Need recommendation for upright bike of the Dutch cruiser ilk (but hopefully lighter!)

I commute and recreate on my road bike, but I need another bike for
family rides fitting the following criteria:

1) Must be upright (no drops) to accomodate a center-mounted child
bicycle seat
2) Must have chain guard, fenders, preferably mudguards (I want to ride
it in street clothes without getting them dirty)
3) A plus would be wide-gearing for hill climbing (I'd prefer
derailleurs to hub 3 or 7 or 8 speed shifting).
4) The lighter the better, but durability is paramount.

I'm also kind of a sucker for old-school dynamo driven lighting.

I'm surprised by the utter lack of "full service" bikes on the US
market. I visited Amsterdam for the first time this year, and as an
avid cyclist and bike culture dude, I appreciated seeing so many men in
suits and women in skirts riding bicycles around. Bikes sold here
definitely target a different segment.

I've done a little research, and found a few options, such as the
"Town" or "Range" bikes by Joe Breeze (breezerbikes.com). I also found
the Cannondale "Street"
(http://www.cannondale.com/bikes/06/CUSA/model-6SR.html), but I have no
idea about build quality on either of these.

Anyone have suggestions?

The Breezer bikes are a great value and the build quality is as good as
any bike in the price range.

I too am shocked by the lack of simple, as I call them, "car-bikes" in
the states. My old Nexus 7 bike was one, and a rarity when I bought it
in '99 or so. I was stolen a couple years back and I was devastated as
I simply couldn't find anything to replace it with. I've recently
bought a Brodie Energy from Canada which has car-bike tendencies. It
does have derailleurs which I'll put up with for a while, yuck, but it
does have disc brakes, which have that low fiddle factor I like.

If you've got the bucks, shell out for an ANT Boston Roadster, and have
him build the front wheel on a Shimano Nexus dynamo hub to power your
lighting. Expensive, but for a vehicle that's actually used every day,
not a bad deal at all: http://www.antbikemike.com/bostonroadster.html

If you're set on derailleurs and need a flat top tube for the child
seat, best and cheapest option would be to source an older hybrid with
flat top bar, and add the extras you want.

Brad Ford wrote:

I commute and recreate on my road bike, but I need another bike for
family rides fitting the following criteria:

1) Must be upright (no drops) to accomodate a center-mounted child
bicycle seat
2) Must have chain guard, fenders, preferably mudguards (I want to ride
it in street clothes without getting them dirty)
3) A plus would be wide-gearing for hill climbing (I'd prefer
derailleurs to hub 3 or 7 or 8 speed shifting).
4) The lighter the better, but durability is paramount.

I'm also kind of a sucker for old-school dynamo driven lighting.

I'm surprised by the utter lack of "full service" bikes on the US
market. I visited Amsterdam for the first time this year, and as an
avid cyclist and bike culture dude, I appreciated seeing so many men in
suits and women in skirts riding bicycles around. Bikes sold here
definitely target a different segment.

I've done a little research, and found a few options, such as the
"Town" or "Range" bikes by Joe Breeze (breezerbikes.com). I also found
the Cannondale "Street"
(http://www.cannondale.com/bikes/06/CUSA/model-6SR.html), but I have no
idea about build quality on either of these.

Anyone have suggestions?

Have you looked at Kettler C.C.Elegance or Kettler Delta?
SRAM Seven with mudguards, chain cover, dynamo hub,
standlights, carrier, pump, skirtguard on ladies',etc. The
whole package is standard.
Can't have chain covers with derailleurs but they do have
derailleur models with mudguards.

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

My wife has a Breezer Liberty and loves it. Another option is to
speak to Doug Fattic, a master framebuilder in Michigan. He's been
building steel bikes of this sort, somehow related to a Ukrainian bike
plant. I'm pretty sure you can find a link to him on Google.

Ken Freeman

"A Muzi" wrote in message
...
Brad Ford wrote:

I commute and recreate on my road bike, but I need another bike for
family rides fitting the following criteria:

1) Must be upright (no drops) to accomodate a center-mounted child
bicycle seat
2) Must have chain guard, fenders, preferably mudguards (I want to
ride
it in street clothes without getting them dirty)
3) A plus would be wide-gearing for hill climbing (I'd prefer
derailleurs to hub 3 or 7 or 8 speed shifting).
4) The lighter the better, but durability is paramount.

I'm also kind of a sucker for old-school dynamo driven lighting.

I'm surprised by the utter lack of "full service" bikes on the US
market. I visited Amsterdam for the first time this year, and as
an
avid cyclist and bike culture dude, I appreciated seeing so many
men in
suits and women in skirts riding bicycles around. Bikes sold here
definitely target a different segment.

I've done a little research, and found a few options, such as the
"Town" or "Range" bikes by Joe Breeze (breezerbikes.com). I also
found
the Cannondale "Street"
(http://www.cannondale.com/bikes/06/CUSA/model-6SR.html), but I
have no
idea about build quality on either of these.

Anyone have suggestions?

Have you looked at Kettler C.C.Elegance or Kettler Delta? SRAM Seven
with mudguards, chain cover, dynamo hub, standlights, carrier, pump,
skirtguard on ladies',etc. The whole package is standard.
Can't have chain covers with derailleurs but they do have derailleur
models with mudguards.

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

Brad Ford wrote:
I commute and recreate on my road bike, but I need another bike for
family rides fitting the following criteria:

1) Must be upright (no drops) to accomodate a center-mounted child
bicycle seat
2) Must have chain guard, fenders, preferably mudguards (I want to ride
it in street clothes without getting them dirty)
3) A plus would be wide-gearing for hill climbing (I'd prefer
derailleurs to hub 3 or 7 or 8 speed shifting).
4) The lighter the better, but durability is paramount.

I'm also kind of a sucker for old-school dynamo driven lighting.

I'm surprised by the utter lack of "full service" bikes on the US
market. I visited Amsterdam for the first time this year, and as an
avid cyclist and bike culture dude, I appreciated seeing so many men in
suits and women in skirts riding bicycles around. Bikes sold here
definitely target a different segment.


I've done a little research, and found a few options, such as the
"Town" or "Range" bikes by Joe Breeze (breezerbikes.com). I also found
the Cannondale "Street"
(http://www.cannondale.com/bikes/06/CUSA/model-6SR.html), but I have no
idea about build quality on either of these.

Anyone have suggestions?

This Koga-Miyata that I saw at Harris is pretty nice:

http://sheldonbrown.com/harris/koga/liteace8.html

- and, meets most of your specs.