bikeguy

We odered our comotion speedster co-pilot in late July. This waiting is hard to do .... they are saying late Sept or early October.

Well at least this tropical storm has made it impossible to ride since Monday... so that is better than having a brand new bike and not being able to ride....

I am excited though

WheresWaldo

bg, I am in the same boat. Ordered and paid deposit on Ruegamer Ying & Yang the beginning of this month, expect to see it in January.

Don'y let Fay get you down.

merlinextraligh

^ what part of Florida?

FWIW, Co-Motion's estimates on delivery time were pretty accurate in our case. So I bet you will actually have it when they're saying.

TandemGeek

'96 Santana Arriva: Took it home the day we rode it in Aug '97
Instant gratification & impulse buy; great 1st tandem. Sold Dec '98

'98 Erickson: Ordered June '98 - Delivered Dec '98
Normal backlog at the time; well worth the wait and still in our livery.

'02 Erickson: Ordered July '00 - Delivered Apr '02
It's a funny story with lots of twists; forgot the couplers, got behind, clients signed up for tours waiting on bikes... but an awesome tandem that we really should have kept "just because". It only dragged on that long because we already had one of Glenn's tandems and no trips were planned.

'02 Ventana: Ordered Fall '01 - Delivered Feb '02
Our 2nd Ventana, MTBTandems.com's 1st Ventana. Received a phone call from Sherwood while he was setting the jig before tacking the frame to discuss geometry: now that's custom.

'07 Calfee: Ordered Sep '07 - Delivered Jan '08
Somewhat complex, Interbike, tubing shortages, and a few tweaks later.... well worth the wait and an incredible final product. No regrets.

The second-hand '98 Cannondale MT3000 in '99 and 1st Ventana in '00 weren't all that significant aside from the prices which were spectacular values, e.g., $1,800 for the C'dale ready to ride & $1k for the NOS Ventana frame-only... lost by UPS and road tested for 5 months before being sold at auction to a pawn shop in North Dakota and ending up on Ebay.

Bottom Line: The great tandems are always worth the wait and can be amortized over the rest of your lives.

zonatandem

All our 4 custom tandems were delivered as promised by the builders; mentally we always added in about 2to 3 weeks possible delay.
We like to have a tandem fully set up before any tours; when we had our Colin Laing built we made sure to get in a thousand miles in the first four weeks before we tackled the 6-day 550-mile-long challenging Grand Canyon to Mexico Tour. Pays to have everything properly dialed in for both pilot and stoker.
A quality machine is well worth the wait!

swc7916

From the time we placed the order for our Rodriquez until it was finished was 3 weeks.

TandemGeek

It's all about backlog and throughput. Any idea of how many bikes R&E's team fabricates in-house each year?

For example, according a recent article Calfee produces about 400 bikes per year, or ~8 per week. Of that 400, Craig indicated about 33% of those were Bamboo frames and if I had to guess tandems might account for 5% of their annual output. Regardless, if you're quoted 10 weeks by Calfee that implies there are about 80 bikes in the queue ahead of you.... and if it takes longer than that then they've likely had supplier problems.

Although Co-Motion is tight-lipped on it's sales numbers -- as is Santana, C'dale and Trek -- back in 2004 Pez Cycling reported they were producing 1,200 bikes per year and one MUST assume they have continued to increase production given their expanded product line of single bikes and the incredibly successful Periscope. Anyway, you do the math. Backlog can be blessing or a curse; it's all how you manage it.

swc7916

No, I don't (I'm sure it's about 600 per year); but so what? Maybe I lucked out and September was a slow time for them. But hey, I got my bike 3 weeks from the time I ordered it - A custom tandem with a frame built by Dennis Busnell. I think that's pretty darn good.

Please don't try to equate wait time and backlogs with quality or make excuses for the manufacturers; a tandem that you have wait 6 months for is not necessarily better than one that takes less than a month.

If you'd rather ride than wait, why not buy from a smaller shop like R+E rather than a popular name-brand and waste a whole summer wondering when your bike is going to be delivered?

TandemGeek

Because I was just curious... not poking a stick in your eye.

I only added the reference to throughput and annual production for Calfee and Co-Motion to the discussion because I thought others might find it interesting and relevant.

zonatandem

All our custom tandems were ordered from 'smaller shops.'
Assenmacher: 1 man shop (1976).
Colin Laing: 1 man shop, until son Ian joined him. Ian was the youngest builder (age 19) certified to do Reynolds 753 tubing back in the 80s.
Co-Motion: a 3-man shop when we ordered back in 1993.
Zona: 1 man shop.
Are small shops better? Seems they tend to spend a bit more attention to details than the mega-builders.
Always have personally met the builders and had a good rapport with them.