corogers

The HHH looks great! Now I just have to figure out how to get my wife to sign up for it...

osurxbiker

Shoes...My wife said to bribe her with a new pair of shoes. For most other things chocolate works well, but a ride like that deserves a new pair of nice shoes (She also pointed out that new cycling shoes do not count).

jgg3

I own a 2006 Primera, and we are very happy with it. I ride 200+ miles per week, at least half on the tandem, so it gets used. The handling qualities of the CoMo are what attracted me to it. It is a little more sensitive than some people like, though. We are a 260 pound team.

The 2006 model came with Shimano 105 9-spd drivetrain, and I was pretty unsatisfied with it (after using DuraAce on my racing bike), so I upgraded to Ultegra 10 over this past winter, and wow, what a difference. If they are including that now, I think that is great. We also bought a Thudbuster seatpost despite initial reluctance, but the stoker says it helps a lot. Bad road surfaces seem to be more common these days.

I would get a carbon fork if I had an excuse, but there isn't really a comfort problem. Just from the wheelbase alone, tandems are pretty comfortable things. I would not get a disk brake; anything that really needs a disk is a place the stoker doesn't want to go. I am in eastern MA, so there aren't really any hills to speak of. We run an 11-23 and never use the granny.

One more thing: we went through a lot of saddles and seat adjustments; tandem riding is so much more sitting than on a single, just copying your single setup isn't always right.

Bottom line, I would get the Primera, and use the money saved on some of the things that are more specifically going to benefit you. If money was not an issue, I would get a full-carbon tandem.

WebsterBikeMan

There is a tandem club in the area. From the web site they appear to be active too.

https://www.tc-tandems.org/

CGinOhio

In 2006 our pre-purchase test rides were all on a Primera. A Co-pilot wasn't available for testing. We opted to buy the Speedster co-pilot and found the ride similar. We love the bike, and glad we did a custom fade on the color. For the money you spend on a new tandem of this caliber, why not make it look the way you want for a small % of the total cost?

Our decision to go with the Speedster was based mainly on the Ultegra vs 105 difference. The new Primera sounds like a better deal now with the Ultegra group. Probably the way would go today.

We went with v-brakes. We are a 290 lb team. No regrets as they are fine for even the hilly parts of Ohio and Tennessee we have ridden. Added drum for touring, but will probably remove in years where we don't. We will likely be glad we have the drum when we go on the Cherohala in the mountain of western NC in a couple weeks (non touring). This would be a case where a disk would have been an better option, but rarely do we have this need. You have to look at the terrain your team will be riding 95% of the time and make your own judgement what the best compromise is.

May upgrade to a carbon fork if we conclude the BOB trailer works for touring (vs adding front panniers). The ride with current set up is great compared to my aluminum single, but on the chip and seal any additional damping would be appreciated. We aren't weight weenies but that would be a bonus of the cf fork.

mkane77g

We have a supremo. The carbon fork is very nice, well worth the extra money.

corogers

Thanks for all the help, everyone. I'll let you know what we come up with.

zonatandem

Have tandemed Wisconsin's 'Horrible Hills', sometimes referred to as the Little Alps.
Ridden extensively in the Duluth area; recall everything sort of staircased uphill from Lake Superior going west with some rough frost heave-type pavement. Riding the highway from Duluth to Two (or is it Twin?) Harbors (and a stop at famous Betty's Pies); + the 70 mile long Munger Trail.
Even did a great tandem rally (MTR 1990) in the Twin Cities area.
On all those rides we were perfectly safe with only 2 rim brakes.
However we each have our own comfort level when it comes to braking.
Enjoy the ride TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

Artmo 

We went through a similar exercise about 3 yr ago and settled on the Primera and have been VERY satisfied. The upgrades were Woundup CF forks (IMO they are ugly and spoil the look of the tandem, but we had not seen them before purchase); Thudbuster stoker seatpost (a cheaper one would have been adequate); Bontrager tandem wheels; champagne/lemon fade paint job; 46cm captain bars. Total cost w/tax $4,250. Weight with pedals, but without bottle cages etc is ~37 pounds.
At that time (2006), the standard crankset was FSA Gossamer and the rear changer Shimano STX, with 105 levers/shifters. The gear changing has been perfect, so I don't think an upgrade is worth the money.
Recently, I replaced the original Deda captain's bars with a 3T BioMorphe which has improved comfort and increased the number of hand positions. One thing I would have added would have been a rear disk brake, but I didn't think of it at the time of ordering and a retrofit is not easy. However, the standard V- brakes do an adequate job with pink, Coolstop, brake pads I installed which screech at the front no matter how I adjust them. All in all, a great-looking bike and great ride.

We also have aTrek T2000 (thanks Reg) which we like, but the Co-Mo rides more like a solo and is more responsive. You will not be disappointed in the Primera.

Ritterview

If you are in tabletop flat Florida, how is it that you lament the lack of a rear disk brake? Do you find you need it for local (flat) rides, or is this for when you travel to places vertiginous?

conspiratemus

Just to be contrarian, I noticed no difference whatsoever in road buzz/hand numbness with our carbon fork (Alpha Q) compared to our old Columbus steel fork. And we have a lot of chipseal on our quiet country roads. (Mind you I've never been troubled with hand numbness ever, on any steel bike, even on double centuries, but my wife gets it even in the stoker position amidships. Go figure.) If I was being really cranky, I'd even say that the carbon fork feels "dead" with less road feel but that has to be silly and subjective so I won't.


Edit:
Just be absolutely sure you get a bike with a long-enough stoker compartment so that she is not so cramped she can't lean forward to get a solid grip on her bars and lighten the weighting on her saddle. She doesn't need to be able to bend all the way forward onto the drops for aerodynamics (since she's already "drafting" you) but she does need to be able to ride comfortably on the hoods letting her arms take some of her weight without smushing her face into the small of your back.

Artmo 

Believe it or not, some of us do travel more than 20 miles fom home

PMK

Tell it like it is, it's not the height it's the humidity. But it is a bummer we don't have a lot of climbing, but good we have no snow, or state income taxes.

In regards to discs, we have them front and rear on our Roadster. We had V brakes on the Speedster. Both work fine here being it is pretty flat. I do prefer the discs for riding in the wet. Our recent trip out west saw a bunch of climbing and decending, it was nice having the discs, but honestly for that ride rim brakes would have worked also.

I say if you can afford it go for the Speedster, we had an older one and it was very nice and comfy smooth, just to small. Besides the name sounds FAST.

Cost wise you might do better to get the bike with rim brakes, and disc hubs, then buy the upgrade local. Seemed Co-Mo wanted a lot for the brake upgrade. If you want them on the front also, be sure the fork has the mounts for a caliper.

PK

Artmo 

<<
we have no snow, or state income taxes.>>

But we have high property taxes - revenue to run the state has to come from somewhere!

Chris_W

We have a Co-Motion Speedster, and my main piece of advice to you at this time is to not only get the right frame size, but also try to make sure that you get the right posts, stems, and bars from the start. We got our Speedster at the end of last year, we're extremely happy with it, but I did have to change both posts, both stems, and the captain's bars to get it right.

Although the frame dimensions for the captain's seat-tube height and standover height on the 21"/18" model were almost the same as on my single bike (which fits me perfectly), the reach on the Speedster was extremely short. Fortunately, this was caused by the finishing kit and not by the frame itself. The stock setup has a zero-offset seatpost and a 90mm stem. Getting a post with a 20mm offset and a 110mm stem fixed the problem. The steering was also way too twitchy, which was partly caused by our inexperience but was also due to the 90 mm stem and 41 cm (center-center) handlebars. In addition to the longer stem, I changed the bars to 44 cm (on my single bike, I use 42 cm bars), which seem much more appropriate for a tandem, and have worked really well.

The stoker's compartment was also too short. We discovered that the "adjustable" stem is not actually very adjustable because the minimum length is about 170mm. We switched this to 120mm, and now to 110mm (the captain's seat had to be moved forward by 10mm to accommodate this latest change, so I compensated for this by putting the 120mm stem on the front to keep the captain's reach the same). The stock seatpost for the stoker also has zero offset, but the Thudbuster that we bought instead fortunately has quite a lot of rearward offset. We also have a carbon post with 20mm offset that I picked up at an awesome price and now the stoker gets to choose between lightweight and comfort before going on any major rides.

We've now got a bike that fits us really well, but be warned that the stock component setup seems to make the reach for both captain and stoker smaller than you would expect given the frame size.

Saddles are far more subjective, and you may get on well with the stock ones, but be prepared to change one or both of them. Neither of us liked our saddle; a friend has since taken the women's saddle and really likes it, but three people have now tried the men's saddle on their road bikes and each of them has given it back to me because they also don't like it.

As for the disc brakes, we have one because we ride in the Swiss Alps a lot, but I certainly wouldn't worry about them in the Midwest. Braking power is completely sufficient with the pair of V-brakes, and the disc is only there to mitigate heat build-up. There may be a few climbs in some parts of the Midwest, but nothing that is long enough to cause any serious heat build-up.

If it was me, I would also ask for the cassette to be substituted for something else. I hate the 19-22 jump between cogs on the SRAM 11-28 cassette. This is a 16% shift in cadence, which either leaves you in a gear that is too high or too low. This 19-22 jump is avoided on every other 10-speed road cassette you can buy, so I would ask for a Shimano 12-27 or SRAM 11-26 to be put on there from the start instead. If you need the lower gear that the 28 tooth cog would give you, then switch the inner ring on the crankset to a 26 or 28 instead of the stock 30 toother, while keeping the rear spacing reasonably tight.

OK, I'll stop going on about all of the mod's you can make. Your original question was whether you should go with the Primera or Speedster. I would say go with the Primera, and spend the extra cash on changing some parts to get the perfect setup for the two of you. Getting the fit dialed in is more important than the quality of the bearings in the headset.

PMK

I agree fully with the fit comments above. The Speedster we bought, we picked up used. This was one that had the stoker top tube shorter than current versions. As was explained above, we also did the bar/stem/seatpost and so forth trying to get the stoker stretched out a bit more.

We got it pretty good, but it was still tight. Our current bike is a one size larger and has newer geometry with a 1" longer stoker top tube length. This made a world of difference for both riders.

One big consideration when comparing to a single, as to what size to get, is that a single doesn't have a second set of bars mounted behind your legs.

PK