I hadn't noticed the positioning of the cranks. The fiets style bike / roadster / upright bike / city bike is basically the style I'm aiming for now. I have a road bike with the more aggressive lean-forward riding approach, and I have a hybrid with a posture between the upright and racing one. My SO had purchased a cruiser a while back (which is currently a restoration project due to a rear-end incident) which is upright. I'd not paid much attention until I started messing with this old 70's "All Pro", which is upright. I realized I really liked it, and it renewed my interest in getting myself a roadster style one. It was the top tube design that I was most curious about, as I was interested in knowing if there's anything more to it than style. Looks like it does have some practical application.

The SO really likes the cruiser style bike, where she can put her feet on the ground from the saddle. I'm not too sure how this is a factor of BB position and not saddle height, though - is it just because you can run your leg downwards and behind the cranks easier?

I'm looking to get myself a good roadster style bike sometime in the next few months since I'll actually have the money to do it now. It'll be replacing my big box Schwinn as my general-purpose mobility machine - grocery getting, commuting, etc. I'll keep my road bike for going fast, though I don't think my fitness / general physique is really going to make a difference between them. I'm going to need to test that out with a cyclocomputer sometime.

I figure since I know what goes into a good bike now, why not go spifferific?

Got my eye on a few, haven't made any decisions yet. The Windsor Kingsington IGH series seems like it would be a good platform for all the extras that makes a "Dutch bike" without having to go whole hog and buying a Paisley all at once, but we'll see. Because I am so short, I'm thinking I might look into 26" wheel bikes. This will be my long term "investment" bike.

M.