How to buy a Tandem
 

Looks like the last thread "2001 Cannondale RT1000 White?":
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=264099
drifted a bit out of topic, so I am starting a new thread, but the readers might want to refer back.

I have been using TGeek's great site on buying tandems and the used price estimation tool. All very useful. However I had trouble with the links provided for clasified adds:

o Tandem Club of America: http://www.tandemclub.org/classifieds.html
The link is broken, when you go to the right one, the home page http://www.tandemclub.org/ , their classified add section seems like it is not really active has had the same short list for two weeks, though I did not contact sellers to see how old their postings were as there were no bikes that met my search.

o Tandem Magazine: http://www.tandemmag.com/classified/
This one works and is active but has a limited offer

o Tandem Network:
http://www.tandem tour.com/cgi-bin/class/classifieds.cgi
Link works but site is inactive, nothing listed, only two single bikes

o National Greenways Tandem Classifieds:
http://www.bikeroute.com/ibrd_cgi/Cl...e=tandem.setup
Link does not work, this one does work
http://www.bikeroute.com/ibrd_cgi/Cl...s/class_ad.cgi
but the site does not have a tandem section, very hard to find the few tandems that are listed

Independently I found this link:
http://www.rtrmag.com/classifieds.htm
But when I contacted one of the sellers the bike had been sold 10 months ago.

Does anybody know of other tandem specific classified adds?

Looks to me like the only sites that has actually works for me are ebay and Tandemmag.

Note for those of you that have bike shops, there are some good websites for shops, with listed bicycles in stock, and there are many who have dead websites. There are also many bike shops who don't reply to emails. In this globalized world you might reconsider you web strategy. Same goes for tandem manufacturers.

Another Note for those of you that manufacture tandems, why don't you list in your site the specs of older models, it would be most helpful, and you dont need to do anything, every year when you change your specs you just leave last year's specs with a date.

Finally if anybody con help me I am still looking for an S&S coupled bike for road and touring in Large/Small or perhaps Medium.

Buenos dias Buenos Aires Tandemistas!

The following tandem specific dealers *MAY* have used tandems or old/new S&S tandems in stock:
Tandems East Mel and Barb Kornbluh @ tandemseast.com
Tandems Ltd. Jack & Suan Goertz@ tandemsltd.com
Tandem Matchmaker/Mt. Airy Bicycles Larry Black @ bike123.com Precision Tandems.com
Precision Tandems, Mark @ PrecisionTandems.com
Gear-To-Go-Tandems @ gtgtandems.com
Tandem CycleWorks @ TandemCycleWorks.com
Good luck!

Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

Probably so. I rely upon folks using the site to let me know when a link goes bad or moves, which happens fairly often. Thus, as you'd expect, the links are now fixed and, yes, some of the sites like National Greenway, have eliminated their tandem section. As mentioned in the '01 C'dale thread, used tandems are far and few between so I suspect there probably weren't enough listed to justify a separate section. Therefore, the National Greenways site has now been moved into the general bike classified ad site section which I've also updated: about 1/2 of those sites have gone away.

This one has limited offerings because it's about the only interactive site that allows any tandem buyers and sellers to post and remove their own free ads and / or purges them 30 days after they are posted, hence you'll only see reasonably "fresh" offerings or want ads. As you've discovered, most of the other sites that are "maintained" or that are "forum based" have a disproportionate number of out-of-date ads.

Did you happen to post a "Wanted to Buy" ad at http://www.tandemmag.com/classified/ while you were there? I'd guess that the odds of finding a seller there are a lot better than what you'll find here. If you have a budget you'll also want to let potential buyers know how much you're looking to spend so as not to waste their time or yours passing Emails back and forth on tandems that are not within your pre-set spending limits. BTW, Greg's TandemMagazine.com web site is somewhat like mine in that they are non-commercial, non-revenue generating sites that we pay hosting fees for as a favor to our beloved hobby and tandem enthusiasts. The nominal proceeds from my tandem, bicycle, and recumbent window decals are what fund my annual ISP hosting fees.

Consider also Gold Country Cyclery (http://www.tandems-recumbents.com/specials.html); no used coupled tandems now, but Rick does have a couple carbon units and a beam bike.

Don