Recreational Bike for Mother

[mudmucker]

I don't know if this will be helpful or just more confusing and irrelavent. I recently bought a new bike, a Raleigh Circa 1.0, for my 82 year old dad. He's about 5'11" This is a "women's" bike but he had certain criteria, perhaps similar to your mother. He can't lift his legs very well, so we went for the women's bike with the drop tube. He wanted/needed to be upright. (his other very ill-fitting hybrid bike had him leaning too far forward on the bars and caused him pain). We didn't want a lot of complicated gearing so this Raleigh is a 7-speed with the twist shifting on the right grip. We have the saddle a little lower because he needs the confidence of being able to put his feet on the ground. He also wanted swept back handlebars. We also looked for a seatpost with setback so he could be a little more behind the pedal. I wanted to find it all in one bike so we wouldn't have to bother swapping things out.

We also tried the Giant (Cypress I think it was). It had shocks on the seatpost and forks, and an adjustable stem. That also was on the short list for us. If I remember that one had 24 speeds so there's shifting on the left grip as well. It's a fine bike too.

These bikes aren't light. You also won't have the option to lean forward on the Raleigh, but as RM said, the stem on some of the Giants can be adjusted.

Just as an aside, My dad had the biggest smile when he test rode the Raleigh so I knew it was the one. I told him I insisted on buying it for him, because he bought me my first bike.
He never had his own new bike before. We hit the bike path an hour after we bought it. Now who can say they can go biking with their 82 year old dad? I bought him an inexpensive bike computer so he can see how far he goes. He put on 13 miles the first day. He put in 38 miles his first week. The guy is amazing. He has had no aches or pains.

I rode the thing myself too. It's like riding a couch. I am happy to find that there will be a couch to ride in my future if I make it to his age....