calfees, stunning doesn't cover it.

http://www.calfeedesign.com/products/tandem/

[Kiwi Stoker]

They also make bamboo tandems.

[Tokie]

My coach has borrowed a carbon Calfee tandem & won multiple Master's National Championship races with it! & I bet it's a great feeling ride too! Loving all the info - we toured in Alaska with our (I'll-fitting) Santana. And we saw it getting loaded onto our plane - in one box (no couplers) by one guy. He just heaved it. When we got to Alaska we had to buy a new big chain ring :-(. Still not sure if we would really use it to fly places or not. Tokie