OK, before you start with the flames, please read on.

My wife and I are casual tandem riders. My mother-in-law is not a cyclist, but we would like to include her on family rides on occasion. If I bought a cheap triplet do you think it would it be sufficient for the 3 or 4 times a year she would be riding with us? (Probably less than 10 miles each time.) The amount of use is why it doesn't make much sense to drop $X000 on a triplet.

(Or maybe I should say, would a grandmother of *mumble* years of age look silly on a trail-a-bike?)

Have you taken your mother-in-law for a ride on the tandem? Does she enjoy it? Have you captain a triplet? In any case, I would take the mother-in-law on the tandem to see if she likes it and to see if she can stoke. For me, to captain the triplet is a much larger task than the tandem particularly if full grown stokers and involved. IMHO, the difference between the tandem and the triplet is much larger that the difference between the single and the tandem.

Good thoughts thank you.

So obviously you have some idea of what you're getting into. Good. Here's a link detailing what to expect from Micargi themselves. This is from a bulk wholesaler who obviously doesn't stock, (just drop ships from the manufacturer), and even they are dropping the bikes. They list as the causes poor quality, missing or incorrect parts, poor packaging resulting in damaged bikes arriving at the destination, plus piss-poor customer service when any of the above occurs!

BUT, if there is an answer to the question "What is a Micargi bike good for, then?", you hit the nail on the head! Four rides a year, ten miles or less, and the rest of the time it's a good place to hang the gear that you wear on the *real* bikes!

Cornucopia72's advice is also spot on. Give granny a try on the tandem first, and see if she likes it. If she does and you decide to go for it, I would fully expect to have to rebuild and readjust the bike from the ground up before ever riding it. If you can't do that yourself, just mentally add another couple hundred to the price.

If you're OK with all that, and it still seems like the way to go for the intended usage, then please update us on the project. I've toyed with the very same idea for the very same reasons, (an occasional addition), plus maybe even using it as a beater-loaner for our 14 y/o and her friends!

One final thought BTW .... on the pictures on Micargi's site, it just doesn't look like the front two bottom brackets are large enough to have eccentrics, yet there are no "idler wheels" to adjust chain tension. Anyone actually seen one of these in the flesh or have other info that can comment?

Hopefully I'm not breaking protocol by reviving this old thread, but I'm a Micargi Triplet owner and wanted to throw in my observations:
1) The bike, out of the box, is crap and unridable. Ours arrived with a bent front drop out, out of round, bulging tires that rubbed the frame, and a kickstand that would rub against various parts of the bike and had to be removed.
2) If you don't mind wrench time, the bike is a FANTASTIC deal. We were able to get it ride-able with about $200 of replacement parts and got pretty good with it. IIRC, the had-to-replace-within-50-miles list was: Tires, Chain, remove the kickstand, front derailleur, brake pads and pedals. YMMV. At that point we'd spent < $700 for a very ride-able Triplet that would be more than ample for any/all casual riding.
3) We are going to be taking out Micargi Triplet on RAGBRAI, and will do about 1,200 training miles on it as well. (About 1,700+ miles for the season) We're also pulling a tagalong for 7yo and a Burly for 2 toddlers. Yes, that is 6 people on 1 bike) For that, I've made about $700ish of additional upgrades (all done with my own wrench time), upgrading the entire drive train to a 9speed rear and a 22/32/44 front, the brake levers, the saddles, added water bottle mounts. So, for about $1400ish, we have a fully functional Triple that our family loves. It isn't something you would mistake for a $10K custom Triplet, but a $10K Triplet wasn't in the budget.

So, let me amend the above thoughts on the Micargi Tandem to say: If you are not a reasonable-to-good bike mechanic, this is not the bike for you. But, if you can handle some basic wrenching tasks, and don't mind shop time, these Micargi Triplets are spectacular project bikes that can allow your family to have fun on a Triplet at a price THOUSANDS of dollars below anything else I've seen. Since you can get these triplets new on-line for under $500 shipped, you are money ahead even if you throw away everything except the frame and rebuild it with new components. I dare anyone to find any other way to get a Triplet frame for a similar price, or anyone to find a way to get into Tandem riding for less money.

Suggestion:
As stated above Micargi is NOT the best choice . . . yes, have ridden a Micargi tandem, but not the triplet. It's made as cheap as possible and not safe as
-is out of the box. Upgrading is co$$tly. Yes, you can try to make a silk purse out of sows ears and tails, but it's still a triple-piglet!
Suggestion: For the 2 or 3 rides a year you are contemplating:
Buy a used tandem (not a M-triplet).
That way you can ride in tandem with spouse or kids or mom-in-law anytime.
If all 3 of you want to ride, your spouse can ride a single as mom-in-law rides on tandem.
Less hassle + you've got a tandem to use and not a Micargi triple sitting in the garage gathering dust.
Just our observation/opinion.

Just an update since this has been bumped. We ordered the Micargi from Sears.com. When it arrived the front fork was bent badly from a warehouse accident apparently. It took Sears over 45 days to figure out that I refused shipment and that THEY had the damaged tandem, not me. That was the only one they had in the warehouse. So we don't have a Micargi triplet and have kind of lost the urge after the experience with Sears...

Thanks a lot for the description - Micargi Triplet is an option I'm considering for the next commuting season.
Please post your experiences after RAGBRAI.
Also, how soon your 7 y.o. can fit into rear most seat? Micargi lists the frame size for this seat as 14 inches, do you mind placing your 7.y.o on the rear seat for a test? Do you think it's doable with either crank shorteners or pedal blocks?
I have almost 6y.o. on a TAB, but need TAB for 3.5 y.o, who started to refuse the trailer, but loves the TAB (a.k.a "Big Girl Bike").

How did you and the triple fare at RAGBRAI?

About a month ago a person I cycle with mentioned that a Micargi Triple was on CraigsList so I did some quick research and read these reviews above before going to check it out.

The person I was buying it from was a father that had used it to ride with his two sons. He had used a LBS to professionally maintain it. I drove up to do the test ride and was very pleased. paid the $400 asking, didn't even bother negotiating, the bike was in great shape and the Tandemlink price calculator said that was a reasonable price. No, it's not as nice as either my KHS Tandemania Comp or my Raleigh SC AL Tandem, but it did ok. The front derailleur needs adjustment and only shifts into two of the three gears, but the rear works fine and the brakes work fine. The saddles were beyond painful and incredibly cheap. I should have taken a pic of them they were so bad. Got 3 new Zefal saddles at WalMart for $17 each and the bike rides great! The bike fits in the Honda Odyssey easily. Fold the table down between the front seats, remove the middle seats, fold the rear seat down, roll the bike in, rear wheel between the front seats, shut the rear hatch, no problem at all. Plenty of room to spare. The bike is 10 feet long exactly when the front wheel is straight.

Several rides around the neighborhood, commuting to work, etc. getting a feel for the bike. It's really light, considering how cheap it is. Even others are amazed at how light it is.

Added a Moose rack and on Friday rode 23 miles in www.sjbikeparty.org pulling a Burley Piccolo with my daughter (8) and a classmate of mine (small skinny asian guy) (that left 1 seat empty). The bike did great. We definitely noticed we weren't as fast as when riding the KHS. Granted, we were pulling more weight. But the bike did great! Very satisfied with it.

One of the people I ride with is a large woman. Not morbidly obese, but pretty large, probably around 200 lbs. I'm a little concerned that riding with her, myself (180 lbs), and another adult (130 lbs) may be more than I should ask from this economical triple. Any thoughts? Does anybody have the owners manual or know what the total load it can handle is? Any concerns with adding the Piccolo also?

Just wanted to give some feedback that, properly adjusted, this is a great tandem for the price. You definitely won't confuse it with a more expensive tandem, but it does the job well. Hoping to use it many times on rides in the 10-30 mile range. Will continue to update this thread with what I find.

Biggest concern would be wheels.

Frame will not be the cat's meow, but if you don't go screaming down big hills, it'll probably hold up. Handling may get iffy at higher speeds, but don't take it to high speeds until you have a good sense of the handling.

But you may very well need to upgrade the wheels to something stronger-than-stock.

SvdSinner and David Tandem pretty much posted everything that I can think of when it comes to the Micargi Tandem.

My ride with the family on a Micargi triplet.


The little one can fit in the back stoker position but he needs supervision when riding so I have to put him in the middle.

This is such a fun bike to ride, now that I've had it almost two years, here are some updates from other rides I've done with adults.

Most of the time I use this to ride with 2 children and that is easy as pie.
Adding the piccolo with a 3rd child is noticeable but not a problem. The bike handles it well and rides around town are fun.

Riding with a second adult is very dependent on their weight. cornucopia72's comment above is 100% correct. Two of my own longer ride examples are below.

Summer, 2011 rode about 17 miles with my wife (130 lbs) and daughter (light 8yr old). We had a fun ride and would do it again.

Fall, 2011 rode 22-25 miles with my aforementioned large friend stoking with my aforementioned daughter. Both of whom I'd previously ridden longer rides with on my nicer 2 seat tandem.
We never fell, but overall it was remembered as an unacceptably wobbly ride.
We found that with her in the middle stoker position it was more unstable than with her in the rear stoker position.
Stability increased with speed, but we had to be really moving before it got reasonably stable (my opinion) and my large stoker was not comfortable riding that fast at night.
Even though both stokers had ridden with me in the past, this ride showed me the importance of not embarking on longer rides without testing the fully loaded bike on some shorter rides first.
Again, just like cornucopia72 said above.