DaVinci Tandem
 

While we were at the Great Western Bicycle Rally in Paso Robles, we say the dealer who had DaVinci Tandems. We saw one couple who were taking one out for a test ride, doing one of the actual rides. This particular couple did a lot of riding so we wanted to make sure and catch up with them later that day to find what they thought of it. When we saw them at the BBQ, my husband ask them what they thought of it. They said they weren't very impressed with it. Has anyone else ridden or owned one and what did you think?

Room for different Tandems in the community
 

We test rode lots of different tandems and in the end the DaVinci felt the best to us. Like just about everything in cycling, different things please different people and after riding the Da Vinci a couple of times we came back with big smiles. There was nothing wrong with the other makes we rode just that we both really liked the way the DaVinci handles and we liked the Independant drive system.

We have one on order :)

That's not very much feedback.

Were they new to tandem riding or not?
What were they "not impressed with"?



If they had issues with the independent coasting system, I would say it's a great device for people who have little or no experience riding tandems, but for teams who have done a lot of tandem riding, it's a whole new ball game. They might prefer it or hate it, but they will need more than a single ride to be sure about it.

We test rode one recently, it was a 700 JointVenture. We own a Co-Motion Periscope Torpedo. A few points:

• My stoker said she couldn't feel my rhythm, thus couldn't predict what my movements were. She didn't feel very confident.
• I thought it was not as stiff as our Periscope, but was just as compliant.
• It's got SERIOUSLY LOW gearing.
• The front derailleur takes some getting used to because it's not indexed, and there are 4 'chainrings.'
• Contrary to popular belief, there is no gear reduction between the two riders, thus if one person is not pedaling at the cadence of the other, one of them is not producing any power to the wheel.

We are new owners of a Joint Venture. We only have about 100 miles on it and enjoy it very much. It is our second tandem (First Burley Rumba). If you have done a lot of Tandeming it may not be your slice of cake. If you have two riders that have different capabilities it is great. The ride is great and we are very happy. Both our dealer and Davinci have been very responsive to our questions. Take a test ride and decide for yourself.

The jack gear does not do gear reduction however you can give different gearing between the stoker and captain. That depends on whether the number of teeth on the chainrings are a match between the two. Our child stoker kit chainring is larger than the captains chainring giving them a larger gear than the captain. Which works out well, because I spin a little more than they do.

I like the bike alot for what it is. It allow us to ride a tandem with very wide cycling levels. I have no complaints about the handling or weight, but this is mainly a family tandem for us. If my wife sticks with cycling and after the kids get older, I'll probably want to try a traditional tandem. For now, she and the kids love the IPS. It's a good solid bike. It is expensive compared to other tandems so I think you would want to buy it for the IPS.

daVinci builds a high quality tandem.
IPS is another matter. As stated, some folks really like, others do not.
For a newer tandem team it is great as stoker/pilot can coast independently when tired . . . and some more experienced teams like that too.
The choice of gearing is incredible!
With 4 'chainrings' (actually cassette cogs) and 9 or 10 gears in the rear you have a humongous selection!
The front shifting is the best of any tandem we've ridden with 6 tooth jumps between the 4 chainrings: really s-m-o-o-t-h!
The quality of the frame/components are top-notch and service is excellent.
Having said that, we did not like IPS . . . but then it's hard to teach old dogs new trix!
Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

On a recent 32-mile group ride two of the tandems had chain problems; a Santana dropped one once and a DaVinci dropped its' chain 3 or 4 times. I don't know what the problem was but we played hop-scotched with them for the whole ride; they would pass us and then we would pass them while they were on the side of the road getting the chain back on.

My only tandem experience is with daVinci; I've captained and stoked on both the Symbiosis and Symbiosis XC (full suspension and hard tail). Coming from single bikes, it only took a few rides before we were keeping up on the singletrack. Not sure we would've had the same experience without the independent coasting. For an off-road bike, at least, I can see how it's really handy. My stoker had very little cycling experience in general, and said she felt comfortable and enjoyed riding trails she couldn't on her single.

The friends we borrowed the bikes from really praised their support (they own 3 daVincis), though I have no personal experience to comment on.

+1. Well said and objective.