Granthew

Thanks for all of the support and help, everybody. We both ended up with Trek 7.3 FX's. My partner's ended up being 300. It's a 2008 17 inch WSD. She loves it. My only reserve about mine is the height and my weight on an aluminum frame. I barely clear it, and definitely not comfortably, but it does feel good when I'm on it. My only reserve about hers is that it has a wide seat and the drive-train having been replaced, but it was done by someone who really knows what they were doing, but the bike definitely has a good amount of miles on it. We maxed out our budget on these, but I think we got decent deals.

zonatandem

Ride the bike 'as is' for now and $ave some bucks to eventually replace the wheels with either 40 or 48 spoke wheelset.
For years many touring tandems featured 48-spoke wheelsets. Those rims and hubs are still available but not as abundant as lower spoke count wheels.

magohn

Congrats - bikes are fairly simple beasts. If they are running fine now, chances are you are set for some time. I have over 1000 miles on my 7.3 wheels (stock wheels) and haven't broken a spoke at 280lbs. Ride them till they break and replace as needed

Neil_B

Granthew, some advice from a former 400 pound guy here..... your awkwardness when getting on and off might be due to tight muscles. You can find any number of sites on the Internet suggesting simple stretches to increase flexibility and range of motion. And if you belong to a gym, use the hip abductor machine. That helped with both riding and walking.

catonec 

Its hard to tell from the pics you posted but the 06 has the correct crank. all others are different.

https://www.bikepedia.com/QuickBike/B...e#.UPWOW3cZ56E

fatpunk

Amen!