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Help Ginger Pick A New Bike!

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  • #1

    Help Ginger Pick A New Bike!

    Okay, I'm splashing out for a new bike in a month or two and I'm looking at Electra cruisers. I like these models a lot:





    I'm open to other current Electra models. Tell me why I should pick one over another. Stick to the Fashion Women's crusiers - my city bike, mixte, and other bike needs will be covered in some other post.

    Backstory:

    Like most people my age, I got the hand-down Schwinn, moved to the used 5 speed Raleigh, did the used 10 speed (Peugeot, in my case), leaped on to various mountain bikes (for mountain biking and random stuff), did the road bike thing (have to have something for those charity rides and group rides), and eventually had an epiphany - I hate that stuff.

    I love to ride, I just don't like the my-bike-is-my-job mentality. I was a cautious and fearful mountain bike rider. Road bikes suck. I only ride them because everybody I know does it and what else are you going to ride for those all important group rides? I'm moving in a new direction. Really new.

    I sold my road bike this winter and my last mountain bike is scheduled to get tuned up and given to a friend. I will be bike-less for the first time since I was 3 years old and got my trike.

    So in terms of just a cool cruiser model, what should I get? Don't worry about my future "serious" biking ambitions - I think I will build up a bike for touring and randonneuring. That's my big bike ambition over the next couple of years. I can always borrow a road bike for those charity rides. People have garages full of non-ridden road bikes.

    Here's the link to Electra: Electra Fashion Bikes
    "Alexa, slaughter the fatted calf."
    Tags: None
  • #2
    Based upon what you say you're looking for, if it were me in the same situation, and assuming that I were female, I would probably choose this one:



    And then probably put the wicker "saddlebags" on it:




    To me, that's a nice combination of being a comfortable bike to just ride around for the sake of riding around, and then if you decide you want to pick something up at the shop or whatever, you've got a place for it, and if not, then there's nothing in the way.

    Now, I should qualify this by saying that I hate having a front basket. To me, they're impractical: things bounce out of them, they block vision, and if you have anything of any significant mass in them, then they affect steering. One of my childhood bikes had a basket on the front, and it was welded onto the tree, so it was not practical to remove it. I finally took it down to a local service station where the guy had an acetylene torch and had him cut it off. On the flipside, I like being able to carry stuff on a bike, so the rack on the rear is handy, and having something enclosed like those baskets would be great.

    My .
    It's been ten years since that lonely day I left you
    In the morning rain, smoking gun in hand
    Ten lonely years but how my heart, it still remembers
    Pray for me, momma, I'm a gypsy now

    Comment

    • #3
      I have considered the Amsterdam-style bikes. I think they are neat. Maybe I will look at them again based on your comments. I do like crazy colors, though.
      "Alexa, slaughter the fatted calf."

      Comment

      • #4
        Originally posted by Gingersnap View Post
        I have considered the Amsterdam-style bikes. I think they are neat. Maybe I will look at them again based on your comments. I do like crazy colors, though.
        I was looking less at the colors and more at the features. Obviously, there are lots of colors out there to choose.

        A favored thing to do around here, at least back in the '80s and '90s, was to take your bike down to the local community college that teaches collision repair and have one of the students paint it. Then, of course, you can get a custom color, and it costs next to nothing: pay (then) $10 for the paint itself, and give the starving college student $20 and a six-pack, and they get to learn while making magic with your bike. I never did it myself, but the kid across the street from me did that with his bike when I was about ten years old, and he had, by far, the coolest cherry-red metalflake with a flame job on the cross-member paint job ever put upon a bicycle.
        It's been ten years since that lonely day I left you
        In the morning rain, smoking gun in hand
        Ten lonely years but how my heart, it still remembers
        Pray for me, momma, I'm a gypsy now

        Comment

        • #5
          Are you choosing form over function for a particular purpose?
          If it pays, it stays

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          • #6
            The step=thru bikes look interesting, though I can't recall actually seeing anyone ride one.

            The year's at the spring
            And day's at the morn;
            Morning's at seven;
            The hill-side's dew-pearled;
            The lark's on the wing;
            The snail's on the thorn:
            God's in his heaven—
            All's right with the world!

            Comment

            • #7
              I had a beach cruiser with six or eight speeds. Even for casual, it's nice to have hill climbing gears
              The year's at the spring
              And day's at the morn;
              Morning's at seven;
              The hill-side's dew-pearled;
              The lark's on the wing;
              The snail's on the thorn:
              God's in his heaven—
              All's right with the world!

              Comment

              • #8
                Originally posted by Frostbit View Post
                Are you choosing form over function for a particular purpose?
                Well, yeah. This will be just about the only time in my life that I have bought something (something over $50.00) that's just for myself and something that doesn't have to please everyone around me or have some massively practical application.
                "Alexa, slaughter the fatted calf."

                Comment

                • #9
                  Originally posted by Novaheart View Post
                  The step=thru bikes look interesting, though I can't recall actually seeing anyone ride one.

                  I test rode a Biria EZ Board last year! They are very cool bikes but not what I'm after right now.
                  "Alexa, slaughter the fatted calf."

                  Comment

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