Call me a cheapskate- Why go that high? Only used Shimano but on the road- the lowest you can use is 105. For not much more then Ultegra is better. For a lot more money but not corresponding performance- then go Dure ace.

As I said- call me a cheap skate- but on the Tandem- parts do need replacing on a regular basis. It started off as LX equipped and as it failed I replaced with XT. Then I started to see a few deals on XTR and got them. Have to admit that although performance is no better- the life of the parts has been worth the little bit extra I paid for the better quality stuff on the special deals I bought at.

Unfortunately- Or fortunately- I have not had to replace many parts on the Road bikes and still have some 105 and lots of Ultegra fitted to them. So no chance or requirement of hunting down the deals on Dure-Ace.