TandemDelMar

No I ve had a Tandem I made in 1990 myself. I modified the frame myself and made it a fully suspended one. I had obe of the first fully suspended tandems w dual disk braked bach some 27 years ago. I made it in far less than 5 months.

waynesulak

This does seem like a lone custom builder. Many custom builders are much better at building bikes than running a business. It may be that he has been ill, or he gives priority to Zinn. Regardless, lack of communication is the real problem. When researching for our custom bike that was a key factor in choosing a builder.

I was emailing with Rob English about a tandem when he had a terrible crash. To his credit he was straight forward and forth coming in his communication about his status. I was on his long wait list and ended up going to another builder, but letting him keep my small deposit. A very honest guy who I would recommend highly.

We ordered our very custom steel tandem from Bob Brown and I was pleased with his business like approach. Replies to emails were timely and the bike was ready on time. The bike is just what I expected and we love it.

For me, there is no substitute for honesty and transparency.

Wayne

akexpress 

Did you pay for the tandem in advance or just a deposit. If you paid in advance I would be upset(pissed) if the communication as to why the long delay was not totally spelled out. If only a deposit maybe just cancel the order and absorb the loss and move on. Both of our Calfee frames were 30 days late but at least we knew the status. 60-90 days seems the norm for custom high end tandems.

waynesulak

All the custom builders that I talked to wanted a small deposit to hold a place on the waiting list and most or all the remainder when they order tubing to begin construction. As I understand Calfee, they are more of a production shop with a number of employees constructing tandems from custom plans created by an on site designer. Most tandems are similar in all but geometry and employees can reliably construct them in a methodical fashion. This is not to say Calfee's are not top of the line. What I mean is that Calfee is the top of a little different line.

These custom builders are more artisans that design and build it all themselves. If the builder gets the flu then he falls behind. On the other hand even the most routine steps are done by the designer and fabricating one-off parts is not at all unusual.

See link below for a description and more pics of an English TT custom frame, custom fork & custom cockpit fabricated by Rob English. Even the top of seat mast was fabricated by Rob.

Edd?s TT fuselage | English Cycles

akexpress 

If one goes to the Paketa website it hardly is clear that this is a one man show. All references are we build we design. Also they have dealers which most custom one off builders do not entertain. I think the OP is justified to be upset even thought from all indications Paketa makes great tandems and we would love to ride one.

Dean V

Really the only justifiable reason for such lateness would be if he has had unforeseen problems, which should of been communicated to those waiting.
Otherwise it is unacceptable.

Leisesturm

Has the o.p. attempted to communicate with Paketa in easily understood words of one syllable as to their dissatisfaction? Have they asked for an explanation of the delay? Have they received a reply of any kind, even an unsatisfactory one? Using pronouns like 'we' is hardly indicative of anything as regards staffing. If I ever get my act together and build recumbents it will be very, very much a one man operation and I have not made any decision not to use the royal we in either my brochures or correspondence. FWIW.

TandemDelMar

Its just running a bad business regardless of how awesome a frame is made. I was a welder myself and have made entire custom frames for motorcycles using aluminum, steel and chromolly. I ve built fully suspended bicycle frames well some 25 years ago.

Misrepresentation and bad customer communication will not make up for an a handcrafted product. We are after all talking about a bicycle frame using metal tubes for god's sake. I have dealt with mag wheels and mav triple clamps.

You are right in that is this business a two man operation which it does seem its exactly that, it should be presented as such on their web site.

I hate this tabdem now because I hate what it has done to me emotionally, stress wise. I ended buying two solo bikes to fill the gap, spending almost $10K on both bikes.

Anyways folks its a sad story. I have made partial payments to them. Its an $8700 frame. Maybe when I get it I will put it up on Ebay the next day or crush with a sledge hammer out of frustration and post the video on youtube. Money was not an issue. I just wanted a nice tandem for Christmas for my wife, when her mom passed away to lukemia in September.

Moral of the story is that you cannot mislead people or if you are so poor at estimating a job by over three months and then poopooing your competition at the same time.

Happy riding

Leisesturm

Three months sounds like an annoying inconvenience for which you should receive some compensation. It does not sound like a life altering, PTSD inducing traumatic event. And it isn't. Get a grip. Have you communicated (rationally) with Paketa with your dissatisfaction? What has been their response? Please post it here. Let us be the judge of what constitutes "bad customer relations" you are too close to the situation to be impartial.

TandemDelMar

Thanks at this point I just want to get the bike in my hands. I appreciate you being impartial. I am not here to pass a judgement, I wanted to see what has been other people's experience.

TandemDelMar

Well I finally got the bike. Must admit overall experience was awful. Bike still needed machining and fitment adjustment. But here it is. oops sorry it seems I cannot upload a picture. Only a link

Paul J

I hope you were able to get the frame prep completed and we are looking forward to seeing a picture of your bike at some point. We don't see a lot of Paketas on this forum. It looks like you have more then 10 post so can probably upload pictures now. If you are need/wanting to get your post count higher to private message and post pictures you can go to the Introduction Thread on the main forum and welcome new members which will get your count up quickly. https://www.bikeforums.net/introductions/

Dean V

Don't think he has any interest in the forum apart from coming on to moan about Paketa. Those are his only posts.

mtnbke

Packeta makes brilliant bikes. This is the same cat who used to work with his brother out of Niwot, CO for Rainbow Cyclecraft. They painted for many brands, and the third epic US aluminum bike after Klein and Cannondale was theirs with the Morgul Bismark.

He wrenches for Zinn and builds for Zinn as well.

Any Paketa is going to be 1st class. We don't know the history here but it isn't too hard to see we have a very pissy customer.

My advice to people who buy custom frames who expect frame craftsman to treat them obsequiously is stick to Santana if "customer service" is your defining criteria for picking a bike.

There are a thousand stories of pissy custom frame customers who expectations weren't met on touch points that have nothing to do with the bikes.

I know that Paketa builds epic tandems and singles.

colotandem

As a Paketa owner, I can say that we love our tandem (this is road tandem #3 for us)! We've owned, DaVinci, Calfee, Paketa, & Ventana mtb tandems. They all make incredible bikes. It really comes down to some really fine details when you are talking about custom made tandems at this level.

I have had no issues with customer service from any of these brands.

duelaman

hi, i have recently aquired a paketa magnesium mountain bike i was hoping someone could help my find out how much it is worth?

JanMM

I've only seen a small number of Paketa tandem and road bikes. Looked very nice.
I understand that Paketa has gone out of business since this thread was alive a year and a half ago.
There wouldn't be any factory support for a used Paketa - that could influence price of a used bike.

tkramer

There's no telling. Mg++ is a great material for bikes. Our Paketa tandem is a prized possession. Unless there's some sort of hook, such as ultra light weight or some other attribute that the material proves exceptional in the MTB scheme of things it's probably not worth much more than the next aluminum bike. Maybe in 20 years it'll be a collectors item?

Also, be aware that Niner is likely to come out with magnesium bikes soon. Their parent company also owns Allite which is forging magnesium frame components for the cycling industry.