I know these threads show up all the time and get old real quick to the regulars...so I'm gonna do another one.

My wife and are looking at getting our first tandem to try it out and see how we like it. I've ridden/ride a lot but she hasn't. She'd like to do some longer rides with me (eventually leading to 1200k brevets, hopefully), but at this point I just don't see it happening on singles. That got me thinking about a tandem, which I think would greatly increase our chances of actually riding together.

That being said, we're looking at some used tandems and have a couple prospects I'd like to get thoughts on from people with more experience than I.

First up is an early 2000s Burley Duet for sale by an individual, with a mix of 105 and Deore I believe. It's a 9 speed with brifters and looks to be in very good shape. The asking price is $800...not sure about wiggle room on it, I haven't asked yet.




The other bike is a mid to late 90s (just guessing, maybe early 90s?) Santana Arriva. It has bar end shifters, Deore XT, and is a 7 speed. It's at a bike shop and had an original price of about $980, but they'll take $660 for it, which means ~$715 with tax (they're holding it for me for now until my wife can come check it out). I think I'd eventually want to upgrade it to 9 speed. It's the blue one below (I also looked at the red Arriva next to it, which is older and has an asking price of $540, but it's too small).








What do you think?