Tandem Cycling - Strengths & weaknesses of Trek T200 or T100 for Newbies

Can anyone elaborate on the value of these first Trek tandem offerings as a starter tandem in comparison to other used Burley and Cannondale tandems of similar age and quality? Thanks in advance!

A bit heavier, but otherwise on par at least for the frame.

Components are a wild card without further information as to how the Treks and any tandems you're comparing them to may have been updated or modified.

Mainly focused on the two Treks right now, which both appear to have seen lower than average use. The T200 with Shimano Deore XT components, the T100 with Shimano Deore DX components. Little upgrades if any to the stock factory set-ups with common 7 speed cassettes. Deore XT hubs standard on both models. The T200's rims are heat-treated Matrix Journey 700c which may or may not be an upgrade from the original spec Matrix Titan Tour II 700c. The T100 has the original spec Titan Tour II rims.

Heavier perhaps being advantageous for a larger Clydesdale/Athena sized team over a lighter Burley or Cannondale?

Heavier perhaps being advantageous for a larger Clydesdale/Athena sized team over a lighter Burley or Cannondale?

Not really... The Cannondale would get the nod over both the Trek and Burley frames given that new information.

Hmmm... Beware of generalizing and be sure to compare apples to apples. Some lower-end Burleys from the era (early-mid '90s) were pretty crude and nowhere near as nice as the Treks. Also, for a clydesdale team, the Trek's 1 1/4" fork steerer might be a better choice than the 1" steerer on some Cannondales of that vintage [I do not know when C'dale switched to 1 1/8" steerers].

Wheels were the achilles heel of the early T200. If the bike you are looking at has OE rims, at the very least have them tensioned and trued by a competent mechanic before putting them back into service. The early rims were not very durable, but (IMO) under-tensioning was the primary reason so many owners had trouble so early.

I enjoyed captaining a 1992 T200 for many miles. Although nowhere near as nice as a brand-new 2009 tandem, it was no slouch in its day. Trek benchmarked the contemporary Santana design when they developed the frame. A teammate and I rode my bike to a silver medal in the Master's Nationals 90+ RR at Santa Rosa (1995, I believe; the dated medal is at home). I'm confident that there were several more exotic bikes behind us at the finish.

If you're trying to figure out what year the Treks are, the Vintage Trek site can help:

http://www.vintage-trek.com/model_numbers1.htm

The tandems - initial character T - are way down at the bottom of the list. You can match the frame color to the year (if no one repainted the bike).

Once you know the year, you can snoop in the Brochures listing to see what it might have started out with:

http://www.vintage-trek.com/TrekBrochures.htm

Very early Treks had a recurring broken spoke/wheels issues.
For Clyde/Athena team the C'dale would be the better choice even with 1" steerer in our opinion.
Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem.