Tandem Cycling - Advice about burley samba 1998?

We are looking at buying a used burley samba from 1998. Any insight to a mountain frame vs. road riding. we are in our late 20s (okay i'm thirty, but my captain is 26.) We mainly road ride our touring bikes and are looking for something to go touring with. I have had a specialized tandem in the past and it seemed to work fine for touring, but that was a lifetime ago.

""Burley Samba, excellent condition. Enduro style, fits 5'8" captain or larger. True Temper, double-butted chrome-moly frame.
Asking $870 or best cash offer. ""

This is what the seller reports to me:
The tandem is a 1998 Burley Samba, bought new from Cupertino Bike Shop, back when they carried tandems. We pulled our son on a Burley Piccolo trailer bike, then we moved up to a triple. We've ridden at least 3,800 miles, so I've been through a few chains as well as tires. A while ago the front brake was lumpy from a dent or rim joint defect, so the hub was built into a new wheel with a Velocity Deep-V rim, again at Cupertino. I bought a spare rim because 26", 40 spoke rims are not a stock item. The rim goes with the bike

I fixed the bike up last year with two new outer drive chain rings, a new freewheel (it's a seven speed) and a Chris King headset as well as chains and new grade 25 hub bearings. I rotated the timing chain rings front to rear. My riding friends always chide me on how clean my bikes are.

Do you think this is a fair price?

Thank you for your input...

Lisa

Back home in 'bama we'd run our wild pig hunts with an old Samba. Had a built-in gun rack for that spare deer rifle... can't say I know much though about the '98 - ours was an older version with a mixte frame and lousy glued in bottom brackets. Make sure you get a trailer for your puppy and subsequent children that you will likely get once you start tandem riding... see you in Napa!

Do you think this is a fair price?

It's probably a little high even considering how well-maintained it would appear to be based on what was described. All of those things that have been upgraded or replaced have preserved what the tandem was when it was sold new which was Burley's entry level tandem with 7 speed "value-level" components.

More information here on used tandems here: http://www.thetandemlink.com/usedhome.html

I assume you have double checked the sizes, don't go too much by the size fit described by the seller, rider preferences, the use of a suspension seat post, etc affect sizes and you could end up with the wrong size. The bike is in a good entry level bike choice, I would not want to go down in specs too much below, where you will find frames that flex, components that don't work right, or spend too much time and expense in upgrades.

If you can pick up the bike then you should be ready to pay a higher price because you eliminate transaction risks and you dont spend money on shipping, which on an $ 800 bike is a significant percentage. Finding the tandem that fits your size, budget and needs, and in your local area is not easy at all.

Also gage how much you are willing to wait. Now that we are hooked we would not want to be too long without our tandem.

If it is not in your local area and you are not in a hurry you can make a lower offer and take the chance of loosing it, perhaps $ 650. I was on the used market twice, first time we knowingly overpaid for a Trek T100, but we are glad we did, I did not have time to wait, purchase was timed with a US trip, the bike was the right fit, and the seller was an unhappy stoker, with little desire to negotiate, possibly fighting with her husband, I can hear say, "I told you so! look how much we are loosing on this bike!" Bike looked like it had only been ridden around the block twice and was since stored for five years. But we got a tandem, and 5000 km later started looking for something better, particularly because we wanted to travel and needed S&S couplers. On our second round in the market we made three offers, all rejected and bikes sold at the asking prices, market is solid, but these where bikes in the $ 4000 range.

I cannot put a price tag on many of our rides, which would have never happened if we had not overpaid for the T100.

well I think we would have purchased it had it been the right size. thanks for the advice....