I've posted this many times before. I've got a da Vinci Designs In-2-ition Road Tandem. Due to illness and old age, I added a electric motor to my tandem. It totally changed our riding enjoyment. Would recommend it to anyone that's struggling!


To keep it simple, I added a 26" wheel with a MAC geared front hub motor. It's 500 watts with a 48 volt battery. I specified a " high winding" motor. Advantages to the high winding motor is increased torque but at the expense of top speed. Great compromise for a tandem. It's throttle only setup, has three power setting along with cruise control. We live in very hilly countryside, so our riding is, motor assist over the hills and no motor assist for the flats. Works great for us.


Going with a front hub motor means we don't have to touch the the great daVinci drive train, leaving me with a very wide range of gears. When going up very steep hills, the very low gear on the tandem and the power of the Hub motor let's us comfortably peddle over every hill we've encountered. We never let the motor pull us over the hills. We peddle within our limits and try to keep the strain off the motor as much as possible. Have never had the motor get hot which bodes well for motor longevity.

Sometimes KISS method is the best, and the tandem can easily revert back to a standard bike.