We own a 2005 Raleigh Coupe seen here: 2005 Raleigh Coupe FB - BikePedia. The Coupe is the spiritual ancestor to the Raleigh Cadent being discussed, and 2005 was the last year it was made with Shimano 105 and other components in that quality level. Its MSRP in 2005 was the same as the current MSRP for the Cadent. Obviously some alterations had to be made to hold the price point over 17 years of steady inflation, but it is HARDLY what I consider a "cheapo" bike! The Coupe was discontinued after 2006? And until the Cadent appeared in 2016, Raleigh made do with the "Companion", a tandem that had much less in common with its more upmarket sibling in earlier years than now.

I can tell you that we own three tandems, and the Coupe remains the lightest and best spec'd of them and we did consider, briefly, getting a Cadent last year, but got the Trek T900 (Tandem | Trek Bikes) instead, as a knock-around town/commuter/errand tandem. I actually recommend the T900 (change the saddles!) over the Cadent for a first tandem, but neither one should disappoint. I have attached a picture of what I did to our Coupe about four years ago. It is no longer suitable for an around town ride. It holds its own against road Cannondale's and Co-Motions on club rides. It is seriously light, anything lighter is immediately twice the price, and some in our club have paid 3x the MSRP of our Coupe for not much more bike. We don't expect to ever want or need a "better" tandem. Did you notice the Coupe has 700C wheels? Ours have 28mm Schwalbe Marathons, not too shabby. I've also upgraded the brakes from Avid BB7 (again, not too shabby) to TRP Spyres and the rotors are now 180mm f/r instead of the stock 160mm f/r.

A more fair comparison to GMC Denali would be the Kent Dual-Drive (26" Kent Dual Drive Tandem Blue - Kent International) that was the first tandem ever that we owned. In fact we owned two. The first we gave away after 5 years when we left NYC. We bought another promptly upon arriving in Portland in 2008 and were riding it daily until it got stolen late last year. We bought a Burley Samba the next week to replace it. Tandems are important to us, one of us is blind and the other is partially sighted. Cars don't figure in our transportation practices in any great measure. A bike or tandem is in play at sometime, every single day of the week.

I knew I had enough bike mechanic in me to make a Kent be a worthwhile purchase. I can't recommend it to just anyone considering a first tandem. I've always shied away from Craigslist, but when the Kent was stolen, and after buying the Trek brand new just last year, another new tandem seemed a bit much. But the Burley Samba (2000 Burley Samba - BikePedia) we found, is clean, straight, and was well cared for. The Raleigh remains the best of them by far, and if the Cadent is 1/2 the bike the Coupe is, it will be well worth the money. I've not seen one in person, but I'd like to. I think our Coupe is a nice looking bike. I think the Cadent is even nicer. Shh! I have to keep 'Beauty' feeling like the Garage Queen she is. FWIW.