^ it's your money, and you obviously should spend it the way you see fit.

I can tell you in our experience, the almost stock Burley was a functional tandem. We rode it for 14 years, so it definitely was a serviceable bike.

But going from the Burley to the Co-Motion was a night and day difference in how much fun the bike was to ride.

Doing it on the cheap as you've outlned is certainly more reasonable than spending $1000 for new cranks. But, given the inherent limitations of the Burley's frame design, you're limited in how much benefit you're going to see in upgrading it.



And there are other options out there for the money you're going to spend total, such as a used Canondale tandem, or even a pretty new Trek.

I think there's a reasonable chance if you get into riding the tandem that the upgraded Burley is still going to fall short of your desires. Thus, I'd ride it a bit as is before spending money on it.

Take the suggestion for what it's worth.