Santana?
Just when Santana was topping my list, I learn:
Santana tinker-toys in their lateral tube by welding in small diameter individual sections. The top tube is also smaller with a pregnant snake swelling at the seat tubes.
A problem that has surfaced this year with Santana has been the ever increasing use of proprietary parts that have become unavailable for months. Bottom brackets for any tandems made after 2000 have been out of stock. Same goes Sweet 16 wheels, Winzip brakes... unavailable too... unless one buys a new bike. Other proprietary parts include rear hubs and the 1 1/4 headset is likely to got that way before long as there is only one source that comes to mind aside from Santana. Handlebar stems and front derailleur clamps are theirs too... and the 160 spaced rear hub that hardly anyone else uses and most that tried to use it ended up abandoning it.
160 mm rear spacing. A bit too wide. You need special axle width which puts your front derailleur out further which compromises shifting. I just prefer 145 which only has 1 mm of dish and uses standard parts. Triples have enough issues with shifting to make them shift right requires a standard system.
Concur/Non-concur. Additional comments?
AA6