Ideal shopping bike - what's yours?

[fatboy]

Are they worried about it going fast? You'd struggle to get a sustainable speed above 20 on that gearing!

I find it quite hard to sustain 20 on any bike. True you'd run out of legs sooner on these gears but having plenty of low ones is good.

[WesBrooks]

Plenty of low gears is one thing, but not being able to make advantage of even slight down hills would be irritating and I think it would lead to the bike feeling excessively slow.

Sorry I didn't mean I could hold 20 as an average! However, given a decent anything from flat to slightly down hill (1 to 2% ish) gradually building up the speed to around 20 would not be difficult. The bike would require more power to accelerate at a give rate, but doubt it would differ much in terms of power required to sustain a given speed when compared to a similar, but shorter flat bar bike.

[lauriematt]

http://wineandwheels.com/2007/08/wheels ... -home.html

literally.....a shopping bike!!!

[nortones2]

Its this one: http://cycledad.blogspot.com/2008/04/ka ... sions.html

But with a front basket. I'm using it so much that i think i'll get a trailer for xmas.

That said there are some wonderful ones here: http://www.ski-epic.com/amsterdam_bicycles/

I love the fact that the dutch way of carying shopping is to drape it anywhere they can

Good citation! I've copied the link re Amsterdam to HJ (the motoring site) where there have been some interesting comments on child carriers on bikes/helmet wearing. Mostly supportive of the low risk, despite the Chicken Little brigade BTW.