my mum complains about her knees and i complain about her driving to town or the supermarket (both apporx. 2 miles) so i thought i would buy her a bike.

i stumbled across THIS from Halfauds and thought it’d do the job.

any one have any opinions or experiences – positive or negative – with it?
she lives in Chelmsford which isn’t particularly hilly (zero hills, TBH) and the journey to town is 100% bike path through the park.

cheers

J

Does your Mum want a bike ?

Mum wants something a bit more bling for christmas, sunshine!

yes she does want a bike. or has sort of mumbled in the past “oh, it’d be nice if i didn’t have to car the car but….” statements that wouldn’t be mumbled if she had a bike.

she used my sister’s (newish) bike a few times last summer, but said the saddle was uncomfy and it had nowhere to put stuff…. it is a MTB, though.

@ stoner, i did think about an e-bike, but figured for the short trips into town or to the allotment it’d be overkill.

that bike is over 36 lbs 😯
do you hate your mum or something?

aye,she’s your mum.
get her a nice singlespeed.change the handlebars to something like the mary,or the nc17 trekking jobbies.
lower the gearing.get some nice grips,cork,or ergons,fiddle around with the stems,like you would for yourself.plastic flat pedals.nice light tyres.
a basket,those klickfix ones are cheap,and you can get a replacement clamp to make a klickfix handlebag with an old handbag.treat her tight.
oh and one of those heart stem caps.

there’s some electras on crc,or get a pompino.and a lock,obviously.
it’ll cost you,but hey.

Dare I ask her age?

A superlightweight Ti might be just the ticket. 😉

60…. something.

have looked at other similar bikes, but this seems to fit the bill best.

Actually scrub the Ti – full suss is the way to go!

my mum complains about her knees

so i thought i would buy her a bike.

Whilst I love bikes and want people to ride them, you may need to make sure that taking up riding again isn’t going to make the knees worse – the bike really needs to fit her right, and needs gears that she can use confidently so that she’s spinning the gears rather than mashing them

Where I live now there seems to be loads of older people using those motorised scooter thingies. On the road. Country roads too. They don’t have insurance but do they have to pass a competency/medical test I wonder?

Since passing my old mtb onto my dad who is also 60..something and has sketchy knees, I have come to the conclusion that the simpler the better (less to go wrong) and save weight where you can.

That one you chose is fine but you could build something up in parts from here/ebay that would suit the bill better. If you are fussed about her having a shiney new bike then maybe a new frame with used parts?

If you could ride the Halfrauds bike and the one you could build side by side there would be a massive difference.

What about this?

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/dawes/duchess-2011-womens-hybrid-bike-ec018638

or

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/raleigh/oakland-2011-womens-hybrid-bike-ec028482

or

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/pinnacle/cobalt-one-womens-hybrid-bike-ec027455

Anything to avoid giving money to Halfrauds!

my aunt’s got a pompino.she’s 62.3sp nexus,but I’ll build her a fixed wheel so she can try that.
didn’t skimp,but I could have saved a lb on the build.wish I had,now.

you can build up a light ss 26″ bike,with big apples and trekking bars,and shorter cranks.
the lighter it is the better I reckon.esp for people not used to cycling.
kona p2 forks,one of those lisa frames.317s,165 cranks,vees,sks.about 500 pounds should do it.
fit really is everything,esp for women.they often ride men’s bikes,and proportions are different.

or decathlon’s got some stuff that’s fine.would still change contact points tho.and get some cheap stems for her to try out reach.

Nice and light.