Originally Posted by
Artmo
He mentions LBS and then later, Mel, so it's not clear to me that LBS=Mel.
In any case, the OP didn't handle this problem appropriately, free speech or no free speech blah, blah
By implication, Tandems East and Landshark were maligned on this forum before being given the chance to rectify the problem, so Mel had every right to ask the OP to desist from further public discussion.
I don't have any stake in this, other than a new tandem rider who may one day want to buy another, lighter, tandem.
I disagree with your assertion that OP was inappropriate to post here; with all the expertise here, OP could expect some useful responses, and he got them. He wasn't trashing anyone; he was trying to solve a $15,000 problem. Do keep in mind that seller had been aware of the issues for some time prior to OP's thread, and had not yet either fixed the ongoing problems, or refunded the money. OP did exactly the right thing.
Of course Mel (whoever he is) had a right to ask OP not to talk in the forum about this. The point is that Landmark (and, to an extent, TE) don't do themselves any favor by going dark. They would be better served by posting to the effect that they have refunded purchaser's money, they are looking into the issues with the bike, and they are committed to figuring out what (if anything) was wrong with the bike, and explaining here what they found.
As a matter of simple economic good sense, nobody who has read this thread (a significant portion of the high-end tandem market, I suspect) would want to buy a Landshark CF tandem after reading this thread. Is that really the way Landshark (and TE) want to leave this?