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Personally, I despise the aesthetics. Mostly of the frame, but some other things too. But hey, that's just me so congrats to you and your wife and have fun.
Personally, I despise the aesthetics. Mostly of the frame, but some other things too. But hey, that's just me so congrats to you and your wife and have fun.
I have a Townie that I've owned for about 3 years. It's a good bike, comfortable on trips around the neighborhood and running errands. I go out to the trails and ride 20 miles once a week, and it's comfortable for that too. It's not a very fast bike and I don't feel like I'm getting a real workout on it, even on my longer rides, but I ride with my kids and one of them still has a small bike, so the Townie being a little slow isn't bad. I actually bought an extra Townie (used on Craigslist) for guests to ride, because pretty much anyone can ride it, even if they don't usually exercise much.
The stock saddle on it is pretty hard and uncomfortable, so your wife may want to try a different saddle.
Personally, I despise the aesthetics. Mostly of the frame, but some other things too. But hey, that's just me so congrats to you and your wife and have fun.
It is not just the aesthetics. Have you ever ridden one of these? A friend of mine brought one of these to one of our weekly rides and let me try it. It's designed so the rider can be sitting on the saddle while both feet are flat on the ground. In order to do that, the geometry has to be so laid back that I almost felt like I was riding a recumbent. This makes the handling so weird. But I suspect that the demographic for this bike is not too concerned about handling and more concerned about having both feet on the ground. It is just a bike for tooling around on your street.
It is not just the aesthetics. Have you ever ridden one of these? A friend of mine brought one of these to one of our weekly rides and let me try it. It's designed so the rider can be sitting on the saddle while both feet are flat on the ground. In order to do that, the geometry has to be so laid back that I almost felt like I was riding a recumbent. This makes the handling so weird. But I suspect that the demographic for this bike is not too concerned about handling and more concerned about having both feet on the ground. It is just a bike for tooling around on your street.
That's why I got it, I have a bunch of metal in my leg and I couldn't bend my foot at all for a couple years after my surgery. The Townie meant I could ride and build up muscle in the leg without having to have more flexibility in my foot. You can put the saddle a little more forward and then raise it a bit and it feels more like a regular bike, but the way it's designed, most of your weight is on your butt instead of your legs holding most of the weight, so having the saddle higher starts to get uncomfortable after about 10 miles.
My mom complains about the handling of the Townie and won't ride my spare Townie. She says the handlebars feel like they turn the bike too much I bought an old Diamondback comfort bike at Goodwill for her to ride when she goes with us, and she's happier with that.
I think, if you eliminate the whole foot flat on the ground thing, there are lots of bikes that offer a more upright seating position with your weight on your butt. My old bike and current bike do that. The current bike is more agressive than the old bike, but the positioning is still upright, but you can use more leg activation to power yourself up a hill or whatever.
The last twi bikes i have had ar also step through frames so they are easier to mount snd dismount. I get off and put a foot on the ground at the lights.
That's why I got it, I have a bunch of metal in my leg and I couldn't bend my foot at all for a couple years after my surgery. The Townie meant I could ride and build up muscle in the leg without having to have more flexibility in my foot. You can put the saddle a little more forward and then raise it a bit and it feels more like a regular bike, but the way it's designed, most of your weight is on your butt instead of your legs holding most of the weight, so having the saddle higher starts to get uncomfortable after about 10 miles.
My mom complains about the handling of the Townie and won't ride my spare Townie. She says the handlebars feel like they turn the bike too much I bought an old Diamondback comfort bike at Goodwill for her to ride when she goes with us, and she's happier with that.
I think that is what I recall about the weird handling. I broke an ankle years ago and it is amazing how fast my leg atrophied in the couple of months of no riding. It had no muscle tone! Riding got it back to normal in about a month - but it was tough.
She was quite taken with the Electra Townie. It's a seven speed and we are looking forward to riding together.
So go buy it for her!
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I bought an old Diamondback comfort bike at Goodwill for her to ride when she goes with us, and she's happier with that.
