Tandem Cycling - Road Tandem Wheelset advice

I currently have a have a decent single and so does my wife. We enjoy biking together however our speeds are very incompatible. My parents have Very old Schwinn Twinn 5 speed tandem, we rode that together and thought I was allot of fun but its falling apart so its not safe.

So we are looking to get a tandem for Christmas. But our budget does not support much more than $500-600. I have a lot of single bike parts lying around so I thought that I could just build up http://www.chucksbikes.com/store/fr022a.htm and use parts I already have, but some of the tandem specific parts seem so expensive particularly the wheelset. The cheapest wheelset I could find was ~$500. I tried searching classified and E-bay but nothing turned up. Any help/ideas would be appreciated.

I would think that your best bet would be to search high and low for an older used tandem.

If you buy that frame it will cost at least another $500 for parts, most likely more.

I bought this bike new, but got it a little cheaper from a local dealer.

http://gallery.bcentral.com/GID4038672P1523589-Tandems/KHS-Tandamania-Milano-2002-Burgandy.aspx

Good luck,

Galen

I know you are talking about road wheel sets, but In 26" wheels there are certain advantages. I am not talking about the run of the mill bike wheels now, but actual mountain bike wheels. A 26" wheel is stronger. Strong enough to say that a Good quality hub such as XT laced to a "Freeride" quality rim with 36 straight gauge stainless spokes is adequate. Not the best, but adequate. A wheel like this from a Quality wheelbuilder, will still not be cheap, but a lot less than the $500 you have stated it could cost.
This will only be of use to you if the frame you get takes 26" wheels. I have known of someone using a 32 spoke l/weight rim on LX hubs on the road, and they lasted 2 years before they started breaking spokes on a frequent basis.
Another way out is to look for a Second hand unit. They must be about, or even look to rebuilding the schwinn as a temporary measure.

The cheapest wheelset I could find was ~$500. I tried searching classified and E-bay but nothing turned up. Any help/ideas would be appreciated.

If Baird hasn't sold the first set of wheels listed in his post of Oct 25th they might be worth looking into as his asking price is only $225 (or offer): http://search.bikelist.org/getmsg.asp?Filename=tandem.10410.0456.eml

The rear spacing is correct @ 145mm and they are honest-to-goodness tandem wheels.

T@H this week advertised 2 Santana wheelsets (160mm spacing rear) for $250. May not fit your Schwinn unless you can really spread out that rear triangle.
Also look for used mt. bike wheels (with bike attached?) in thrift shops, swap meets, etc. Would not suggest to sink a lot of $$$ into that bike as it could become a bottomle$$ money pit!

In my quest to build a new tandem, I found these links with some fairly decent wheel prices in the $300-$500 range.

Tandems East (http://www.tandemseast.com/parts_frame.html)
Precision Tandems (http://www.precisiontandems.com/catframepart.htm)
Peter White Cycles (http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/Tandemparts.asp)
Speedgoat Genuine George Hand-Built wheels (http://www.speedgoat.com/catalog.asp?cat=260)