Santana Cycles is the world's leading manufacturer of tandem bicycle

Tandem bicycle

The tandem bicycle or twin is a form of bicycle designed to be ridden by more than one person. The term tandem refers to the seating arrangement , not the number of riders. A bike with two riders side-by-side is called a sociable.-History:Patents related to tandem bicycles date from the late 19th...

s. Santana was founded in 1976 by Bill McCready, an Associate Editor at Bicycling Magazine, and is located in La Verne, California. In the 1970s "Santana virtually re-invented the tandem, which had been in decline since the second world war." In 2002, Santana was described as the largest manufacturer of "enthusiast level" tandem bicycles.

Products

Besides two-place tandems, Santana manufactures triplets, quads, quints, hexes, and the Cabrio, a triplet or quad that can be converted into a two-place tandem by removing the center section of the frame. Santana manufactures its bike frames from cromoly steel

41xx steel

41xx steel is a family of SAE steel grades, as specified by the Society of Automotive Engineers . Alloying elements include chromium and molybdenum, and as a result these materials are often referred to as chromoly steel or CRMO...

, aluminum, titanium

Titanium

Titanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. It has a low density and is a strong, lustrous, corrosion-resistant transition metal with a silver color....

, and carbon fiber

Carbon fiber

Carbon fiber, alternatively graphite fiber, carbon graphite or CF, is a material consisting of fibers about 5–10 μm in diameter and composed mostly of carbon atoms. The carbon atoms are bonded together in crystals that are more or less aligned parallel to the long axis of the fiber...

. Santana tandems are available for road

Road bicycle

The term road bicycle is used to describe bicycles built for traveling at speed on paved roads. Some sources use the term to mean racing bicycle...

 and off-road

Mountain bike

A mountain bike or mountain bicycle is a bicycle created for off-road cycling. This activity includes traversing of rocks and washouts, and steep declines,...

 use, including full suspension

Bicycle suspension

A bicycle suspension is the system or systems used to suspend the rider and all or part of the bicycle in order to protect them from the roughness of the terrain over which they travel...

, and can include S&S couplers

Bicycle Torque Coupling

An S and S Coupling also known as a Bicycle Torque Coupling or BTC is a coupling which enables bicycle frames to be separated into smaller pieces, usually to facilitate packing and transporting. They can be built into the frame by the frame manufacturer when the frame is originally assembled or...

to facilitate shipping and travel.