Now, during the winters, we live in a warmer climate where we can cycle year-round. However, our winter riding is not on the same types of roads because we are in a gated community where the roads are flat.
I'm giving this information to put our review in perspective.
We decided to try something different, so went for a tandem. However, because we weren't going to be doing the same type of cycling as we do during the summers, we went with a low end model, which this Schwinn is (really good tandems cost thousands!).
This Schwinn tandem is the best value for the price we have ever seen.
The good: Aluminum frame, Shimano components, disk brakes. In other words, all of the basics are excellent. Frame is built in such a way that it is easy to stand over the bike--which is really good when you learning to cycle on a tandem.
The medium: Front shock (not needed for people who would own this bike), saddles are not great (but be aware that saddles on many bikes don't fit you--sometimes you have to search to find just the right one), assembly was not too difficult because of our experience with bikes, wide tires which would be good for people without a lot of recent experience cycling.
One other "medium" is that you can't really "fit" the bike to you like you can do with higher end bikes. It would work for tall or short people, but good fit on a bike depends on more than that (including distance to handlebars, shape of handlebars, etc.). We could never take really long rides on this bike for this reason (i.e., 6-8 hour rides), but it is good enough for our one-hour rides that are taking on this bike.
The bad: No instructions for assembly. The Schwinn website had instructions you could download, but they were for a different tandem. Some parts had to be reversed, but the factory torque used made the initial moving of the bolts difficult.
So, what else do you need? HELMETS! Don't ever ride this or any bike, even to just ride around the block without a helmet. Front light that blinks, rear lights, bright clothing, and the assumption that every car driver is texting so you need to be alert.
One other essential for this bike--rear view mirrors. This is especially the case because when the stoker (rear seat) checks for cars in back of you they have to twist their bodies which can throw off the balance. That's a learning process, but rear view mirrors make this part of cycling MUCH safer. We ordered 3 of them (one for the Captain's left and two for both sides for the Stoker).
It's a lot of fun. The learning process is also a lot of fun, as we have had to learn different ways of communicating with each other about turns, stops, cars, etc. And riding a tandem requires good communication.
We have named our bike "Daisy." So, we say to each other: "Let's go ride Daisy"