Tandems.co.uk

Santana´s History

• 21/03/2006
• Skip to Comments

Santana was founded in 1976 but its history goes back ten years earlier when Bill McCready, Santana´s founder, purchased his first used tandem.

Bill, than an aspiring 15 year-old racer, caught the tandem bug when two normally slower training partners borrowed a tandem and blew him away. After getting his own tandem, Bill spend the rest of the ‘60s and early ‘70s convincing his friends to by tandems. Through all of this early tandems were heavy, unwieldy and unreliable, this ever-expanding group of tandem enthusiasts toured, raced and had great time. In 1974 Bill bought Bud´s Bike Shop in Claremont (which he still owns) and the following year he and his small shop sold over 100 custom-equipped tandems. Bill and his enthusiast employees gave every one of those hundred tandems a thorough road test before delivery. These tandems, representing the best efforts of two dozen builders, were also heavy, unwieldy and unreliable.

In 1975 McCready became an editor for Bicycling Magazine and the following year, after collecting the six best tandems Bicycling could locate, Bill conducted the first tandem comparison test ever published. All six of these tandems were – you guessed it – heavy, unwieldy and unreliable.

• Posted by Johnny
• Add a Comment