Tuesday, December 27, 2011

A new toy!

My employer had a very good year, so everyone got a sizable Christmas bonus.  My family has been wanting to get a decent tandem for a while now, but the cost prohibited us from getting one. 

I found a late 70's Santana on Craigslist for $400.  I figured at that price, it was either stolen or there was something terribly wrong with it.  If you know anything about tandems, Santana is the top name in the tandem business.  Come to find out that the owner just didn't use it anymore, and didn't have any use for it, so he lowered the price to get ride of it ASAP.  Plus it doesn't have very many of the original components on it (which is just fine with me!)  It it older, but the components on it are quality.  Phil Woods 48 spoke hubs, Specialized chainrings with Campy cranks, Sachs (SRAM) freewheel and shifters.  The owner changed it around so it was more about comfort, with a strait bar, bar ends (which I don't like), grip shift and gel seats. 

When we tested it out, it surprisingly fit me and my daughter AND wife very well.  The frame had some paint chips and very light rust, but was in great shape for being 35+ years old.  All of the other components were dirty, but in great shape.  Needless to say it didn't take much of a test ride to make a decision. 


The initial test ride















After giving it a quick cleaning and small seat adjustments, my daughter and I took it on it's maiden voyage.  Not too far, just to my work and back. 


Needless to say we've got a lot of work to do to really take advantage of this machine.  For being 9 years old, my daughter caught on pretty quickly with all of the signals, communications, pedal positions, etc that is needed for riding a tandem.  We'll have this down in very little time.


This was a very well spent investment.

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