There have been a few variations of the Landrider over the years. A customer brought one in to our shop for regular maintenance, and I took it for a spin just out of curiosity. I was pretty much underwhelmed.

For those who don't know (Landrider prospective customers), gear selection has less to do with speed than terrain. It sometimes takes the use of multiple gears to maintain the same speed on varied terrain. You might shift down a few gears going up a hill, or shift up a few gears when going down a hill. The reason we change gears is to make more efficient use of our strength, not to maintain a steady cadence over varied speeds.

A human being is not a gas powered engine, people can get tired after a long ride and decide that an easier gear would suit them better. On a Landrider you have to change the "range", which is just another word for "shift". So the Landrider is not truly automatic, is it?

If you want a nice bike which you and your wife can ride regularly (as often as possible), then get a couple new Schwinn cruisers. You can get them with 1, 3, or 7 speeds. The 3 and 7 speed models use internally shifting hubs with old fashioned coaster brakes, which shift as easily as changing the "range" on a Landrider, but without the complicated and cheaply made autoshift set up.

I have a Schwinn Classic 7 Deluxe. It's a faithful copy of the old 50's Schwinn Phantom. It's a beauty to look at, and a beauty to ride, and its a much better deal all-around than the Landrider. Everyone who sees it (there aren't many of them around here in Japan) asks about it

FWIW, I am a serious cyclist who has been riding for more than 30 years. I bought the Schwinn because I wanted something to ride around the park with my girlfriend, and now I find I ride it much more than any of my other bikes.

Here are pics of both, which would you rather ride?

Schwinn Deluxe 7



Landrider



Amazingly enough, they both cost about the same.