Paketa Tandems

[rraschke]

Does anyone out there have any experience with the Paketa magnesium tandems? We are narrowing our choices down to the Paketa and the co-motion robusta. Any thought would be appreciated.

[ElRey]

STeel vs. magnesium. You may want to carefully consider purchasing an expensive article that represents new technology or materials. I firmly believe in letting others pay for teh R&D costs of a Mfg. and wait til they've developed a good reputation. This stems from many failed attempts to be the "... first on my block...". CO MOtion has a good reputation for steel frames (not sure I'd buy Magnesium from them either), Paketa??????

[galen_52657]

Just my opinion...

If I were in the magnesium frame spending bracket, I would have my eye on the new Calfee carbon fiber frame without the lateral tube...

A known material and reputable builder

[TandemGeek]

Does anyone out there have any experience with the Paketa magnesium tandems? We are narrowing our choices down to the Paketa and the co-motion robusta. Any thought would be appreciated.

This search string will provide you with a list of postings by Paketa's builder -- Dave Walker, a member of this list -- to the Hobbes list that responded to some questions and claims about magnesium frames:
http://search.bikelist.org/?SearchString=paketa%20AND%20magnesium&MsgFrom=davewalker@paketabike.com%3E&SortBy=MsgDate%5Bd%5D

For the most part, these are the two postings from Santana's Bill McCready regarding magnesium frames that Dave was responding to:
http://search.bikelist.org/?SearchString=magnesium%20AND%20mccready&MsgFrom=santana@santanatandem.com&SortBy=MsgDate%5Bd%5D

I have had private communications with both Dave (via Email) and Bill (via Email & phone) regarding the Paketa tandems. Both make compelling arguments, Bill based on history but without any first hand knowledge of Dave's analysis or designs and Dave based on his analysis and actual test results from campaigning a prototype through a year of racing. To be fair, only time will tell if the Paketa will meet consumers expectations and succeed in the market, the latter being perhaps the bigger challenge.

Regardless, at the end of the day it will come down to your budget, how comfortable you are with buying into a new product from a small company in a tough market with only a few customers vs. a larger small company (Co-Motion) that can point to thousands of customers for references spanning a few years, and how you plan to use the tandem. Ideally, test riding both bikes back-to-back would yield some meaningful information (Precision Tandems is about the only place I know of where you can do that today) as would doing some additional research.

[ElRey]

If you get a cHance to test ride the two, please post your impressions. That would be interesting.

[Goldrush]

" CO MOtion has a good reputation for steel frames"

The Robusta is an aluminum framed bike, though I'm sure CO-MOTION's rep is pretty good for those also.

[zonatandem]

We have owned 'non-mainstream' tandems from smaller builders over the past 30+ years.
These included 'one-man shop' tandems from Assenmacher, Colin Laing, and ariZona Tandems; and from a then '3-man shop': Co-Motion.
We know what we want and sumbit our design/specs to a builder we have personally talked to and inspected their product.
There is a more personal one-on-one relationship and we feel more attention to the details than from a big production operation.
As for more 'innovative' frame materials, remember when alu tandems were a novelty? Then came titanium, then carbon fiber, then magnesium or combinations there of.
A good tandem wil co$t regardless of the frame material/components.
A Robusta will set you back $7,600 to $8,300+ depending on components/custom paint, etc.
Have no personal experienced with magnesium, but for all the derision/banter about magnesium's properties or perceived issues, success or failure will depend upon its aceptance/performance by the owners.
We had been warned about 'don't do carbon fiber for a tandem . . . it shatters!'
Well our ariZona carbon fiber tandem now has over 10,000 miles on it . . . the proof's in the riding!
Believe the Paketa was first tandem to finish at the Hotter than Hell ride in Texas . . . guess it did not perform as well as some people thought?!
Ultimately you'll decide as you control the purse $tring$!
Test ride all tandems you are interested . . . then make the decision.
Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

[BATMANs]

Have you looked at Griffen?

http://www.totalbike.com/web/interbike/2001/griffen.html

[Bill G]

:rolleyes: Personaly I would really consider the Robusta it is a top of the line aluminum 7005 Easton custom butted tandem specific tubeing exsclusive to only Co-Motion specs. With proper componets you will have a weight of around 29 pounds. Co -Motion is a proven top shelf tandem company and I can tell you from personal exsperiance they build and stand behind one heck of a top notch tandem. There frame construction and exsperiance is second to none. I have met all of them and toured there plant two different times and you will not find a better group of guys that will care about your needs when it concerns how you want your tandem to turn out. Give Alan Cline a call at Co-Motion and he will take care of any questions you may have.

Good luck to you.

Bill G.:)