Tandem Cycling - Advice on first tandem purchase

I'm thinking of buying my first tandem.
I'm a relatively short person a 5'5''. My 10 year daughter will be riding with me and she's about 5'.
I'm looking for a used tandem. Locally I've found a Trek and a Burley, both roughly the same price. Each appears to be manufactored in or around the year 2000.

I haven't yet given either a test ride. Any general thoughts on either brand before I test ride them?

Any other brands I should look for?

Thanks

Also my tandem must have rack mounts since my 7 yr old will be tagging along in her burley Piccolo trailer bike.

We had a Burley Duet for 14 years. It was a very solid serviceable bike.

Any general thoughts on either brand before I test ride them?

You'll want to nail down the model years before buying so that you know what you're buying. Bikepedia.com (http://bikepedia.com/QuickBike/Default.aspx) has a detailed list of the models and equipment sold by most of the major tandem manufacturers over the years.

Anyway, Trek and Burley are both solid products.

Some other things to keep in mind when shopping for your first tandem can be found here:
http://www.thetandemlink.com/tandems.html


Any other brands I should look for?

Trek, Burley, Cannondale, Santana, Co-Motion use the better quality frames along with some regional semi-custom models from Rodriguez or Bushnell (Seattle) and Bilenky or Sterling (Philadelpha).

You can also find good entry-level tandems from KHS (Milano), Raleigh (Pursuit), and one or two other off-brands but you need to do some additional homework to make sure they're the better models with entry level sport quality componets like Shimano LX, even Tiagra.

I've found a Cannodale RT1000 on Ebay with the proper standover height and very solid 105 components. I think this will be the one.

At almost $1,500 seems too high for a used cdale rt1000. Check how much a new one would cost you.

I think a new one is $2400.

I think a new one is $2400.

Tandems East is still listing the entry level C'dale RT3 for $1,799; overall comparable to RT1000 specs as Mel from Tandems East worked on the specs for the RT3 with Cannondale before they introduced it.
http://www.tandemseast.com/frames/cannondale.html

Shipping isn't much more than $100 last time I checked. Just something to factor into your decision process.

Tandems East is still listing the entry level C'dale RT3 for $1,799; overall comparable to RT1000 specs as Mel from Tandems East worked on the specs for the RT3 with Cannondale before they introduced it.
http://www.tandemseast.com/frames/cannondale.html

Shipping isn't much more than $100 last time I checked. Just something to factor into your decision process.

Purchased our first tandem from Mel this year. We are fortunate to live near Tandems East, Mel was extremely helpful getting us fitted and rolling on our new Burley.