rcommbikes 

We were stunned when this DaVinci appeared as a donation along with a Serotta(!) to our all-volunteer charity R Community Bikes, rcommunitybikes.net. We will sell this to help us with the expenses we incur giving away 2000 - 2500 free bikes a year.The bike is pictured as received without even a wipe-off. Superb condition. Everything top-of-the-line. Cases, padding all included. (one case in the photos is for the Serotta, also with S&S couplers.) I think the size is DaVinci small ~51/41cm with SOH about 30/26-1/2”. It’s gonna take a while to sell this and we would appreciate your opinions on value.

As always, thank you in advance for your thoughts.

Fred for R Community Bikes.

bboy314

Beautiful bike. I’d check eBay SOLD listings to help with value. Being willing to sell on eBay and ship it will probably help get the most return. Having the cases already is certainly a plus! The independent pedaling system may be a bonus to some too. A few years ago when I was looking, I regularly saw older, less high end coupled tandems selling around $1,500 - 2,000, without the travel cases. Not sure how the market is now.

rcommbikes 

Thanks for your comment.

Our experience has been that the tandem market is always slow and the high value of this one will make it even harder to sell than the “average” tandem. We will have to try every place we can think of to sell this beauty and may even consider consignment. Right now I’ve been trying to convince eBay that we are a bona-fide 501(c)(3), but after seven phone calls and two escalations they still don’t believe us. That means that I get the 1099K. Until we fix that I’m a little shy of eBay, but we will ll probably wind up there eventually…..

bboy314

One resource I forgot to mention:

https://www.tandemclassifieds.com/

will help reach the very limited market for these.

LV2TNDM

Beautiful DeVinci! What a classic bike. It has a lot going for it with one really big drawback: Campy. That will probably scare away the casual buyer. I could be wrong, but the Campy makes service and compatibility challenging for the future.

That said, replacing STI levers and the derailleurs is a pretty simple job. Looks like it's running a Shimano rear cassette anyway, so it could be even easier.

I have a great comp for you. I picked up a 2007 coupled Co-Motion with all receipts, owners manuals, packing material, suitcases and everything else that came with the bike new. Turns out this 14 year old bike (when I bought it) was pristine. I really lucked out. Seller originally put it at $3,900, and I didn't even inquire. Then it went down to $3,500, and then $3,000 when I finally responded to take a look at it. I bought it for $2,500. MSRP for everything was right around $8k. I got an excellent deal for a high-spec travel tandem in great shape. I couldn't have been luckier and am thus very happy with my purchase.

Shortly after my purchase in January 2021, I saw a couple of similar Co-Motions listed at the same price and lower at $2k. This was right in the middle of Covid, where bicycle shortages were the norm. Even so, it didn't really push used tandem prices up at all. So today, I'd expect values to be a bit lower. Demand for new bikes has been WAY off this year and sale prices reflect this. The used market has fallen commensurately.

Your bike's value is below my example because of the Campy components IMHO.

Maybe price it at $2,200 and hope for the best. Take whatever offer you get!

Paul J

In response to LV2TNDM's response on the downgrade for Campy, I'm not sure if the quad chain rings were a Campy only configuration, but that is an amazing feature which is most likely not still available.

LV2TNDM

I'm pretty sure those are daVinci's own cranks....

Took a quick look, and that appears to be the case:

https://www.davincitandems.com/components/cranks-b/

Paul J

No, I'm not speaking about the crank set, I'm talking about the four chain wheels that the front derailleur operates. They look like freewheel cogs. See picture5.

jccaclimber

My older (originally 8 speed Shimano) DaVinci has the same 4 speed front. I think they are typically 3 speed now as electronic and STI/Ergo indexed front shifting doesn't support 4, but it's been a while since I looked.
That's a bit nicer than mine, if only for the fork, cranks, and stoker seat. Not sure why so many cases though. My entire bike and wheels fit into 1 hard and 1 same sized soft case when packed.

rcommbikes 

At least one of the cases is for the Serotta which I’ll post here after my vacation. These came to our shop as I was walking out the door for vacation. I didn’t have time to fully assess what we have. I’ll also post the cleaned Da Vinci.

due ruote 

I’d be very interested to hear about the packing. You mentioned the one case belonging to the Serotta - does that mean 3 cases + the wheel box for the tandem?
I looked at the DaVinci site. The video seems to only show one box, but mentions wheels going in another box. The written instructions read as though everything is going in one box, which I find hard to imagine.
https://www.davincitandems.com/owner...m-ss-couplers/

rcommbikes 

We have figured it out. One case (with padding) will hold the Da Vinci but not the wheels. You need a second case for the wheels. That could be the hard case, TriAll 3 Wheel Safe. Actually holds three wheels. The other two cases are labeled B1 and B2 and one of them holds the padding for yet another tandem! which we have not seen. We meet the donor next month so the story will continue. Meanwhile, here are pictures of the bike and one case after a little spit and polish. Very few signs of many miles on the bike.
https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#...1-6CE8DF50D6AD

JulesCW 

FWIW, I disagree regarding the Campy shifters -- IMHO they are a lot nicer to use than Shimano and hold up well, and are generally serviceable. YMMV. Just saying that this very nice tandem is not worth less with Campy vs. Shimano components. I do agree that the used tandem market is quite soft, however.

rcommbikes 

Tandem, rear rack, bags, wrench and two cases sold for $3400. Buyer saw it on tandemclassifieds.com

Thanks to all of you for your comments.

bikemikemi

DaVinci used Campy shifter dye to the quad chain ring. Campy front shifters allow for more adjustability. my Davinci is great. any drawbacks to Campy can be be explaned away with the independent pedaling. Most people dont worry about upgrading and changing over. They buy their bike and ride it. Our DaVinci is 15 years old and it is great. Bthw, the dearailures are likelly Sram, with the rear being modified by Davinci for the necessary Campy pull.

bikemikemi

Davinci uses campy brifters, the derailures are sram with the pull modified by DaVinci. The brifters are used for the 4 chain rings up front.