mfredrickson

Spend my money!

For x-mas, I'd like to get my father in law a bicycle. He has talked about riding the 4.5 miles to work before. He owns a Prius. He wants to get in shape. I think he is intimidated by bike shops. Let's help him.

He lives in Minneapolis, MN. The nation's best bicycling city (you heard me, Portland! ;-). His commute is 4.5 miles, with several good route choices (North to South Minneapolis, in case you are wondering). I'd say about 6' 2", probably 260 lbs.

I'd like to set him up with a comfortable, dependable ride. My cheapest option would be to give him my 2008 Kona Smoke 2-9, including a set of 700x45 Nokians (I'm 6' 4" and it is a little small for me). Of course, I'd overhaul everything.

Another option would be to find an inexpensive frame and build around that. I build my own wheels and have some rims that I'd be happy to use on his behalf. This would have the additional plus that I could set up him up with a dynamo hub (I don't - yet- have one on my Kona -- though I could certainly add one). I also think an IGH would be better for him

I have many of (not all) of the misc parts to build up a single speed/IGH ride, but I'm happy to buy a Nashbar or BikesDirect option if that seems like the cheaper option.

I'm interested to get other input. Any great deals out there I should be aware of? Off the peg options that tick all the boxes?