I am not having much luck with the local Craig's List for finding a tandem. In particular I'm looking for something that my 6.5 year old can ride as a stoker without adding a child kit (more $$$, complexity). he's about 4' 2". Some models like the Trek T900 or the Burley Zydeco Mixte would work perfectly. I also need an upright style to avoid as much hand pressure as I can due to some mild carpal tunnel. However, mostly what comes up on CL is old Santana or Cannondale road bike tandems - not quite what I'm looking for.

So - aside from CL, are there any other good sources for used tandems? Thanks!

Well, for starters, have you tried searchallcraigs.com? That's a search of all craigslists. I've been doing searches for tandem recumbents and then recumbent tandems, just to not let one slip through.

Gold Country Cyclery, Hostel Shoppe, BicycleMan and Easy Street Recumbents sell used tandems. Easy Street Recumbents has a forum with used bicycles on it, but I'm not sure how you get to it from their mainpage. Try, www.thetandemlink.com, and don't forget BROL has a tandem forum. www.tandem-ride.com has bikes occasionally.

With your swb, I'm curious why you don't thing the RANS screamer would work? From pictures only, I'm afraid, but the RecumbentUSA bike looks like it'd be suitable, framewise, but their handlebars would likely have to be finagled with to allow
a child stoker. Unless Kelvin at Angletech might have some suggestions. One of the reviews I read has a young person stoking on a Sun EZ tandem, and there are several of those on searchallcraigs currently, I know for a fact.

Good luck, and do post what you're able to come up with,

Leo H.
Sun Valley, NV

Other than the possibility of recumbent as already mentioned (you apparently already ride one, so the learning curve should be short, and not too steep), bear in mind that to get the more upright style from a less upright style is mostly a matter of swapping saddle, stem and bars - all of which you might need to do on a used bike anyhow to get the fit right. Mind you, swapping the stem on a Santana is pretty much an exercise in single-source.

If it were me I would give Mel at Tandems East a call and see what he has on hand and what other thoughts he might have for you. I know you would probably have to make it a weekend trip to go there but it can't hurt to make the call. Good Luck in your search.

We were watching Craigslist, eBay, etc for a long time before we gave in and went to Mel's Tandem Expo last year and bought a new tandem. We were really sure we wanted a tandem since we had ridden on a borrowed tandem before, so investing in new wasn't as scary. We were also looking for something more upright & hybrid-like, and as you have found there seems to very few of non-road tandems out there. Mel had just what we were looking for in a new Burley Tambedello frame fitted with hybrid "parts" (flat bars, wider tires, etc.) I know this doesn't directly answer your question about used bikes but you are experiencing the same search issues we had.

https://www.tandemmag.com/classified/