I suppose we are in the small niche within the niche of tandems. We own several tandems. We started with a beach cruiser and then jumped to a DaVinci. Love that bike. It was our primary bike for several years. We've done some loaded touring and traveled with it to Europe (its coupled). Then we decided that we NEEDED a "go-fast" bike (yeah, I know its not about the bike!). So we bought a Calfee. LOVE that bike too. It has a completely different feel. It did not take any time at all to get used to being "synched" via the timing chain.

Then we decided that we wanted to ride off-road. Here's where it got tricky. There are definitely some even bigger pros and bigger cons of having the ICS on a mtb tandem (in my opinion). The ability to have the stokers pedals in different positions when riding over waterbars and rocks CAN be a big advantage. The ability for the captain to NOT be able to put the stoker's pedals where you want them going around rocks and obstacles CAN also be a big disadvantage. All that said, we went with a traditional drivetrain on our Ventana mountain tandem. We love that bike and ride it more than any other bike that we own. Full disclosure, we ride with several other mtb tandems and two of them are on DaVincis and they both are HUGE fans.

We still really like our DaVinci and ride it primarily for loaded tours (especially with extended climbs in our nearby mountains), we actually prefer the ICS. It gives you the abilty to take turns in taking small breaks to "re-arrange" in the saddle, or out of the saddle. The gearing is has an amazingly huge range. VERY good for touring and climbing. DaVinci makes a high quality bike! One last plug for the DaVinci - it makes the PERFECT cyclocross tandem and here's why. When re-mounting the bike (while moving), the captain throws his leg over and starts pedaling, then the stoker can jump on the back and not have to chase the pedals... pretty cool!

I realize that we are outside the norm in that we have more than one tandem. I don't think I've met any unhappy DaVinci owners.