Originally Posted by
briwasson
I own a Santana Cabrio triplet, and have been riding it with my wife and now 6.5-year-old son for two years now. Overall, I've been very pleased with the way it rides. Certainly, any triple is going to feel more "twitchy" than a single due to the amount of bike you have behind you, and the fact that usually the heavier of the two stokers is in the back position (at least at first). The first few rides it felt really weird, even though I was used to riding our fully loaded tandem when touring (with weight that was probably approximate to what we had on the triple). Now that we're used to it it's no problem at all. In fact, a few weeks ago we did a three-day, overnight loaded tour with our son (his first) on the triple, and I was surprised how well it rode even with front and rear panniers.
Also, a stoker that moves around a lot on the far back will cause more problems than they would on a tandem. It's a simple matter of leverage.
IMO, the Cabrio S&S option is the best way to go on a triple, if you can afford the extra cost. So much more versatile and easy to travel with. We flew with ours from the USA to Europe last year, for example (one week in SW Germany and one week in Provence doing day rides).
Where are you located in Europe, and what is the price you are being quoted? If it's only 30% off the current new price for a 10-year-old bike, that doesn't seem like that much of a savings. Although, I will say that these bikes tend to hold their value pretty well, as they are rare in the used market. If you are in the euro zone, you can get yourself a brand-new triplet by traveling to and buying in the USA and get pretty much that same 30% discount due to the exchange rate right now. Heck, I'll sell you my Cabrio for 6500 euro, delivered to you in Europe! :-)
briwasson, thank you for the advice. The shop wanted 7000Euro including conversion with two kidkits and from drop bar to straight handlebar.
Unfortunately, importing a new bike to Germany will raise the price substantially vs US list price: 19% import duty and 16% (or so) tariff on bicycles.
I feel a bit like you said: the rebate is not sufficient for a 10 year old model. I'd somehow compromise over what I want. The frame doesn't support disk brakes (ok, I could simply get a new fork), its the 28" frame, so the widest tires I could put on are 32mm (a substantial amount of riding around here is on gravel paths), I'd be missing out on 10 years of development in components (maybe not so important).
6500 for a two year old cabrio would be a different story - especially if it were the 26" version...