A quote from a message Glenn sent to the internet mailing list tandem@hobbs.
"...For a couple of years I have been building single bikes with S&S
couplings and I love them; you absolutely cannot tell that they are there
except for their good looks. However, I had not really considered using them
on a tandem until last summer...A side business that I have fun with is
organizing and leading tandem tours in Europe, mostly in France (with my
wonderful stoker Nancy Bruce). The tandem that Nancy and I ride is
beautiful, stiff, light weight, fast, everything one wants in a tandem, so
why would I want to build a new one that is slightly heavier, can't use oval
top and bottom tubes, costs more and can't possibly be as fast?...Well, we
were in Nice at the end of the Provence tour and the rental van had been
returned, but we still had to get to the airport early in the morning with
all our stuff, including the tandem very thoroughly packed in a wood
reinforced cardboard box. We requested a "tres grand" taxi; no problem, they
said, and at 6am a Mercedes station wagon taxi shows up. In no which way
would the tandem fit inside; finally, as time was running out we duct taped
it to the roof of the car, but the hassle and the fear of missing the flight
got me thinking about building ourselves a travel tandem. Well, I built
the frame last fall and just recently got around to assembling it, wondering
how would it ride?...It's amazing - the tandem rides so well you can't tell
the couplings are there, except the tandem feels maybe just a little stiffer,
a little faster - maybe just my imagination! No more travel hassles for us.
We even have a way to get it all in one slightly larger suitcase, and when I
can take the best tandem in the world and make it even better, then of course
I will."
Glenn Erickson
This tandem packs in one case that measures 26"x32"x10".