We went to Broken Spoke Bike Workshop yesterday, and she selected a 3 bike shortlist from their giant pile of bikes to be returned to the road:
1. Dawes Kingpin classic
2. Kona Cinder Cone (late 90s I guess - still V brakes)
3. Dutchie city bike
She looked at a whole bunch of mixte and ladies roadster style bikes, but decided against each of them. The bike she really loved was a wicked roadster style bike with dynamo hubs and the old looking lights. Sadly, she's about 18 inches too short to ride that one! In the end, it came down to the Kona or the Dawes, and the Kona was just a little too big for her, so the Dawes it was. It's black, has a rack (and now a basket), it looks cool, and has Sturmey Archer hub gears, so no messing around needed there. We took it inside, went through the entire checklist that the mechanics do (together, which was fun), and it was pretty good except for the back tyre. Which turned out to be 37-440, which is the strangest size in the world, so obviously they didn't have any that would replace it. It's sitting in the garage right now, waiting for tyres to arrive from SJS before it can be ridden properly.
My only qualm is that the rims are steel with those little mouldings on designed to help you actually stop in the wet. We'll have to wait and see if they actually work. I mentioned the idea of building some wheels for it using some 406 BMX style alloy rims, and she made noises like she might actually be up for building wheels with me! That would be so cool I might try and sort that sort of thing out anyway!
A hub dynamo on the front would be a nice upgrade to go with the stopping power (and the massive choice of quality tyres).
I'll add some pictures when we have the tyres and it can actually be set up for her and ridden...