Originally Posted by
mrshanno
Hi
My wife is looking for a comfort bike (like a beach cruiser) where she sits more upright and has a comfortable seat. She also wants hand brakes instead of coaster brakes and is indifferent on gearing. We live in a very flat area, relatively short rides just for recreation. It's a salty area so I'd like aluminum and alloy materials where possible. Wheel fenders would be nice.
Salt water will corrode both steel and aluminum.
Another cheaper brand to look at is Day6. But I don't recommend it.
There is several common problems with almost all of the comfort/flat-foot bikes from most companies.
1) they still use a regular bicycle seat, and the bicycle seat pain is usually the main complaint people have. So you're not really going to get away from that if you buy a bike that still uses the same kind of seat.
2) they don't offer different frame sizes, so the bicycles never really fit properly for most riders. The frame is either too small or too large for them, and "adjusting the seat and handlebars" is not the same thing.
3) they simply don't have efficient riding positions, and this makes them rather tiring to pedal--even over short rides on flat ground.
The best crank-forward bikes is the ones from Rans -
RANS Bikes
They use a special flat seat, that does not require padded shorts to ride. The whole bike geometry is designed around that seat. There is much less hand pressure and neck strain, but these bikes can still be pedaled long distances well. Plus they offer different frame sizes: the Fusion is a "middle" size, the Fusion ST is a smaller-size, and the Sequoia is the large-size frame. The Zenetic comes in a normal and a small frame size.
They aren't cheap: the cheaper ones have frameset prices of around $1300. That's direct-sale however. A dealer might be able to cut the price a bit for you. The dealer can build the bikes for you, and it may be cheaper to just buy a whole new (cheaper) bike and swap all the parts over and leave the frame than it would be to order all the parts you need separately.
If you want casual riding, then spend the money to build bikes up on framesets, and spend the money for Nexus or Alfine 8-speed hubs. The Nexus is the normal $200 version, and the Alfine is a slightly-improved version for about $20 more. Either is good.
Internal-gear hubs are
much much much much much much much much much much nicer for casual riding, and
US people are too dumb to pay for them, so in most US bike shops you will never ever see a new bike with an internal-gear hub sitting on the sales floor. You have to order the hub and have them build a wheel on it.
A Nexus 8-speed hub costs $200 and normal gears cost $60.
That's the reason.
With an internal-gear hub, you can easily change gears up or down, any time you aren't pedaling hard, and even when you are totally stopped. That doesn't sound like much, but for casual riding it is
wonderful.
And if you noticed--all the other cheaper bikes mentioned here?,,,,,,,,
they all have the cheap style gears. The RANS bicycle company was sold recently to a new owner.
When the previous guy owned it, the Citi model was available with an internal-gear hub (as a "city-style" bike should have!) but now it isn't. That's not a big loss tho, because there's a ~$700 difference between the price of a RANS frame and a whole RANS bike. You can buy a brand-new parts-donor bike at the bike shop for less than $500, and still have the $200 you need for the Nexus/Alfine hub.
Once you get used to a RANS bike, you will never want the other style bikes again.
Once you get used to an internal-gear hub, you won't ever want the other style gears again.
But if you want something really better, you gotta pay for it.
You can't make any of the other cheaper bikes work as well as a RANS bike will, and you can't make external gears work as nicely as the Nexus/Alfine hub will.
There is also a forum for RANS bikes, intotheride.com or something like that.
Discussion of any similar bikes is allowed.
If you browse much, you will see that the RANS bikes do not have the problems that all the other cheaper bikes have.
I don't make any money from RANS selling bikes, but I have had a RANS Fusion for about ten years now.
I bought it because I've had recumbent bikes for about 15 years, and people on recumbent bike forums kept saying how comfortable the RANS crank-forward bikes were--and how well they still rode.
They are expensive, but there isn't
anything else like them.