It all started Feb 14 (valentines day). I decided that for valentines day that I would borrow a friends Schwinn Duo sport tandem and take my noncycling but athletic girlfriend out for a day of cycling and a lunch at a small cafe here in seattle. The day went really well and we had covered maybe 20 miles and had a great time. My girlfriend and I being first timers with a tandem had 20 minutes of instruction on how to operate the "big bike". We decided not to return the schwinn to it's rightful owner just yet, we deciced that it would be fun to hit some of the longer trails and maybe putts around on it for a few days. It didn't take long (there goes that Klein Quantum that I wanted) for us to decide that we REALLY enjoyed the rides and we needed to find a tandem for us! We started looking around and talking to people and gathering as much information as we could. Briana (my girlfriend) came home with an article out of a magazine that featured a Raleigh tandem and the price was "too" good. So we went and rode one... It did not go well, every time we put power to the cranks the rear chain would jump. With a stoker aboard it was just irritating, with just me on it became fairly dangerous throwing the bike violently to one side. The LBS tried in vain to fix it, new chain rings, cassette, chain, and finally the cranks. Nothing could repair it's woes. Cya... We decided that we were not going to get off that cheap so we visited a dealer that sold a number of nice tandems. Unfortunately it was a very busy sunday and the place was a mad house with a large sale. We rode a Burley softride. I liked it, Briana didn't (too bouncy). I could hardly tell she was there. More research and more rides on the Schwinn.. We found a local shop that sold Cannondale, performance wise we thought this to be a good "package" all the way around. We put a deposit down and ordered a black 2K2 MT800 (at 37yrs I wanted the flat bars), delivery date 3 weeks. We make some plans for some summer tours and maybe some local bike club rides.. A week later we find out that it will be almost 7 weeks before we will see our bike. Now that we know which bike we want and not wanting to wait until mid summer to get it we start calling, we find a black 2K1 in portland and decide to make the trip down to get it. Come to find out it's BBQ black which is the matte finish black and not the gloss, that's ok. We rode it and fell in love with it. All the red stuff I have for my other bike goes well with it and I have bought Briana some matching stuff. We also had the shop install some specialized nimbus 26/1.5 tires that I favor on my other bike.
So we have had our Cannondale for just a few days and have put a few miles on it and so far it has been flawless. We are looking foward to the journey that the little Schwinn has put us on. And thanks Roger for knowing that you would not see your bike again for several months
