I recently had my bike stolen. That sucks, but it was my own damn fault for not locking it properly. Nevertheless I had to buy a new one.
I only use my bike to get around town. My last one was what the bike marketing people called a "hybrid", which, as near as I can tell means "cheap mountain bike". It wasn't a good commuter. Being bent over made it impossible to adequately check behind for traffic, I had to get off the seat at each light, and the bar gave my balls an uncomfortable squeezing, it looked too high-tech, attracting thieves and it had too many gears.
From this experience I came up with a list of features I wanted in my new one.
1) Sitting Upright: Since I'm not trying to be Lance Armstrong, I don't need to minimize my forward profile (if that phrase makes any sense). I want to be able to look behind me without going through weird contortions.
2) Cargo Capacity: On my old one I added a rack with collapsible baskets, which served my needs most of the time. Unfortunately they were inadequate for large items. This time I opted for a gigantic basket (big enough for a 10 ream paper box) in the rear. I wish it were detachable so I could use it as a shopping basket in the grocery store, alleviating the need for bags.
3) A Reasonable Number of Gears: I never took the front derailleur off the middle gear on my last bike so I figured that a 7 speeder would be enough for me.
4) A Two Prong Kickstand: Loading up the old one was a real hassle. It just wouldn't stay up when I put anything in the baskets or was trying to bungee something to the rack. The two pronger keeps it standing upright and centred, making loading up much easier.
5) A Woman's Frame: Since the reasons it is called a woman's frame no longer apply some are now calling it a "step through frame". For whatever reasons the difference in frames started, it is no longer reasonable to have the two designs for get around town bikers. The "step through" frame is good for everybody. Women can bike in skirts and men don't have worry about rupturing themselves on the bar should they fall of the seat or wiggling their nuts around it at lights. Secondly it is impossible to mount a "men's" framed bike when there is mass cargo in the back.
A) Fenders: I don't live in a really rainy climate so I didn't care one way or another about them. Those that live where they have weather might.
I bought one and modified it to meet these criteria and am very happy with it for the most part. I did neglect to consider the brakes. For some reason bike makers seem to think that city bikes don't need brakes to be as good as they do for mountain bikes. I would argue that they need to be as good or better than mountain bikes. The mountains don't have cars trying to kill you or pedestrians in ear buds jumping into the street.
I also didn't consider bells. I occasionally do ride on the sidewalk. Usually it is only to when it is the only way to get from the street to where I'm going to park it, or the reverse. Fortunately the bike I bought had one, but I plan to get rid of it in favor of a few jingle bells on a bit of string, or maybe, a card in the spokes.
After reviewing this before posting and experiencing a couple of flats, some things have changed.
The bike should have some kind of glove compartment type box. It just needs to be big enough to hold a patch kit and the required tools, and be secure enough to deter a snatch and grab type thief.
I've changed my mind about fenders. I'm agin'em. They made repairing a flat, even in my own driveway, much more difficult than it needed to be.
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