Originally Posted by
mtnbke
I'll go with the first source documenting that the bike actually was ridden, rather than your standard: [I]Whether you were aware of it.
You're more than welcome to believe anything that you want.
I chose to believe what Mark Cote, who previously worked at Specialized, noted regarding the Specialized Shiv Tandem that I came on across while doing research and fact-finding on this concept back in December of 2009, when the photos, videos and story first came out. You can find the quoted text below in Mark's posting on Dec 15th at this link:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=2626724
“Awesome model from the Specialized design master, Robert Egger. Robert worked on this concept piece for a couple of years and finished it last spring. Pretty killer concept bike. You can see how concepts like the fork on this bike have made it into real bikes (like the Shiv).
Mostly made of alloy, wood, bondo, and paint but looks ready to race.”
If Robert Egger somehow re-made the bike before it was shipped off to Eurobike and/or October of 2010 when Tony Farrelly wrote his piece on the Shiv tandem, as I said... that's news to me: I try to stay up on tandem-related things a bit more than the 'average bloke' who has a passing interest in tandems.
I'd LOVE to learn that they actually did make a rideable prototype with a shaft drive and all of the other things represented in the concept bike. So, by all means, if you can find any documented evidence that the Shiv Tandem has been ridden please share it.