Can you tell me about your early Ritchey, size, what components, how do you know it was the first (not a challenge, just looking for data)??? It reads like you still own it, I hope so. I have a sister to yours that I recently purchased. My wife and I have been riding tandem for over 30 years and always wanted one of Ritchey's early ones after seeing the Anchor Steamer...I could have purchased it but it was way too big for me (it was built for Otis to captain and he is way taller then me). His early tandems are incredibly lovely bicycles and I figured I would never own one as there can't be many (anybody know how many??). Unexpectedly my Ritchey showed up on CL. As soon as I get enough posts (I'm a BF newbie) I'll post. Could you post some more pix of this bike or direct me to others photos of it already on BF? Thanks.

I don't know exactly, I think it's around 17 kg (37 pounds), that is a bit less than two typical mid range Cannondale alloy single bikes. Not to be considered a light weight tandem, but not too heavy either. The components on this bike corresponds to what one finds on a mid range bike, Shimano 105, FSA Gossamer etc, good components but not exactly light weight. I have changed out quite a bit of the components, but focused on function and robustness (and price) rather than weight. There are no carbon parts on the bike, except the aero rims, but those are reinforced so they are quite heavy too.

We use the tandem from time to time, but ride our single bikes much more often so we wanted something good as we are truly interested in bikes, but still not too expensive as it would not be a main bike, and I think the Cannondale tandems fits that space nicely.

Finally made all the necessary adjustments and upgrades and we all went for a shakedown ride! 11.2 miles and everything worked as it should. Raleigh Companion and Burley Piccolo-

https://i.imgur.com/FYLZUd8.jpg
We all wear helmets too, we just took them off when we took a break and some pics:lol:

Sara (and/or Bruce) any feedback as to how the tagalong feels on a tandem (especially for the captain)? I'd like to move my son to one (while keeping my daughter on a rack mounted seat for the moment).

Not Sara or Bruce but I used a tagalong for years (it was an Adams Trail-A-Bike). The answer is it depends on the child.

I had 2 grandsons that moved a lot. With the play in the hitch in as they moved back and forth it would allow the tagalong to get moving and then hit at the end of the play. It would cause a lot of stoker steer. A lot more then the same child on a tandem or better yet triplet. Most likely do to the percentage of total weight it was easier to handle behind the tandem than a single and easier behind the triplet than the tandem. I had another grandson, a granddaughter and 2 great nieces that you wouldn't know were back there and I could keep riding them on it until they were older then the other two..

This is our Ritchey Double Switchback Breakaway. I was told by someone at Ritchey that there are about 50 of these in existence. I don't know if that is correct.

Ours is setup as a flat bar adventure touring bike. The final drive is a Box 9 speed 11-50 and a Crankenstein Bontrager carbon tandem crank / Truvative Descendant crankset with a 30 tooth chainring. The Bontrager was a triple and I wanted to try a 1X drive train.

Pedaling at our max cadence, the top speed is 28 MPH, which is fast enough. With the 50 on the cassette we can be pedaling at a good clip while going 4 MPH.

The wheels are Spinergy alloy 700C from House of Tandems. Tires are Conti GP5000 TL 32mm.

Brakes are Hope with 203 mm rotors: Shimano Icetech in front and vented Hope in back. Pads are Hope sintered.

The bag on the top tube holds all the tools I need to re-assemble the bike along with tire levers and a spare tube. When we are touring I tuck a spare tire in the bottom of one of the panniers.

This bike has taken us on some marvelous journeys: Shetland, Skye and down to Fort William, The Outer Hebrides twice, and around Burgundy. Also, miles and miles and miles of North Dakota, Minnesota and Manitoba. Looking forward to many more trips once we can freely travel again.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...092922f9c9.jpg
This is our Ritchey Breakaway tandem.

Well, every time we're all available to ride, it seems to want to thunderstorm crazy, so we only have the one real ride so far. I will say that the Burley Piccolo is a superior design (attaching to a rack) than any other tagalong we have used. We had a couple of the regular tag a longs, I think a Trek and an Adams brand, and also had a WeeHoo tag a long. The Piccolo has so much less "slop" in the connection! I highly recommend searching for a Piccolo, if you're going to get a tag a long, for a tandem or any other bike, even if you have to go out of your way to get it. I drove about 3 hours round trip to pick ours up...

The older Burley Piccolo used a headset in the attachment to the rack that made is smooth and didn't have "slop." I don't know about the new Burley tagalongs.

Picked up my (technically 3rd) tandem while on vacation in South Carolina. 2007 in mint condition, plus a touring trailer thrown in with the deal. Somehow fit this and and two weeks of packing into our Kia Optima.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...4412a716c4.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d1c7b5d9af.jpg
Now I have to figure out what to do with the 1991 I bought last fall. I do love the Ultegra and disc brakes on the newer model and the color really caught my attention.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d11f9564f9.jpg
Steel is real... We have pretty much new everything including Mavic CXP rime with Phil Wood Tandem hubs and mini V-brakes

Here's a pic of my wonderful stoker. Oh, and the tandem we're currently riding. We just got it this past summer.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...808b173eaa.jpg

1998 DaVinci Joint Venture
 

Our 'New to Us' ~1998 DaVinci Joint Venture with a Cannondale Fatty Tandem fork. Size small steel frame with 26" wheels for our short legs!
Rebuilt multiple times over the summer to tune it to our (my) likes. Currently running Ultegra/XTR DI2 with a 3x front (13/21/28 equivalent 26/42/56) and an 11 speed 11-34 rear. Allows us to grind up some of the 10-20% climbs near our house while keeping steps between gears at 10% or less. External battery mounted behind the stoker seat tube.
And, of course, Fenders! We ride in Oregon so the chance of wet roads is significant for 8 months of the year.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...c6a5ababc8.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...c3c0f85d85.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...a721843054.jpg

The range of gears on the davinci's is really appealing. How did you mount the battery behind the stoker seat tube?

I used the external battery mount for the 110 battery. Then used some aluminum angle iron to rotate the battery mount so the aluminum mounted to the WB cages and the battery mount tucked in behind the stoker seat tube. With the 26” wheels there is plenty of room.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...2139260d0.jpeg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...ff0629d60.jpeg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...a50f7b068.jpeg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...6c5a51d9c.jpeg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...7e6fa6251.jpeg

I was always fascinated with tandems from a young age.
Our first tandem around 1982 was an Andy Gilmour made in Arizona.
I had ordered a tandem from Mercian from my local shop but after waiting a year it never arrived, so the shop owner offered to get me tandem from Andy.
Andy is the guy in the Hawaiian shirt we ran into him at a local race.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...4cea2267cf.jpg

Our second tandem was a Santa Sovereign with the cool "Blueberry Swirl" anodizing.
This was taken near June Lakes:
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...c57a57e5f3.jpg

Our current most likely last tandem made in 2011. Last because we are getting old and I don't think there could be a better tandem than this.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...93ee7ee086.jpg

The Calfee is beautiful. The 'Santa' looks nice and put me in the Christmas spirit! :)

My 1st tandem, purchased this 1970 Paramount tandem in 1993. My wife and I rode it for nearly 20 years before upgrading! ​​​​​​​
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...a0bcfed267.jpg

For those of us in Oregon, I should point out that it's not easy keeping up with Simon and Jody. Nevertheless, it's fun to try. :-)

Here's our first tandem - a Bilenky Cycle Works Sterling. Marvelous bike, served us well for more than two decades. Replaced just this past summer with a Calfee. So the Sterling is for sale.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...5a220f773c.jpg

Just an in-progress picture of my 1977 Gazelle Tandem.

Installed two new 650B wheels to get over the issue of tyre availability of 650A wheels. Larger drums, 5-speed IGH in the rear and a dynohub in the front. 42 vs 37mm tyres are a bonus and it might even fit 50mm tyres.
Finally managed to remove the broken pedals from the cottered cranks so those are going back on after I overhaul everything.
I plan to make new fabric chaincases but the bottom brackets are a first priority. :)

http://i.imgur.com/v0FqbBU.jpg

Mid-teens CoMotion Supremo

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...804273d30.jpeg

This is the very first tandem we purchased in 1985. I just built it up again last fall after it had been hanging in storage for several years. It was originally designed and built by Scott Richardson for another couple in 1980 (actually a sad story I'll keep to myself), but it just so happened that once the bike came up for sale, we found that the geometry fit us quite well. We continued to ride this bike for 25 years before we finally decided to have a custom tandem built for us (post #26). The Richardson is definitely old school with many of its original Campy, Cinelli and other components, but about 20 years ago Scott was gracious enough to widen the rear triangle of the frame to a 145mm spacing to provide for a broader array of gearing options and wheelsets. This time around I decided to do a little experiment to see if I could run a 10-speed cassette with friction shifting, and while I needed a larger shifting barrel in order for it to work in the rear, it actually turned out great! Since it shifts much smoother than I ever imagined it would, I decided to leave it alone. We still ride it once in a while for old-time's sake, but it is sort of a heavy beast.

https://i.postimg.cc/wTVBQmF1/Richardson2.jpg

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...cea3663765.jpg
Our first "real" tandem was this orange RT1000 cannondale. Sad we sold it.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...8f09bb020f.jpg
Got the bike-friday for easier travel
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...53a5a8cd9f.jpg
Bought the burley for a song (basically bought it for the price of the drag brake) and sold it within a year.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d3d9fee783.jpg
The Bilinkey is now our travel tandem and is currently in the basement getting changed to our gravel bike. My wife thinks of this bike as a piece of art as the welds are really pretty.

No pictures of the Calfee yet as we haven't taken it on any trips.

Local build
 

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...b58c2bf4fc.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...4f021b49cc.jpg
Our new build on it's first test ride will eventually have a co lab fork when there tapered steerer version comes back in to stock. Built here in NZ by rotorua local Jeff Anderson (jeffson brand) off for a month long tour of the north island the week after easter

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...61f30918ef.jpg
Tour-de-Suisse
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...ec2cb2fe63.jpg
Tour-de-Suisse purchased on European vacation in 2004 This bike has 26in wheels and super low gears. Perfect for the mountains in Europe
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...68a36d8286.jpg
Small Bags every place I could find to fit