Question: Ship a tandem or Rent one?
 

Hi folks. Need some advice here. We're planning to attend the Eastern Tandem Rally in New Hampshire. We live near Vancouver, Canada, so driving is out of the question. We're going to combine the ETR with the summer opera festival at Glimmerglass (near Cooperstown, NY), so also plan to do some riding in upstate NY. I have been looking at shipping options and will likely try Amtrak, but then this means I've got to rent an SUV at Albany airport, and SUV's are not only expensive to rent, but they tend to use lots of gas, which is not too good right now. The other option is to rent a tandem, but my understanding is that most, if not all, rental tandems are very low-performance Sunday-outing-on-the-bike-paths sorts of tandems.

Anyway, I would like to get your recommendations, especially if you know of any places that rent decent tandems for about ten days near Albany, NY. Or if you have any ideas on cheap ways of transporting tandems and cheap cars that will transport them once near the destination.

Thanks!

L.

Tranport tandem in mini-van, pick up, station wagon. Pop off both wheels and tandem will fit in some hatchbacks. Even the mini-car Honda Fit can handle a tandem with wheels off, front seat flipped forward and passenger sitting behind car's driver!
Renting a tandem you usually get low quality bike and cost around $25 to $50 a day.

I noticed that Santana will ship a quality loaner tandem to any of their tours or rallies. If there are any tandem dealers setting up at your new Hampshire event one of them might have a loaner available. Maybe with the rental going towards purchase. I'd look for tandem specialists in the Albany area.

Ship it UPS or FedEx ground to one of their facilities "Hold For Pickup". It will be waiting for you when you arrive. Just pack it good. Can't imagine it would cost more than a few days of rental fees.

Renting a Santana is not cheap. $495 (for steel) + $175 for shipping (roundtrip)...and my guess is they will only do it for Santana vacations.