Tandem Cycling - Rationalising bike-lust

Hello all

Many of these threads are about "should I buy". I also haunt the 50 plus forum, and there it's similar, and very informative too. This is a "should I buy" thread.

My lovely wife and I have a 1996 Santana Visa, steel framed tandem with good old bar end 105 shifters and so forth. We've had it a decade, about 15000 miles on it, taught our kids road safety on it, and I love it. Pictures on the 50plus rogues gallery.

The back wheel is now shot. (Wasn't before, but I put it into a "service" and now it is).

So, I'm buying a new back wheel. A friend here is interested in riding it with his wife. He's a very nice fellow, very athletic, keen cyclist and runner.

Choice is, " Should I buy" a Trek T 2000 and let my pal have the Santana? I'll buy and fit the new necessary back wheel.

The Trek choice is determined by the only good bike shop here being a Trek shop. And also, that I bought the lovely wife a Trek 7.5 fx, and now I can't keep up!!

Whaddyall think about Trek t2000s ? I'd love your views

Ride very safely

Richard

You can't go wrong with the T2000. Trek has done an exceptional job of listening to tandem enthusiasts -- including a member of their design staff in Waterloo who is an avid tandem rider and who was behind the first T2000 redesign effort back a few years -- and they continue to "tweak" the product to meet consumer expectations. The 2007 model now incorporates a carbon fork that with less rake for more aggressive handling; something closer to a stock co-motion with a steel fork which has been the benchmark for sport-handling. The fork, like the rest of the carbon bits on the T2000 are their house-branded Bontrager components which means you get a lot of bang for the buck with the T2000. Their sizing is also very progressive in that they play around with the geometry to get the captain's position dialed in and also give the stoker more room than you'll find on most other tandems.

Bottom Line: Trek has done their homework and leveraged their volume to give tandem enthusiasts a really nice ride for an exceptional value.

As for bike lust in general, so long as you're not sacrificing the kids college fund, forcing yourself to work an extra year before taking retirement, or have other financial responsibilities that are wanting, who else is going to let you indulge your bike lust? I just picked up a used Calfee solo.... why? Because I always wanted to have on in my personal stable for long-term riding, not just a short test ride.

I have a Trek T2000 from 2005 (the red one). In the UK it used to be priced similarly to a Cannondale with Ultegra. I guess you have a similar decision in the States. Basically the 'dale is a bit more touring oriented and the T2000 more racing oriented and all my other bikes are race bikes not tourers, so that is what I wanted. I ended up buying the T2000 because I wanted a starter tandem then seeing one at a good discount and my wife gave us the thumbs up after test riding it so pulled the trigger.

You should definitely try one. You probably don't 'need' one, but since when did that matter? If you can get your buddy into tandeming and already have your 401k topped up, why not?

I had groupset level phobia before buying it as my main ride at that time was a Colnago C40 with full Record. However I have to say that the Ultegra shifting, particularly at the front is butter smooth, and that the T2000 components other than the personal stuff works really well. I swapped both sets of handlebars as the stock ones were 46 or 48cm wide!!! I ride 44s and I can fit my behind between the brake levers of a 42cm bar. Also I changed my saddle, but this is just personal preference and stuff your shop should be able to accommodate.

The frame was not welded by a maestro, so don't compare the welds with a Moots, but is none the worse for it and is sufficiently rigid for the bike to handle well. The only weak point on the bike used to be the brakes, which on mine are Avid shorty cantilevers. I think the 2006 and later model years went for caliper brakes which I think is a big step forward as the shortys never work as well as I think they should. Also the carbon fork on the later years is nice if like us you're never going to go loaded touring on it.

All in all it's a good bike, on which you can have a lot of fun.

We had a blast for most of two years on our second hand, hardly used 2001 model T-2000 purchased in 2005, and it got us hooked on tandeming.

We just bought a custom bike and sold the Trek, but we would still highly recommend the T2000 to any prospective buyers.

Any single bike rider who wants to duplicate some level of acceptable performance in a mid-priced tandem experience will be satisfied when comparing the Trek dollar to dollar to all but the highest level of "boutique" or custom bikes..

Trek has come a long way on the tandem scene! Their first tandems were noted for continuous wheel issues as they thought standard single bike wheels were just fine.
They'll probably take up part of the gap in the tandem market that the demise of Burley created.
So get rid of the 'tana and get the Trek . . . whatcha gonna do . . . wait 'till you get older?