Xanti Andia

OK, the used 2006 Co-Mo with dings was aparently sold at its asking price, $ 4650 including cases. Now I found a 2003 Burley Duet with S&S. Much less money of course, but no cases.

Question is particularly regarding the diferences in the frame vs a Co-Mo Primera or Speedster. The price diference between these offers gives me a lot of room for component upgrades if I need them. I am not worried about resale value, I plan on using it, so Burley being out of the tandem business is not a big concern. But to take the trouble of getting it down here I do want a bike that I will be happy with, and I don't have the luxury of test rides.

In order to estimate its market price I can use the very handy Tamdemlink spread sheet, but I need a replacement cost of a bike that is no longer available, any sugestions?

Thigh Master

The steering is quite a bit different between a Co-Mo and Burley, we own a '99 Burley Duet which has essentially the same frame now as then - we test drove a late model Speedster and Primera 2 months ago - very different feel as Co-Mo attempts to create a sensation of riding a single bike for the Captain with its fork/frame geometry. Co-Mo's and Burley are Captain oriented bikes... but they definitely don't have the same "feel."

zonatandem

Duets with S&S were a bit rare. Burley discontinued the couplers a few years ago and then of course discontinued tandems/bikes this past year.
The Duet is a nice riding bike but not as quick handling or as light as a Co-Mo. Buying a pair of cases (new or possibly used) would solve that issue.
Yes, have ridden Burleys and Co-Motions. We've always opined that Burley was the 'biggest bang for the buck'!
Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

TandemGeek

First of all, verify the pedigree of the tandem. I could be mistaken, but to the best of my knowledge Burley had changed its production philosophy and discontinued semi-custom and S&S models by 2003 and then dropped the Softride models in 2004. Now, it's entirely possible that it is a 2003 Burley Duet that came with couplers or was retrofitted with couplers. Regardless, make sure you get clarification as to the production year (not the year it was actually purchased), whether it was born as an S&S bike or if it was retrofitted, and if it was retrofitted by whom?

As for a value, Burley changed frame materials a few times and did a roller-coaster with the price of the Duet: ~$2,300 in 2003, then ~$2,500 in 2004, then back down to ~$2,200 in 2005/2006. Back when they offered the couplers it was a $1,000 option without cases. So, because of Burley's misguided pricing strategies the replacement value went down instead of up after 2003 (similar to how C'dale torpedo'd it's prior customers when it restructured it's tandem line and pricing around the same time). All of that said, I'd plug in something like $3,300 to allow for some inflation on the couplers vs. earlier coupler costs sitting on top of the $2,200 pricing in 2006. If it's a retrofit, I'd still use the same numbers regardless of what the owner may have paid to add the couplers.

vosyer

At the Northwest Tandem Ralley in 2006 I asked Burley about their coupled tandems that they had discontinued, I got the impression it was a pretty good bike and it was discontinued because of price. The main reason I was asking though was because Mel and Tandem's East had a number of them for sale at a reasonable price. Tou know how Mel is he probably bought out their entire remainging stock of coupled Duets. So even though it a 2003 it maybe a pretty new bike in reality.