Choosing a donor bike for a cruzbike.

Currently, bike manufacturers (atleast in India) seem to believe in unusual bike frames. The traditional diamond frame seems to have given way to many versions of the y-frame . I believe the reason for that might be, kids (or even women ) can easily straddle the top tube of a y-frame bike, and they would not need to keep changing frames as they grow older. However most bikes are too heavy .

The cruzbike manufacturers have a recommendation page for the donor bike. There are also a few pages that talk about Tom Traylor's recommendations (Tom is the original designer and patent holder for moving bottom bracket front wheel drive bikes, from which the cruzbike has evolved) However, some of the things dont really translate well into indian conditions:

• Hardly any bikes are available in multiple frame sizes.
• Which means that one needs to choose a bike with as low a top tube as possible, regardless of frame size.

While I started out with a hercules wow , I believe the best donor would be the old Hero ranger. (I cant seem to find pics on the net). It had a low top tube which was a straight bar, which makes it easier to attach the seat. The head angle is also more forgiving than the hercules wow. Although the bike is not in production any more, it should be easy to buy it second hand from a local bike shop.

So to evaluate a potential donor bike, take a tape measure (to measure the top tube height, anything below 26 inches is great ) , protractor ( to measure the head angle, close to 60 degrees is optimal ) , and a weighing scale ( to measure the weight of the bike ). My Hercules Wow weighed about 16 kilos , I expect that the additional kit would be between 5-10 kilos, so its important to choose a donor bike that is as light as possible.