Road tandem choices

Brothrmark said:

My wife is legally blind and really wants to start cycling. She is a bit shy when it comes to riding solo, so i'd like to try a good road tandem. I've see couples on some nice bikes and could use some advice on what to look for.

Go to Santana's web site (santanatandem.comsantanatandem.comOpen ↗) ... get onto their mailing list (i.e., request a catalog). EVERYTHING you need to know is in their literature (and, probably on their site).

You can spend more for a tandem than you would pay for a Santana (they have a wide price range), but you would be hard pressed to get one better one than one of theirs. You can spend less, but that is not advised.

Contemporary tandems have longer cockpit areas for the stoker ... that is a good thing in most instances ...

Older tandems seemed to be spec'd with 27" tires long after 700c tires became prevalent on single bikes here, in the States. It's probably more difficult to get quality 27" tires (I think Continental still sells them here), now, so an older tandem should probably be avoided IF you decide to buy a used one.

You don't tell us what country you live in.

Here in Aus we have Apollo: http://www.apollobikes.com/apolloproducts/cid/11/parent/0/t/apolloproducts

gclark8 said:

You don't tell us what country you live in.

I'm in the US. I went to the Santana website. Most of the bikes are within my price range. My LBS has a used Raleigh road bike, but I wouldn't even know how to tell if its a good bike or not [weight, etc]

Thanks for the input

[Brother]Mark