Originally Posted by Eurastus

I've got to echo everything masiman has to say. We're also big daVinci ICS fans for all the same reasons he explained earlier. I've ridden with five stokers over the course of the past year, all rather inexperienced, and all fun in different ways. The ICS made it possible to get out and riding quickly with no problems.

My usual stokers are my children at 12, 10, and 7 years old. They're currently 5'1", 4'7", and 3'8" tall respectively. They all fit on the bike fine, though I have to remove the shock-post and run a different saddle all the way down for the youngest. I've attached pictures...

The 12-year-old daughter is nice to ride with because of the time we spend together. Where else can an old guy spend so many hours with his preteen daughter? She's not all that strong and doesn't like to push very hard, though she doesn't mind longer 60+ mile rides if we take enough rest stops along the way. If the speed ever gets above about 24-25mph, she starts calling for me to apply the brakes--speed demon she's not. The 10-year-old boy, on the other hand, is much faster both on the flats and especially downhill. He doesn't talk much, but likes to put his helmet down and hammer. Our average speed is about 1-2mph higher than with the girl. He tells me "Faster, Dad, faster!!," on every downhill. His longest ride is a metric century (62.5 miles) and he was very tired at the end. The 7-year-old is only just barely big enough to reach the pedals as you can see. He's a real fireplug up hills, though; I think his strength-to-weight ratio is higher than the other two. When he stands up on the pedals, I can really feel the turbo-boost kick in. His longest outing is 25 miles so far--he still talks about that ride and asks for the uphills when we go out. A real chip off the old block, if I do say so myself.

My two adult stokers have been my wife (5'2") for a few rides and a blind gal (5'7" but heavier than I am) whom I took for a couple or three rides during the summer. Neither of these women are experienced cyclists by any stretch of the imagination, but we were easily up and riding on the tandem with virtually no issues. The daVinci ICS makes this especially easy.

I can't say enough good things about the ICS system, especially if the captain is much more experienced than the stoker as is the case with me. It allows me to ride the tandem almost as I would a single bike, without any of the worries about dragging the stokers legs (as was previously mentioned), concerns about coordination of coasting periods, or even being effected when the stoker wants to stand up and coast for a butt-break. Starting out is particularly easy with no whacked shins for either rider...ever. Notice that I ordered the bike with daVinci's cool three-hole stoker cranks (no extra charge, by the way). This makes a big difference as they allow the stoker to have either 130, 150, or 170mm crank lengths just by moving the pedals from hole to hole. Because I tend to run a rather high cadence (usually from 90-110 rpm) I used to hear constant requests from them back seat to slow the feet down when on our old tandem (fixed 170mm stoker cranks). Well, by using the 150mm option as I normally have the stoker pedals mounted, it allows the stoker to run the same cadence as I but at a lower overall foot speed--no more complaints. Furthermore, I am able to use the 130mm super-short option with my youngest. This made all the difference in allowing him to get on the bike this year instead of waiting for next season.

Our bike was "custom" ordered from daVinci this past spring, but with standard Large-Small sizing. We picked the exact color we wanted and I was able to spec every component. The front cockpit fits me exactly the same as my best-fitting single bike. I can move right from the one to the other without feeling even the slightest difference in fit. This was important to me, though some captains don't mind (some even prefer) a different fit. Our frame was still made by hand by the same fellows that build daVinci "custom" bikes; it's a pretty small shop. The biggest advantage of a custom builder that I could think of would be for custom tubes if you're an unusually light or heavy team as well as custom sizing, most especially for a longer top-tube in the rear cockpit. This can make a world of difference for stokers experienced on single-bikes. Because all of my stokers are small, the 28.3" rear top tube of the daVinci is fine. You'll notice that I've got the rear stem almost fully extended as it is. I figure we've got plenty of room to move the rear bars forward as the kids (especially the boys) grow.

Unless money is not that much of an issue for you, I too would agree with other posters that your first tandem should be a lower-end stock or a higher-end used bike. There are even more options on a tandem than there are on a single bike; it's rather difficult to decide exactly what you'd like for long-term use before you've all spent many hours and perhaps thousands of miles in the saddle.

I'd recommend that you work with a knowledgeable tandem retailer like the several mentioned earlier (very few local bike shops have anywhere near the experience needed, though a few do) to start out with. Then, as we did, a couple of years down the road spend the big bucks and order just what you want.

I couldn't be more happy with our bike, but without the two years we spent on an older, too small tandem before this one, we wouldn't have know exactly what we wanted for our long-term purchase.