Originally Posted by merlinextraligh
If you race, and ride 200 miles plus per week, you presumably have at least a decent single bike.
You will hate that tandem. Think of it this way, would you ride a $250 single bike? And because of complexities of tandems, and limited markets, a $500 tandem Will not be as good a bike as $250 single bike.
Also The stresses on tandems are more than on single bikes, thus componets tend to break and wear out. Cheap componets tend to wear and break out even faster.
Do yourself a favor and save your money. Either 1) up your budget to buy something new, or 2) look for something used at the same price point.
+1 I bought a used Santana Sovereign for $700. It was older, but had been updated with a modern 8-speed Shimano LX drivtrain and a new cassette-based wheelset with XT hubs. There are a lot of good deals on used tandems out there.