The story of the two bike shops reminds me of my search for a tandem repair a couple of years ago. My custom-made tandem failed at the stoker's bottom bracket. The builder was notoriously slow with frame repairs and I live in a city with a nationally-known tandem building company, so I gave them a call. They said they won't work on anything they didn't build (and I have since found out they aren't too good about fixing their own problems). Someone on the tandem forum suggested I look into R+E in Seattle (the other end of the Cascades Amtrak line from me). I contacted them, gave them some photos and they said they would do it if I got the frame to them. When I got to their shop, the owner spent two hours showing me everything. They build custom tandems and one of the lightest single bikes (the Outlaw). They have an assortment of machines to accomplish this, most of them custom-made by the staff. They also make eccentrics that are shipped overseas and installed on bikes that are then imported.

When I picked up the repaired frame ten days later, I found that they had found a clever way of dealing with the cause of the failure that improved the bike. Needless to say, when I was in the market for a new tandem the following year, they were given first crack and they filled the bill to a Tee. It took half the day for us to get everything dialled in on the day we picked it up, but the mechanic patiently made sure everything was just so in spite of the fact that we picked it up two days before the biggest ride in the PNW (STP). We ended up with a last-minute handlebar upgrade that has been a lifesaver for my wife, who rides captain. They did have a chuckle when we explained why we were wearing bum clothes; we were planning on throwing our clothes away the next morning as we headed off to ride the bike 370 miles home (to break it in).