How can an eight or nine thousand dollar bike leave the factory with the wrong sized skewer? We had similar problems with both of our new co-motions (year 2000 crank fell off on first ride, and year 2007 IRD Cassette didn't work right with Shimano shifters). They were both great riding bikes, but we had to do a lot of tinkering to get them running right. I think co-motions are very good value, but these little details caused us to go with different builders for our current tandems.