Watcher, I am a fiftyish-year-old woman in fairly good shape from rowing, Nordic Tracking, and the like, but by no means an athlete. I live in an area almost pancakelike in its flatness, so I can't tell you about real hills. The feeling I mentioned of riding always downhill was something I felt on fairly flat streets. The only actual incline I encounter on my rides around town is a spiralling footbridge/overpass, which I climb in a low gear, sitting down, without strain. I would be no match at all for someone serious on a road bike--12 mph is what I regard as a comfortable speed on this bike in my stop-signed neighborhood, 15 mph on more open areas--but I'm clearly having a considerably easier and happier time covering ground than most of the people I see riding around here.

I gather that, despite the grandmotherliness of its name, the Oma is what just about everybody, male and female, rides in Holland. It's got beautiful lines, but there's nothing girlish about it.