help with obligatory girlfriend **CUSTOM** bike build....

My lady friend wants a lighter bike than her current stove pipe cruiser thingy. She wants to be able to wear skirts so a step through/ladies specific will be essential. So far the only thing on the radar is the 8bar wmns frame but they stupidly listed the large as 56 Sq iirc. Shame as it is alu and would have been ace with a SA 2sp coaster brake. She is about 6ft.

What else is out there that I'm missing?

Ask the ladies section perhaps?

normal triangle frame can be fine with skirt, least according to my girlfriends.

It'd be a low slung triangle for that to work, Ed.

My heart is set on (she will have to learn to like it) something along these lines:

someone posted a jack taylor mixte on here for sale somewhere recently but I can't remember for the life of me where...

Edit: found it. Not much of a project but it is lovely

https://www.lfgss.com/comments/12580730/

or http://www.pelagobicycles.com/store/components/framesets/capri-frameset.html

You can pick up Carlton Courettes cheaply on t'bay, I got a frame for my mum for 30ish£, then got it resprayed at armourtex. looks great and still came in waaaaaay under the price of an OTP frame.

90ties MTB frames with some nice double/ triple butted tubings go for silly prices and have sloping/low toptubes?

Fest, I might be able to help if you're still looking.

PM me for deets

i built this one to my girl, she loves it.

Old Peugeot? Plenty of them out there. I managed to build this up for my wife for less than £200 and got the weight down to about 9.8 kg. It could be way lighter if I replaced the cranks and seat pin and better wheels but she won't let me spend any more money! The bike does have aero levers now for a better hand position.

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+1 on Peugeot.
Here's my girlfriend build.
Before & after & on it (with skirt):

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My concern with the Peugeots was the obscure seat post sizes, threading conventions etc...Plus I'm thinking 28-32 tires...

No image...

Honest questions to those that have posted builds here, what kind of weight are they? Could it compare to:

weight: frame: 1,600g, aluminium fork: 700g, carbon fork: 550g

built up this mixte for the mrs - certainly not light, but kind of nice to have somewhat matchy bikes for an excursion (the tourer behind is mine):

I'd say it probably comes in under 12kg, maybe a bit less, and she thinks of the 37c tyres as sleek and thin, so I guess it just depends what you're used to!

There seem to be plenty of old step-through 531 frames (Falcon, Dawes, etc) that come and go on eBay and Gumtree. I sold a large-ish step-through 531 Falcon on here for £50 (paid £60, I think), to give you an idea of the going rate.

Also, if you get a frame built for 27" wheels, you can run 700x32 and/or mudguards.

forgot to mention, got mine from @boydsbikes - he often has that sort of thing for a good price...

I've got this Monza mixte if your interested. Its a bit cleaner now than it is in the photo.

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http://budnitzbicycles.com/bicycles/view/no5_ti

^$5950!

Her old bike was a dutch bike, even an old steel mixte will be a lots lighter.

Normal triangle frames is slightly lighter than step-thru.

Well done for shortening your reply from two weeks to a mere three days.

soma buena vista is an option too

Ed, help is welcome but your running commentary about my reply time is beyond tedious. If it bothers you that much, shut the door on your way out. There is more to lyfe than lfgss.

@jb000

Yeah @cornelius_blackfoot mentioned that option but its a tad butterz...I hoping for something clean looking without the EC1 loft apartment lifestyle prices.
Preferably modern. Happy to do Alu.

This could be interesting cube:

Though its a 29er...not sure what positives this has over a 700c version...then again a 2/3sp coaster on the rear + a disc up front and it maybe doesn't matter...