Sounds like you answered your own question in that for you the difference is noticeable.


Wheels and tires make a huge difference in the feel of the bike. The stock tires ( Schwalbe Marathon Racer, 700c x 35mm) on the speedster are heavy durable and definitely not lively. If you tested the bikes with the stock tires that would make a big difference. Test again with after putting the Carrera Wheels on the Speedster and vice versa.


To me the most important parts of the bike are in descending order:

-Frame
-Fork
-Wheels
- everything else

Only the frame is hard to replace/upgrade so I concentrated on the frame when choosing a bike


Carrerra frame:

"Co-Motion exclusive zonally-butted Reynolds 631 steel tubing"

Speedster frame:

"Co-Motion exclusive zonally-butted Reynolds 631 steel tubing"

From the pictures it appear the tubing is the same diameter on both bikes but I would verify that since it effects the stiffness of the frame.

For me the ability to change the setup over the years of future ownership is a nice feature. Since both bikes appear to use the same tube set. I would look at tire clearance. Is there a difference? The Speedster takes wide tires, should you want to go that route. Does the Carrerra?

Our choice:
Buy the best you can afford. Buy what you like the best . . . otherwise you'll not be happy and be wondering 'what if we . . . '
Yes, have ridden 30-some brands/models/makes of tandems including the old Burleys, which in their day were the most bang for the buck for folks getting into tandems.
Yes, owned a custom built (in '93) Co-Mo that we put 56,000 miles on. Photo of us on that Co-Mo and on our current Zona full c/f custom tandem with only 40,000 miles on the odo.
Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

I agree!

Update:
We went with what felt best for us, the Carrera. This bike is built for what we intend to use it for, weekend rides and short, light tours. The Speedster is designed more for loaded touring, not better or worse, just different. We'll see about durability of some of the performance oriented components and those can always be replaced with stouter versions. We use our singles a lot so this bike won't see huge miles like some of you do.
We pick the bike up next week, it's a 2014 on a year end sale and we couldn't resist. When we get it out for a ride, we'll post a picture on the happy tandem thread.
Thanks for all the information. Sometimes it gets overwhelming and one can convince themselves of just about anything - good and bad.
We're already planning on the Northwest Tandem Rally in Bellingham, WA next summer!

Congratulations, I am sure you will love it.

Now post pictures and weight in relevant threads! Always nice to see setups and paintjobs on latest bikes. Even better to see happy tandem teams.

sounds like a very good choice. We are trying to decide on our next tandem too. Would appreciate hearing how the Carrera rides.

Another update.
Picked up the bike, put some accessories on it and took it out for one of our normal routes. In comparison to our Burley, all I can say is wow, this is much nicer. Very comfortable, quick handling and accelerates much better. We were definitely faster but it was most noticeable on the hills (many short, steep rollers). On one hill we always have to drop down into the small chainring we were able to stay in the middle without much effort. My concerns about not getting much more performance were gone. Previously, I had looked up some performance predictions on how lighter wheels and a lighter bike would help and there was not much advantage, maybe 2% or less. So I'm presuming that since it was not the mass or rotational mass, then how the frame is designed and probably the tortional flex is where we got our improvement. Regardless, we're very happy with our initial impressions and look forward to nicer weather to get out for more riding! Here's a pick of us in front of some blueberry fields (you can see where the true mass problem is).