I'm guessing what he meant was "Modolo" Q-Race and, if memory serves, Santana does use Modolo bars on their tandems. Again, from what I recall, these are pretty beefy (300+ gram) T6 alloy handlebars. For comparison purposes, our road tandems and my half bike use 3T Prima bars which weigh in at 220 grams and at least one set have more than 20k miles of use. I'm about 170lbs but don't have a massive sprint.
BTW, one of the best reasons to let Santana know is so that they can be alert for any similar reported failures which could be indicative of a defective production lot from their supplier or something else that they may need to run to ground, e.g., unqualified mechanics doing the assembly, stem incompatibility, or any one of a couple of things.
Also, as I've mentioned to others who have shared problems or issues that they have with their tandems (or that others have shared with them), it's only fair to give the manufacturer or the business that sold the bike to you an opportunity to make things right before deciding to alert the masses. After all, part of what you pay for with new products like tandems is warranty and factory support. You might as well take advantage of it. And, given that this failure could have resulted in serious injury, if the bar was defective or mis-installed I'm sure all the parties concerned will be glad that you aren't having your lawyer make the calls.
Last edited by TandemGeek; 09-01-05 at 12:40 PM.