Wanted: One Bicycle

[ewt]

If I am going to start working more than about a 20-minute walk away from my house I want to be able to cycle to my place of employment.

The only real difficulty with this is that I do not currently own a bicycle.

I would need a ladies' bicycle, as I have an annoying tendency to wear skirts nearly all the time. I also do not like to lean forward a lot when I ride, it makes my back sore. As I am fairly tall and therefore need the seat quite high, this means I need handlebars that also go fairly high. In short, a bicycle for a 6' tall woman with back problems.

I saw a folding bicycle (fairly old) in a second hand shop for £20, but the back brakes do not work. Any idea how much that sort of repair costs?

Anyone know of a good second-hand bike shop?

Anyone have advice on what to buy? what NOT to buy?

Comments

[sourcebook.livejournal.com]

Probably easiest to do it yourself. If it's just replacing brake pads, they cost a few pounds and aren't difficult to fit. If it's any more complex than that, you might find the repair bill from a bike shop adds up to more than you paid for the bike. I might have a suitable folding shopper bike in the garage at home (Southend) which you can have for free (would otherwise go to the tip). I'll take a look at it tonight - send me email via my LJ profile if you're interested.