I am considering purchasing a road tandem for my wife and myself. We will be riding on a local paved trail first, and then hopefully increase our mileage on road trips.

Today, I spent some time online becoming acquainted with some of the major brands, such as Santana, Burley, Co-Motion, Raleigh, etc., along with some primarily single bike manufacturers, like Cannondale and Trek. Burley seems to have some of the more attractively priced road tandems.

I was very interested to discover that Trek makes three tandem models, because I am blown away by the performance and value of my new Trek 5200 carbon fiber single bike with Ultegra and Bontrager components. I am interested in the T1000 ($2200 MSRP) and the T2000 ($3300 MSRP). The T2000 has similar components to my single Trek, so I feel that at least part of the bike is a "known." A few things concern me, however. The possible harshness of the aluminum frame, whether Trek has enough experience in the tandem field to produce a great bike, and the mushy brake problem mentioned in another thread in this forum.

Are there those of you who ride T1000's or 2000's who could speak to these concerns?
Perhaps others can suggest other brands/models that compare favorably for around $2500?

Thanks!

Tim M