A
TRUE beach cruiser can ONLY be a single speed coaster brake bike. The simplest and least expensive version of a bike available. Once you go beyond that simplicity, the bike is too sophisticated to be classified as a beach cruiser. Once you add gears, you aren't "cruising". If you need hand brakes, you are going way too fast to be "cruising". A Bendix two speed kickback hub is allowable. But cables of any kind are not allowed under any circumstances.
If you want gears and rim brakes, that's perfectly OK, just don't call it a beach cruiser.
And while I'm at it, there is no such thing as an aluminum beach cruiser. Steel is the only acceptable frame and fork material.
These are not casual guidelines. These are
THE rules.
During my youth in the early 1970s in Huntington Beach Ca, our bikes were used as a simple tool. Transportation that was one step above walking. To scoot a couple of blocks to check the waves, to go to the store for groceries, to go to a friends house or the movies.
But that's just me. I'm an old fashioned, uptight traditionalist when it comes to cruisers and klunkers.
