Minerva Ladies Hybrid

[Drewski]

I've just picked up a second, (third)? hand bike for my Sons partner, they've moved from London to Cambridge and she's new to bikes and I'm hoping this will be a good starter for her. It appears to be an ex rental from a local bike shop and possibly was battery powered at one time. I'm not familiar with the make and wondered if anyone had any information as I can't find much on the interweb. I'm guessing it's about 20 years old. One thing I'd like to know is if all the nuts and bolts are AF?
I'm just tarting it up a bit, painting the mudgards and replacing any rusty chrome like the handlebar stem and various nuts and bolts. 'Seems a fairly decent bike.
All the best, Drew.

 

[Cycleops]

Looks like a Dutch company, however the bikes would have been made in the far East somewhere.
They do make some electric models, could that be a electric motor in the front hub?
Bolts would be metric. Put new cables on it and generally check it over, BB for wear and wheels to see if they run true. New brake blocks and adjust. Should then be ready to go.

 

[Smokin Joe]

That's interesting. My first adult bike was a sit up and beg Minerva when I was thirteen, it was the personal transport of the owner of a local shop that was closing down. Whether yours is from the same manufacturer or another brand using the name I don't know, but the particular machine I had was made in Italy and came with the continental left front brake lever (Something I've carried on with whenever I've built a bike).

I've never been able to find anything out about the company either and assumed they disappeared years ago.

 

[Smokin Joe]

@Cycleops has nailed it in this case, it is a Dutch company -

http://minerva-cycling.be/nl/

 

[Drewski]

Thanks for the replies. The hubs are Sturmey Archer SBF, (front), and SAB3. 70mm drum. First time I've had a look at these hubs and I'm impressed. looking through the Sturmey Archer catalogues, they've made about 4 models since these ones. I think these might have been the first of the series and the axle threads appear to be 3/4" front and 13/32" rear. SA seem to have gone metric with the later hubs with 9mm on the front. The wire for the dynamo goes through the hollow stay on the rear mudguard and won't budge so I've had to cut the cable and dump the dynamo to paint the mudguard, (not a big dyno fan anyway).

 

[Smokin Joe]

Thinking back, I only believed my Minerva was Italian because someone who was probably as equally unknowledgeable as myself back then told me it was. Minerva doesn't sound very Italian and I've never heard of a British firm with that name so it was probably from the same Dutch company as yours.

Glad you posted this thread, good luck with the bike.