Originally Posted by vosyer
I think I read somewhere that 3 million single bikes are sold each year in the US compared to 10 to 15,000 tandems of all sorts.
Those tandem numbers have gone up substantially over the past few years due to the glut of low-cost imports similar to and including the ones you see all over Ebay, just as all the big box and department store single bike sales are usually included in the total US bike market numbers.
However, to get a glimpse of what the premium brand tandem market looks like you can read an article published back in 2001 by a local Oregon news outlet regarding Co-Motion:
Because of the small size of the tandem market and the reluctance of some manufacturers to share production and sales data, reliable data for the market are not available. Some industry experts estimate that only 5,000 to 6,000 high-performance tandems are produced annually in the United States.
Co-Motion said it makes about 800 tandems and 200 single bikes a year. Burley, which also makes recumbent bikes, rainwear, and trailers for hauling kids or gear, said it produces 1,300 to 1,400 tandems a year. Green Gear said it makes about 260 tandems a year. Santana, which exclusively makes tandems, would not release its figures.
The entire article is here and linked off of Co-Motion's web site.
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/orego...1cycle16.frame
Santana's annual production numbers are protected like Coca Cola's formula, but Mr. Bill has shared enough information over the years to suggest that their numbers are in fact similar to Burley's, e.g., a few years back Santana noted that it had put over 50,000 people on tandems which, if you divided by 25 years and 2 people per tandem...
Again, the numbers are relatively small but, as small as they are, when you look at the numbers over time there are clearly a LOT of nice tandems sitting in garages or basements going unused or that are ridden by couples who ride alone and/or who aren't involved in the active tandem scene. Other evidence of just how small the market and ridership is can be found in typical enthusiast outlets where The Tandem Club of America membership remains stuck at around 1,300 (not that you get much from it aside from their oh-so-behind-the-times monthly compendium of member ride diaries and other "filler"), relatively low tandem list readership, and the inability of two tandem-related publications -- Tandem & Family Cyclist ('94 - '99) & Double (two issues in '02) -- to survive while a third has had to look to the Recumbent market for enough interest to underwrite the tandem aspects of the publication.