Austin, to me it sounds like your mother needs two bikes.
One set up with rack/panniers for grocery shopping.
and one that's maybe less heavy with lots of hill climbing gears that
she can go 30-50 miles on.
She obviously doesn't need a heavy mtn bike for 40 mile paved road
rides, and she will
On Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 8:12 AM, Lisa -S.H. harmo...@fairpoint.net wrote:
Austin, to me it sounds like your mother needs two bikes.
One set up with rack/panniers for grocery shopping.
and one that's maybe less heavy with lots of hill climbing gears that
she can go 30-50 miles on.
This is good
I've not ridden a Milano, but I have ridden chromo Japanese mixtes, and
those, too, can be dogs, compared to a good road frame, anyway. Of course,
there are so many variables that it is hard to pronounce on the key causes,
but I would guess that a good aluminum frame with good tires will be
Might I suggest Soma's mixte. A sample 3 speed build-up would be
around 1300 dollars, can be found here.
http://www.renaissancebicycles.com/soma/soma-mixte/
But in anything, you should really try to convince her on buying a
bike that she'll be happy to keep for the rest of her life. And when
it
Austin:
Christmas is coming. Didn't your mom give you some pretty cool stuff
when you were a kid? Time to reciprocate! Lots of the hybrids (?)
have steeply sloping TTs, maybe not quite mixte but getting close. If
Betty's a non-starter, check with the better shops in your area to see
who's got
I think some of the Raleigh bikes might make a good choice, here's an
example of one presently on sale from REI:
http://www.rei.com/product/784368
It looks rather nice with an aluminum frame, 24 gears, lights, fenders
and rack. Not exactly a Mixte/step-through, but it has a sloping top
tube.
How 'bout a fixer-upper? For my 50-something Mom, I found an early-80s
Peugeot mixte for $15, added alloy rims, brake pads, new cables,
tires, fenders, and a used Brooks Flyer. If you found such a bike, and
paid a bike shop to do what I did, you could probably get it in for
$500-ish. Anyway, here
I had a Bianchi Milano for a while. Cool looking but really not that
fun to ride. It was fine for short errands but I wouldn't recommend it
for longer rides. It has a very dead feeling frame with big aluminum
tubes, and a sluggish ride. I agree with Mr. Thill's idea for a mixte
fixer-upper.
Speaking of Peugeot mixtes, here's a great documentation of a rebuild 650b
conversion on one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27089...@n00/sets/72157622773209148/
Just stylin'!!!
On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 6:27 PM, Jim Thill - Hiawatha Cyclery
thill@gmail.com wrote:
How 'bout a fixer-upper?
