You know, folks say "test ride before you buy" all the time on this forum and Tandem@Hobbes... but it's not only darned difficult for most teams to do, but also -- IMO -- an over-rated exercise. I and my partners have test-ridden _none_ of the six tandems we've owned over the past thirty years, yet we've been happy with all of them. Three of the six were custom bikes, which could not be test ridden. In a custom situation, you have to trust the builder and/or dealer to guide you to the correct geometry and configuration for your team's skills and needs. And, really, a stock bike is not that much different: As long as the bike fits you, you can trust a mainstream builder to have gotten it close enough to "right." All of the tandems that Xanti cites are general purpose bikes. With a little tweaking (gearing, saddles, 'bars, rider position), any would work for his team. The handling differences are subtle and unlikely to make or break the team's long-term satisfaction. With that in mind and assuming that they all are the correct frame size for his team, I voted for the Co-Motion. It uses conventional rear hub spacing and a standard rear BB, front derailleur clamp, headset, fork and h'bar stem -- all of which will make tweaking and upgrading that much easier. Now, the unique-to-Santana features may influence Xanti in the other direction, but no amount of test riding would change that as they are NOT things that the average team is likely to feel on a test ride (though I suppose a discriminating stoker might feel the increased Santana pedal width -- if he or she were attuned to it).