Dutch City Bikes
So my wife and I are reading through David Owen's "Green Metropolis" book and I think she's getting convinced to move closer to Car Free.
We watched one of the "rush hour in amsterdam" kind of videos and she seemed to be pretty open to riding bikes like that. I was telling her how the relaxed geometry of the Dutch bikes they're riding makes it a lot slower, but relaxed ride. Also, with the step through frames it's a lot safer starting/stopping suddenly (or slipping in the rain/snow).
I looked online and most of the bikes that have these attributes (70 degree seat tube and head tube angle, clearance for wide tires, jacket/skirt fender, coaster hub) and they're either super expensive ($1200) bikes for yuppies that'll just get stolen, or super cheap crappy ones. Has anyone gone through a similar process in finding a good flatland city bike? What did you end up doing?
I've looked at a lot of options and I'm thinking of getting an older cruiser or something and putting on a 3 speed coaster hub and the whole works. It seems like that process can easily end up with price creep. I want something cheap enough that we can spray paint so it looks trashy, but nice enough that it's not breaking a lot (i don't want my wife crashing because of bad brakes or something, or get stuck in a gear).