Co-Motion Co-Pilot Tandem

Marni and Doug Hutter's tandem at the Grand Canyon

This comment was made by the owner of the tandem, Doug Hutter, in respons to two questions posted to the Tandem@Hobbes mailing list. The person inquiring about S and S Couplings wanted to know:

• 1) if people on the list have found transporting a tandem on international and domestic flights to be a hassle?
• 2) whether people found it worthwhile to invest $1500 for the custom S&S coupling available on new Santana tandems?

Doug's response was as follows:

• "Our second tandem was a Cannondale, which we took on domestic and international flights in a BikePro case. While the 3' by 6' BikePro was sometimes a hassle for ground transportation (on a trip to England, we had to hire a taxi at Newark International to haul it from one terminal to another, in the rain, as we had non-connecting flights on two different airlines) we never had problems with airlines accepting it -- but on domestic flights, of course, we had to pay the charges for the bike.

  We sold the 'dale and bought a S&S-coupled Co-Motion, which has accompanied us on a couple of domestic trip, and wants to go to France next year.

  To answer your second question -- is the S&S option worth the money? -- we would say ABSOLUTELY YES! In addition to the Co-Motion being a wonderful ride, the couplings make it a dream to transport: No charges on the domestic airlines. On our NY-New England trip last year, we used a rental sedan for our non-bike travel between cities; we had only to uncouple the front section and drop the wheels, to carry the bike in the back seat. On our just-completed Napa/Sonoma valleys trip, we did the same thing.

  My recommendation, if you know you'll will be traveling with your new tandem: don't even consider a non-coupled twofer. (and as an aside, I believe there are a number of other tandem manufacturers -- beside Santana -- that offer S&S couplings for less than $1,500, and take a careful look at where on the frame the couplings are located... it can make a big difference on the ease of assembly/disassembly)

  Good luck with your new S&S-coupled tandem. I hope you'll be as happy with it as we are with our screaming yellow S&S Co-Motion Co-Pilot!!"
  Doug Hutter Phoenix, AZ

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