Taking telephone deposits of $200. First shipment is here!

Frameset with headset, bb, and seat post: $1,000.

The whole bike without saddle/pedals starts around $2200 depending on parts. Here's a typical build.

We're introducing the Betty Foy and Sam Hillborne at the same time, and what you can do with one, you can do equally well with the other. This is because the bikes are equally strong and have similar clearances, so they fit the same volume tires and fenders.

The Betty Foy is designed for women, with a low diagonal tube that's easier to step over. That is the only significant functional difference between the Betty Foy and the Hillborne, and the A. Homer Hilsen.

What's it for?

any kind of road rides--solo, club rides, fitness rides, whatever

weekend touring

fully loaded touring

commuting

fire trails

bike camping

Clearance is key to the Foy. It has enough to fit tires up to 40mm wide, so it's good on rough roads. It has clearance to take fenders easily, even with 40mm tires, so it's the ideal foul weather commuter. What you can do on a bike, you can do on your Betty Foy.

This style--mixte, lady's bike, step-thru, whatever you like to call it--came about originally to allow a woman's dress to drape gently down so it wouldn't get blown up by the wind. Most women don't wear dresses anymore, and if they do they don't ride bikes in them; but there remain benefits to this style frame:

1. You don't have to swing a leg high over it to get on--besides being a good thing if you do wear dresses.

2. It's also if you have a child or big load of groceries on the back. Same if you have a bad hip; it's a low step-over.

3. It's even easier to fit it since the height of the top tube is never going to be a problem on the Betty Foy.

Whether you want one now or need one now, whether you carry babies or groceries in back or don't, the chances are someday you will need a bike that's easier to get on, and when you do, you'll be hard-put to beat the Betty Foy.

Frame Quirks&Details

The slightly upsloping virtual top tube would have about a 2-degree slope to it, bringing the head tube higher. That makes the Betty Foy better able to fit slightly taller riders than, say, a normal mixte can. Just a little.

Every lug is investment-cast, a rarity for girls frames, which historically have been short-sheeted in the lug department. They're the best quality lugs available in the world today, and were designed specifically for the Betty Foy. Same with the bottom bracket shell.

The fork crown, also investment-cast, is the same one we use on our most expensive custom frames. As fork crowns go, it is as good as they get, with functional and structural details others plain don't got. It's wide enough for 42mm tires; the brake hole is cast low, to maximize tire and fender clearance; and the "wing" on top is visual art in a space that's usually blank. In the Betty Foy's case, the wing is painted fingernail polish red.

The Betty Foy is designed for long-reach sidepulls, like the Silvers or Big-Mouth 73's.. They're easy to set up, powerful, easy to use, easy to maintain, and will never give you a lick of a problem.

The wheels are 650B. Five years ago, were rare in the U.S., but no more. It's well-supported in this country--it's even trendy--and has a secure future.

Simple Sizing

If you have a PBH between 70&81 and can ride a saddle height (measured from the center of the crank to the top of the saddle) between 60 and 72, get a Betty Foy 52. Probably 98 percent women between 5ft 3 and 5ft 6 will ride a 52 Betty Foy.

If you have a PBH between 80 and 92 and can ride a saddle height between 70 and 82, get a 58. Ninety-eight percent of women between 5ft 6 and 5ft 10 will fit a 58.

Taller and shorter, you can't fit the Foy. It's possible that next year we'll have a 47, and if this bike takes off beyond our wildest fantasies, we might even make a 61, for Danish women and tallish guys. But the 52 and 58 fit most of the riders who we think ought to be interested in a fine mixte.

The Betty Foy is a remarkable deal. We're not saying $2,200 is inexpensive, but when you survey today's bicycle offerings and discover what that much buys today, you'll see what a good deal the Betty Foy is.

Frameset only or complete Foy bicycle

We've built up hundreds of mixtes over the years, and they all get pretty much the same kit, with minor variations.

The Betty Foy frame is designed to be used with Albatross bars, or some other swept-back bar, but it works fine with drops if you use a DirtDrop stem. Scroll down the picture totem pole and you'll see one set up that way; it rides great. But don't think the Albatross will limit you; it won't. Sometimes we get guys calling for their wive's or girlfriend's bikes, and they want drop bars because "they're better for climbing." Wrong way to think, pal. For one, Albatross bars are great on hils--I/Grant use them a lot, and they're on my Atlantis, my main bike-camping bike. Two--climbing is not about bar-shape, and if you slap drops on your wife's bike and then expect the little lady to dance up the hills like a feminine rocketship, give it up and back off, to boot! (End of preaching, most humble apologies.)

You can put the same parts on the Betty as on the Sam, and it totals up the same if you do. In any case, a complete bike is going to run you close to $2,200, but there are some ways of cutting out a hundred dollars or so on the Betty without hurting the bike.

"Betty Foy" is a character in an old poem by William Wordsworth (1797).