newtandemusers

We are looking to buy a recumbent tandem bike and are unable to take a decision between the Hase Pino and Perfomer Family. The objective of a tandem bike is to ride together especially because my partner does not know how to ride a bike and this will enable us to spend time together. We do plan to have electronic assist in the bike too.
We test drove the Hase Pino and liked it but its $$$ and the Performer Family seems to be half the price - has anyone tried both and can provide us with some feedback before we place the order since I did not find a great performance comparison between the two

TiHabanero

You state you rode the Hase Pino, but did not state the same for the Performer. If you have not ridden one, please do yourself a favor and do so. This will enable you to make an informed decision based on your real experience, not others experiences.
Our shop sold upright tandems for 20 years and it pays to ride, ride, ride before you buy. We also did bent tandems for 5 years. Ride the Performer.

Leisesturm

My city is a rare one in that it has two top tier recumbent dealers. One sells Performer products, but have not (and will not) ever build one of their bikes for the showroom. Trikes rule in both shops. It is very unlikely the o.p. will find a built up Family Tandem to test. I would be really surprised if the Hase was only 2x the price of the Performer. But that might be because I took direct drop shipment of mine from Taiwan and built the kit out myself. If the Family Tandem is anything like our Dual Recumbent Tandem the o.p. has nothing to worry about. Pocket the savings and call it very good.

On the other hand ... the Stoker not knowing how to ride a bike is pretty much the point of a tandem. The 'normal' kind of tandem. The Hase and Performer hybrid tandems are mainly for when the Stoker has some kind of physical or cognitive disability. A mid-1990's Burley Samba can be found for $600ish. In it's day you would have spent $2000+ for one. THAT is the bike for a couple taking their first tentative pedal strokes twogether. That, or a late 20teens Trek T900. Roughly the same price. The Burley is serious over the road tandem, drag brake and all. The Trek is geared towards the comfort market. You'll want to ditch the OEM saddles, sadly, even used you will find little is usually changed on these bikes. Ours on the other hand barely resembles a stock model anymore. The frame and wheels are about the only OEM components.

honcho

My family has two Hase Pinos, a 2013 and a 2017. Both are muscle powered. We ride them often and have travelled with them a great deal. We have not ridden a Performer but I have done a side by side comparison with one we encountered on a stop during a ride. I believe the Performer would be more than adequate for all our local rides, but since it doesn't break down it wouldn't work for when we travel. The current Pino model doesn't break down but it has a few tricks to reduce it's volume to very close to the size of a single bike for travel. We have encountered other Pino owners in our local area, one team of a father and son with physical/cognitive issues on an e-assist Pino. They are able to move much faster than my partner and I do using muscle power. If your partner has physical issues, Hase offers a variety of adaptive accessories to accommodate stokers with special needs.

My partner is a capable cyclist on her own and her pedaling greatly contributes to our success. She is very comfortable with my control of the bike and will take pictures, use her phone with her free hands while up front. Her twin sister, an equally competent cyclist, finds the front seat of the Pino unnerving with it being out front and lack of control.

You didn't say how long your test ride was but if it was just around a parking lot or neighborhood at low speed, I highly recommend you make arrangements to go for a longer ride, especially where you and your riding partner experience higher downhill speeds and the process of stopping and restarting. Our second Pino came from a couple where the stoker didn't enjoy the front seat ride. They replaced the Pino with a tandem bike Friday.

Neither bike is inexpensive so I encourage you to invest the time and effort to find a Performer to try out. We like our Pinos but we'd probably like a Performer or a Bilenky Viewpoint as well. One thing we don't care for is going back to a regular tandem Good luck with whatever direction you choose.

honcho

Yes, the Hase Pino and Performer Family Tandem are great for accommodating differently abled riders, but in our encounters with Pino teams, most teams are just regular folks who do not require special accommodations for a tandem.

tandembethesda

Did you make a decision? I test rode used Hans Pino from a dealer, but he wanted a lot for it. I have also consider the Performer Family, but haven't found on to ride. I'll be interested to hear what you decide.

We currently ride a Trek T900 and my wife is a much weaker rider. It works well, but she would definitely prefer the view riding in front