Women's heavy cruiser bikes: ever recommended them?

[rebeccaC]

Lots of beach cruisers bought/ridden in my area. I usually smile when I see a bright colored cruiser with a chain guard and a nice basket. A Nexus hub or handlebar tassels gets an even bigger smile. For an area like mine I see them making some sense for some people. Personally I enjoy my heavy Celeste Bianchi Milano with Basil baskets for grocery runs, for work commutes and just running around in town. It's Nexus 8 hub works flawlessly and gets me up a couple of steep hills on my way home from work if i want to go that way for the exercise.

If asked for recommendations I’d go through some options, cruiser included if applicable, and then let them decide. Whatever someone wants to ride is fine with me! Linus is a local company and they have the Dutchi which is one fine cruiser designed bike for city riding. There have been, myself included, and still are many people riding heavy steel upright city bikes for years in Europe (much heavier than an aluminum alloy cruiser).....and cheap 50 lb Columbia's and Roadmaster's were ridden by a lot of people in the U.S. for years until the 70's.

I've been doing a lot of photography in the arts district in downtown LA which is going through a gentrification. I recently found a new bike store that gets older bikes, even some of those older heavy columbia's, repainting them, building them back up with quality parts and selling as many as they have.