Originally Posted by Gnosis

Greetings Wooden Tiger,

I’d definitely purchase a bike with multiple speeds even if your mom doesn’t initially see herself switching gears, as a multispeed bike will allow her (with your assistance) to initially select whatever gearing works best for her on the flat ground she intends to ride on. Afterward, she’ll never have to switch gears however; they’ll still be available if she wishes to try using different gearing sometime later when she’s more familiar with the bike. Curiosity will likely eventually have her investigating the gearing and when she sees how useful it can be when ascending a hill, there’s a good chance she’ll be thankful it has multiple speed gearing.

As far as hand brakes go, I would express to your mom that hand brakes are more readily available to slow the bike than a coaster brake, as hand brakes can be applied at any moment whereas the coaster brake requires bringing the crank arm around to an appropriate position before the coaster brake can be applied via the crank arm. I think we’ve all, at some point in our lives, had a moment with a coaster brake type bike where something unexpected cut in front of us and we didn’t have the time to bring the crank arm around to the appropriate position hence, we were left with very little (if any) braking force via the acute angle that we were applying braking force on the crank arm. So hand brakes eliminate that safety shortcoming.

P.S. I’m glad to hear your dad is enjoying his new bike however, you might ask your dad to confide with you about getting your mom a bike, as he may be enjoying his new bike all the more knowing he gets a little quiet (blissfully nag-free) time while bicycling.