Co-Motion Co-Pilot Tandem

Jill Harding on the French side of St Martaan

Jim Harding giving some French-speaking students a ride in Martinique

This is a comment taken from Tandem @ Hobbes regarding S and S Couplings. To read the question they were responding to and the other responses, go to: Additional Comments about S and S Couplings From Tandem @ Hobbes

Jim and Jill's Comment:

We bought our starter tandem--Rodriguez--in October 98. It took us until August 99 to realize that we needed to specialize and we really got into it. So, we bought a Co-Motion Java for road racing (only one race so far--a triathlon) and fast workouts. We love it. Then we decided that we also liked offroad riding. We ended up buying a Ventana, full suspension tandem (see http://www.epinions.com/otdr-review-1E39-2EE98F3-388CCFA1-prod1 for details). We bought both in August 99. Then, we decided to travel to Catalina Island for our anniversary.

Here's the deal:

Buy an expensive bike bag (BikePro--very good quality).
Disassemble bike to fit in bag (the Ventana wasn't easy...some makeshifting)
Check bike onto flight (hassle + $50).
Fly to LA from Seattle and get bike out of luggage (oversized).
Wheel the bag to the curb (it's not your ordinary luggage).
Rent a van to take us to the terminal (paid extra to get tandem in van (goodbye other passengers, make way for the tandem).
Take a boat ride to the island (only one liner would accept tandems...you get scoop when you travel on such excursions...not every organization is tandem friendly)
Assemble bike (part of the deal)
Have fun...
Disassemble bike (part of the deal)
Back on boat (wheel it on through a crowd and find some place to store it)
Back on van to airport (major, major, major hassle)
Check back in (hassle + $50)
Fly to Seattle and get over-sized bag out of luggage
Wheel to car Assemble bike (for the next time you want to ride locally)
What a hassle.

We SWORE...never again. The trip on Catalina was the best ever, but the logistics back and forth were a major hassle.

We love our Java, but decided to buy a CoPilot (S&S) from CoMotion as well. We took it to Hawaii (Big Island) in December. NO HASSLES. We even rented a dinky car and put the bike in parts in the back seat and trunk along with our luggage. The bike has the same geometry as the Java, it's just not as tight in the tubing or as stiff. We can now fly anywhere there are roads, hassle free.

Now...what about the offroad?
We will be going back to Hawaii someday to Molokai where it's all offroad riding. We are going back to Catalina again soon too. How? We are having and S&S Ventana built. It will be debuted at Sea Otter on March 18 near Monterey--Jill and I are riding the tandem race (on a borrowed Ventana because the S&S won't be parts-ready [catch22]--and we expect to get our butts kicked but have the time of our lives at the same time).

Anyway, we are huge fans of S&S.

With S&S, it takes about 45-60 minutes to assemble/disassemble if you do it as team. By yourself, 60-75 minutes. But we are getting better each time.

Here the deal with S&S:
keep bike disassembled in bag all the time. for a trip, carry it to the luggage counter, check in and off you go. pick it up as ordinary luggage. assemble (yep, hassle) ride disassemble (yep, hassle) check in, fly back LEAVE DISASSEMBLED FOR NEXT TRIP

Hats off to Steve at S&S for making tandem ownership so much more enjoyable for those of us who like to travel with our tandems and to all those manufacturers that are providing S&S for us.

If you only buy one tandem, make it S&S. We're keeping all of ours because...well because.
Jim & Jill Harding, Issaquah

Contact Information

S and S Machine's Home Page