<p>iDad said: These things are all made in the same two or three factories</p>
<p>Yep. Just got back from Interbike last week, and pretty much a few Chinese and Taiwanese factories make all the cheap bikes. The quality differences are in the quality of soldering and the base tubing used to make a basic steel-frame bike.</p>
<p>giddey_up, your post has me laughing. The only thing cooler than a fixie in Portland is a vintage Schwinn…</p>
<p>I was trying to explain to the daughter in PDX that her sisters bike “Didn’t shift” & she just kept saying " those bikes were very popular in Portland"
No! it is a 12-speed, it is supposed to shift!
lol
D1 has a vintage Schwinn ( that maybe is a three speed- does that sound right?) that we got for $50 from a neighbor.
but her commute is currently too far to ride her bike. ( actually I just looked up her commute- bleh- from pdx to tulatin to lake oswego)</p>
<p>No matter what you get, be sure to invest in a good lock with extra long cabling to secure the tires & seat. Anything that can be removed is a target for thieves on any campus!<br>
My D is riding around seatless (yikes!) until we can find a replacement that fits.</p>
<p>I and DW met while on bikes at college.
If your DD is in the market for a BF, she shouldn’t get a bike that is too fast and breaksdown enough where she would need someone of mechanical knowledge. :)</p>
<p>As I said before, DS bikes to work (UW) and is too fast to enjoy the view. :(</p>
<p>She sent me a looooooooong list of craiglist bikes in Seattle to check out.
How can I possibly assess a bike for her?- she is about 6 inches taller than I am- with better balance.</p>
<p>I dont know how interested she is in boys- but I know she shares a lot of interests with her sisters roommate ( bikes- rock climbing & hiking- India), + he looks like Orlando Bloom= her middle school crush ( and is one of the few men that I have ever seen that look good in a kilt) ;)<br>
So far she has managed to escape a boyfriend- she is too focused on finishing school and getting out in the world ( not necessarily in that order- that does remind me of the scene in Brothers Bloom where Adrian Brody meets Rachel Weiss- that’s what I should get her- a Stingray!..not)</p>
<p>I forwarded her the info about bike shops- cause her friends can help her with some stuff- but I think they are just learning too.</p>
<p>EK4: here’s how to assess a bike for your daughter. You need her standover height, which is the height from the ground to her crotch. No bike where the top tube (the one that’s more or less parallel to the ground) is higher than that will work. You want one with the top tube (or where the top tube would be if the angle is a slant) is about two to three inches lower than that. (You should be able to ask the seller that height in an email.)</p>
<p>IF the bike is the right height, look at the bike as a whole. Are the cables cracked? Are the tires in okay condition? Do the brakes work and not rub when you’re rolling the bike? Do the wheels seem reasonably straight and not bent (you can try turning one with the bike lifted off the ground)? Does it shift reasonably well? Does the bike look abused?</p>