Plus 1 on Leisestrum's comments. Let's put this in perspective. Neither Tandems East or Landshark are Fortune 500 companies. These are relatively small business people. Mel at Tandems East runs one of a small number of tandem bike shops in the USA. He is well regarded in the tandem bike community. Someone bought an expensive custom tandem they were not satisfied with. While it is possible the primary reason this thread was started was to get help troubleshooting the problem, it is also possible the primary reason was as leverage to pressure a refund. A full refund has been offered. That's a big hit to small business people. Beyond that, it is not practical to expect Tandems East to now engage in a public discussion about the cause of the problem. If it turns out to be user error, should they disparage the buyer publicly? Regarding Mel and Tandems East, they offered a refund. What else do we need to know about Tandems East and this situation? That seems fair. Regarding Landshark, if anyone is thinking about getting a custom frame made and has read this thread, you are free to ask Landshark and Tandems East what the cause of the problem (if there really is one) turned out to be. You can either accept or not accept their explanation. Based on experience talking to Mel at Tandems East and his many years dealing with tandems (including his own brand), I suspect Mel will get to the bottom of whether there is something wrong with the frame and if so, what it is. But, to expect Tandems East or Landshark, after a refund is given, to continue with a public forum on one purchaser's experience after a refund is given, seems impractical. Note that replies to this thread do not include other Landshark owners who report a similar problem. Now, if a number of Landshark owners report excessive frame sway, then that would be something that should be vetted in a public forum.
Originally Posted by
Leisesturm
This? 33 posts before we get to this wisdom? If I'd paid $15K for anything, the first and only person that would know about something seriously wrong with it would have been the dealer or manufacturer! Many posts ago I was going to offer the radical idea that there might not be one damn thing wrong with the tandem at all! Seriously. To date the only accounts of a serious defect in the tandem have been subjective ones. I'm sorry, if I built a $15k tandem and sold it to a client I'd want more than a video of the riders appearing to be less than rigidly coupled because their torso's are bobbing out of alignment! Is it remotely possible that this is due to some other cause than frame failure? I don't know, seems to me that if something that egregious were wrong with my bike I would FEEL it. I wouldn't need riding partners saying "dude, what's up with your ride?!" I'm not sure that the builder is obligated to do anything more than take the bike back and refund the customer in full. And having done just that, expecting that further comment or criticism from said customer will cease in the public sphere does not seem unreasonable.