The Girlfriend’s Bike
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p> It happens all the time: boy meets girl, boy decides to get her a bicycle. This is especially true for hardcore bike geeks. These relationships don’t always work out. Scan eBay listings for road bikes smaller than 52cm and you’ll find a dozens of stories about bikes for girlfriends that just ended up collecting dust. Oh, and the girlfriends don’t always stick around either. Then that bike definitely is an eyesore.
So getting your girlfriend a bike is always a risky move. But it can be fun.
My girlfriend has declared that she isn’t into athletics, but she picked up my Redline BMX and decided that she would ride more if her bike weighed a lot less. So I pulled a spare BMX frame out of the back of the shop and started a project.
The modern BMX bike is a direct descendent of the Schwinn Stingray, a 20”-wheeled, banana seat classic. I hatched this idea to take a racing BMX frame and returning it to its roots. I’ve got a Kappa cromoly frame with 1-1/8” headset and a Euro BB, and I’m gonna put high-rise “ape-hanger” handlebars and a banana seat on it. I’ve got the project halfway done now. The bike has a early 90’s Campagnolo Chorus crankset and Redline fork. It’s gonna be AWESOME. If she ends up really liking it, I’ll have it repainted this spring.
So who else has gotten a cool bike for a significant other? And I mean a really cool bike, not some token hybrid. Did the girl keep riding, or did it end up on eBay?
I mean, the bike on eBay…
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