Originally posted by BruceBrown
I was able to chat via email with a store called Tandems Limited.
That would have been Jack Goertz over in Birmingham. Jack's been selling tandems longer than Cannondale's been making them. We bought our first tandem from Jack and his wife Susan, aka. Tandems Limited about 7 years ago and they are now good friends -- I should have given you a list of the various tandem guys/gals to call: my bad. I had Mel on my mind since ParamountScapin was looking into tandems and happened to live near TandemsEast. Regardless, good that you hooked up with Jack and got your questions answered.
Originally posted by BruceBrown
You found your used fully in South Dakota?
Yup. South Dakota. The Internet is a wonderful place and
www.tandemmag.com/classified is THE place to start your used tandem searches. Apparently the frame had been sold to a customer by Ventana and shipped out by UPS who promptly lost it. It was eventually found by UPS after the claim had been settled with Ventana so it was put out to auction as happens with most of the stuff UPS loses and then finds. A 2nd hand shop in SD bought the $2,800 frame probably for a few hundred bucks and eventually a mountain biker bought it. However, he never built it up and ended up selling it to me for $1k. I refurbished the frame which was pretty scuffed up after bouncing around in trucks, etc..., put on new decals, a disc brake compatible swingarm and ended up with what was essentially a brand new, never been built Ventana ECdM for $1,200. It was an awesome bike; however, we sold it to a couple in California a year ago. Interestingly enough, it was shipped in two boxes -- one with the frame and running gear and a second with the fork, wheels, seats/posts, and bars. UPS lost the second box. We're now on our 2nd Ventana ECdM which was built for us by Sherwood Gibson, the man behind Ventana.
So, there you go... It's a small world when it comes to tandems.