What does my daughter need to make her cool?

[outskirtscustoms]

That's trippy man!

 

[Green P1]

A skinny tire'd canti frame is what every college student needs.

 

[Thxcuz]

A skinny tire'd canti frame is what every college student needs.

That's so cool...but make it pink. I doubt bike thevies would want to steal a pink bike. It would stick out too much.

 

[schwinnmesa]

At my college I see all rides of life: fixies, lightweights, ballooners, vintage Schwinn middleweights, road bikes, beach cruisers and mountain bikes.

Any bike is cool for school. :lol:

 

[Little_Will]

Let me go a different direction than everyone else, when I was in college some girls rode bikes, very few, and I never remember thinking any of them "cool." after graduating and getting married my wife and I lived in a different college town (Greenville, NC) and one day I saw a girl riding through campus on a white BMX bike and immediately I though "That's cool."

So, I vote BMX. Small and nimble for campus sidewalks and easy to take inside for theft protection. Tough and can be beat up. No baskets needed since most all students just carry what they need in a back pack. Fully color customizable to taste.

I'm with yoothgeye on this one. They're quite practical for just blasting around on and probably easier to hide amongst a rack of other "cool" bikes? I too always thought girls looked cool riding BMXs, although I am now officially too old to be looking at girls riding BMXs!! :lol:
Will

 

[streetpirate]

streetpirate's "Rat Salad" build is the ticket. A one way ticket to hipster status imo.... I am collecting parts for a similar build!

What is that frame by the way?

it's a ~'59 Hawthorne Hercules, and I believe that Phillips shared the same frame design for the same '59-61 span.

Living in Eugene, #1 per capita bike thefts in the country, there are two reasons bikes get stolen. resale value and ease of theft.
if you use a good lock like a Kryptonite u-lock you will probably be fine unless the bike is worth $1000

As far as campus-cool, skinny tire single speeds are in, like the SE Draft
http://www.sebikes.com/bike.php?name=lager3

on campus, nobody rides cool cruisers. Just cheap walmart cruisers.

IMHO - 24" or 26" bmx style cruiser, 24" banana seat with apes, or a singe speed skinny tire bike could all be perfect. It just depends on what your daughter feels is the most comfortable riding position and what style she likes best.

and make sure it's reliable as dirt. Im guessing that she won't want to be tinkering with it and adjusting things all the time

 

[streetpirate]

one more thing -

paint is important. this will be a bike that is going to take a beating on busy bike racks. don't go too fancy on the paint.

I would never lock Rat Salad up at school. The paint is too fragile. My commuter is chrome, so no paint to chip.

if you can find a chrome frame, or an aluminum frame and go bare metal do it.

check out Carbon's LaJolla

Here's a build I did with a Kent La Jolla I stripped,...

it's sexy, durable, and comfortable looking

 

[Thxcuz]

Your daughter already has a cool
Dad. I don't think she needs anything else to be cool.

When I was in college, the whole trek mountain bike thing was just beginning. I didn't ride then and they still aren't really cool.

 

[yoothgeye]

I had 3 bikes during college, the next always cooler and more expensive than the last, none got stolen because I had a nice u-lock. On the other hand, my friend's crappy Murray mountain bike was stolen because it had one of those pansy inline combo locks on a little chain thinner than something Mr.T wears. A wrestler just yanked the chain and broke it with his bare hands, I witnessed the getaway.

All he wanted was a bike to get from one side of campus to the other, don't make it easy.