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Looking for suggestions for women’s commuter bikes, the requirements are:
- Step-through frame
- Hub gears
- Slim frame tubes (aesthetic choice!)
- Dynamo lighting (from hub preferably)
- Extra points for belt drive
- Commuter friendly tyres (ie somewhere between mountain bike and road bike)
- Not crazy money, less that £1k new for certain (and would probably look for secondhand versions over £500)
Bike will be used for a short commute, errands and fitness riding around a city.
Does anything fit this out of the box and if not what are the closest?
Think a vintage Mixte frame bike would get closest to that long list of requirements, and you'll probably have to do the dynamo yourself. Something like this, but there is quite a few on eBay.
Decathlon may be worth a look
https://www.decathlon.co.uk/elops-900-step-over-classic-bike-alloy-grey-id_8359415.html
What kind of distance is the commute? I'd be going Dutch if short and mostly town/urban. Really nice hub-geared and generator-hubbed Batavus and Gazelle models often go for a song hardly-used
* edit - I see there's a new Gazelle Stael on fleabay atm, on budget that seems to mostly fit description, there's also a used one at half that price leaving room to upgrade with dynohub if not already specced.
*edit - 'Gazelle Van Stael'
That Gazelle is a very elegant looking dandy horse .
I've had my eye on a gents one for a while, as a 'just a bike' N+1 😉
Dutch quality, Brooks finishing kit, low-maintenance, shiny guards and luscious lugs = a winning combo IMO
