'Sophie', a Ladies Roadster

'Sophie', as she is now called, was the first ladies bicycle I built. Her geometry is modeled on our 1897 Stormer, and she features wooden fenders, a wooden chainguard, color-matched string skirt-guard, and a linkage-operated plunger brake on the front tire. The tires are 700x40c, mounted to Amish-made wooden clincher rims. The handlebar and all the brake parts are nickel-plated. Plus, she has a gorgeous nickel-silver headtube badge!

To accommodate easier mounting, the bottom bracket height on the 1897 ladies bike is much lower than the earlier men's bikes - close to a modern bike geometry. She is a fixed-gear, and despite all the additional features the bike is very light - only 26.5 pounds!

Here are some photos of some elements of the build process.

Here is an 1897 ad for the bike that Sophie is based on.

And a photo of our restored 1897 Stormer: