Thanks for the replies everyone. TandemGeek, I appreciate the additional details and all of your posts; I've spent some quality time on The Tandem Link and your blog, great stuff. I agree a weekend trip to NJ would be ideal, if we can figure out a way to make that happen. Tandem Rider, are you a member of HOOTs? I joined at end of year but didn't make it to any meetings; hopefully in spring with our new tandem. I haven't made it back to Matthews after checking out their display tandem, but will make an appointment to give Steve an opportunity to convince me. I test rode a CoMo at another Indy dealer and not impressed at all with the sales person. Very friendly but no tandem knowledge. Co-Motions are very nice, no doubt. My main concern, I guess, is the significantly higher cost, $6k+ for custom Speedster vs. <$5k for custom Rod. and <$4k for custom Hokitika. I love supporting the lbs and think Matthews may be the best of the bunch in our great city, but tough for me to rationalize $2k for nicer welds and paint. Also, at my 260 lbs, I'm not concerned at all about a 2 lb. frame-weight penalty with the less expensive bike. Paulj, I did see that big-build Rodriguez (blue fade?) and agree a very cool bike, unique design. I'm going to try to call Mel next week to talk tandem. He gets many props here and sounds like a great guy who knows about that which he speaks.
Have a great day, sunny and cold here in Indy -- got to get out for a ride...