NewTandem

I've been looking at a tandem on CL (Medium Frame) listed for US $500 and was curious on whether this was a fair price or if this should be negotiated down. I may be able to make use of the kid crankset, so that is a decent bonus.

Any thoughts on the pricing? Thank you in advance.

Rhodegear rack.
Kid stoker crank Extra bar .
Zefal frame pump
Wheelsmith wheels
Stoker peddles with toe clips
4 water bottle cages

Leisesturm

Took a quick look around on your behalf to get an idea of what people ask for these. Saw a high of 800. Saw one that was $750 but is now $500 like the one you are interested in. But that one has no extras. I don't think your sellers price is way out of line. But I also found this.

L134 

I think it depends a lot on where you are and what your goals are. If tandeming doesn't work out for you, you are not likely to get your money back quickly almost no matter what you buy at whatever price and it will likely be in the way for a long time. If it fits and tandems don't come up often where you are, it looks like a decent value to me. If tandeming works out for you, how wrong can you go? That looks like a well equipped, quality bike. Is that downtube, friction shifting? Are you up for that on a tandem?

WheelsNT

We have, I think, that exact bike. It’s dedicated to child stoker duty so we don’t have to put the kid crank on our other tandem.

When we bought it used, ours arrived with 8-speed and brifters, but still with a quill stem like in your pictures. The headset is 1-1/4”, so that’s one thing I would inspect when buying since they are less common and might be a few more dollars to replace if necessary. Nitto sells a column so you can use regular 1-1/8” threadless stems: https://www.amazon.com/Nitto-Stem-Co.../dp/B07KX9LKDB

On ours, the rear OLD was 145, so I converted it to 9-speed, which was easily available then. If you are new to tandems, brifters would be a good idea to have while you get used to having another person on the bike moving unexpectedly and requiring steering correction. Also, you will need to shift more often than on a single, so brifters help with that too.

$500 doesn’t sound unreasonable to me, but tandems do move slow, so I’d offer less and see if they take it.

bboy314

I think it’s a good deal, especially if you’ll use the kid adapter. You could definitely try to haggle since it’s generally not easy to sell tandems, even at a fair price. Though keep in mind that this applies to you if you do buy it and end up wanting to resell.

LV2TNDM

Used tandem pricing was very good (low) throughout the pandemic. I picked up a used Co-Motion for $2,500 that retailed for $8k in January 2021 when bikes were impossible to get. Shortly after my purchase, I saw almost and exact bike for $2k. But mine's prettier! And with the bike industry just entering hard times (Yeti's 30% off at Competitive Cyclist right now), you'll see prices drop even further. So you could conceivably get that price down even lower. It is indeed very old with that parts group, cantilever brakes (not necessarily bad - have 'em on mine), standard quill stem, etc.

However, what's owning a fun tandem for several years worth? $500? That's an EASY answer for me: ABSOLUTELY! That's a quality bike, but just old. If you can navigate working with the older - but quality - components, then go for it. Good luck.