women's specific roady

[ChanceyC]

Well i ride a specialised Ruby and its fantastic! I know u said u tried it but remember u need a proper bike setup before a bike can feel comfortable to u. But best womens bike frames seem to be Giant, Specialised, Trek and Avanti, i think the other frames are getting into the expensive range! The SKCC womens team rides with Giant and they are reasonably priced and they say the Giant rides well Good luck

[squeazasis]

When I bought mine (Kona Lisa RD) I wasn't looking for women-specific, was just looking for a good bargain, and was prepared, if I happened to get a "men's" bike, to replace the handlebars with narrower ones. I hadn't done a lot of trying out of bikes. I ended up buying my bike beecause it was on special at a weekend sale and it was the only brand/model the store had on special of my size, and I think they only had a couple of them left! It was sold at half the RRP, and happened to be about on the borderline of the level of bike (weight/gearing etc.) that I was looking for, i.e. the bikes I was looking at included a far higher level, but I wouldn't have wanted to go much lower than this bike. It seems to have worked really well for me

[squeazasis]

Just out of interest, what is different about the frames of women-specific bikes (apart from being one size smaller)? When I was looking at bikes in shops, at one point one staff member said to me "women have longer legs and shorter trunks...." er, hello, isn't it the opposite??

[PiledHigher]

Just out of interest, what is different about the frames of women-specific bikes (apart from being one size smaller)? When I was looking at bikes in shops, at one point one staff member said to me "women have longer legs and shorter trunks...." er, hello, isn't it the opposite??

On average women have proportionally longer legs and shorter trunks, that is different from teh fact that on average they are shorter as well.

[The Duckmeister]

For a given frame size (measured by the seat tube height), women's frames have a shorter top tube than the men's version. This is to accommodate their (proportionally for overall height) shorter upper bodies. Smaller frames also tend to have very steep seat angles to aid shortening the frame without excessive toe overlap at the front end.

[Helgirl]

isn't there something different about the bar width as well, WSD are usually narrower to accommodate narrower shoulder width (dunno if that's correct I just thought that was part of it)

[The Duckmeister]

Yes, narrower handlebar & wider saddle are also part of the WSD package. However handlebars tend to get wider for larger frame sizes across the board, so they're a bit less of a fundamental design difference than frame geometry.

That said, it's not unheard of for some manufacturers to just add a pastel paint scheme & an optimised handlebar/saddle finishing kit to the regular frame and palm it off as a "women's specific" model.

[Shaz]

isn't there something different about the bar width as well, WSD are usually narrower to accommodate narrower shoulder width (dunno if that's correct I just thought that was part of it)

hahaha, I always change my handle bars from narrow to wide to accomodate my shoulders!!

[Helgirl]

isn't there something different about the bar width as well, WSD are usually narrower to accommodate narrower shoulder width (dunno if that's correct I just thought that was part of it)

hahaha, I always change my handle bars from narrow to wide to accomodate my shoulders!!

Ummm in almost the same boat I have a men's frame & there was a rather lengthy discussion (which went over my head) about whether the bars should be wider for me or not
Perhaps there is such a thing as swimmers shoulders after all!

[Percrime]

Certainly the individual differences between women and men cover a greater range than WDS designs accommodate. Plenty of women that mens bikes are going to fit better, and probably a few men that would be better off on WSD. Although a smaller proportion would be happy with pink.

[sachamc]

I've found that "women's specific" sometimes means a compact style frame, or it can mean the standard geometry frame with girly bits on it. I think Giant does the latter, or at least they did a few years ago when I was looking for a bike. I have a short torso and long thigh bones and no amount of adjustment was going to get me to fit on a Giant road bike, "women's specific" or not. Then I tried a Specialized Ruby women's specific bike and it fit within about 10min of adjustment.
When I went looking for my next bike I knew the frame measurements and geometry that fit me best and I looked at a whole heap of brands and compared the frames, some womens's specific and some "mens" (unisex). None of the mens compact frames that I looked at came in a size small enough to fit although the angles of the frame were pretty good. So I ended up buying another WSD bike. An Orbea. It only came in 2 sizes and luckily I fit the smallest size. Not sure what you would do if you were shorter. I'm 5'4" so not exactly short. Knowing a bit more about bikes by this time I had the bike put together to my specifications, choosing shorter cranks, and a saddle I liked (I need a narrow saddle, not a big wide one they usually put on women's bikes) In terms of the handlebars, when they measured me up the guy said he'd never seen anyone with narrower shoulders. So I had to get the smallest bars you can get, which really are still a bit wide for me, but not much I can do if there are no narrower ones (plus it's annoying that it reduces the amount of space for lights and such things)

[The Duckmeister]

I've found that "women's specific" sometimes means a compact style frame, or it can mean the standard geometry frame with girly bits on it. I think Giant does the latter, or at least they did a few years ago when I was looking for a bike. I have a short torso and long thigh bones and no amount of adjustment was going to get me to fit on a Giant road bike, "women's specific" or not.

Yes, a few years ago Giant did take this approach (my bold). However they now do build women's specific frames, have done since the previous generation frames were introduced in 2008 (for the 2009 model) and carried over to the newly-released generation.

Note: The shop I work in sells Giants.

[wordnerd]

my cannondale is female specific. it has a shorter top bar (my brother got curious when he was working on it one so he went and compared the specs for the femme one and a "normal" one). i think i'll always have to get WSD bikes as i have the typical female body type of short torso but long legs.

[squeazasis]

Just out of interest, what is different about the frames of women-specific bikes (apart from being one size smaller)? When I was looking at bikes in shops, at one point one staff member said to me "women have longer legs and shorter trunks...." er, hello, isn't it the opposite??

On average women have proportionally longer legs and shorter trunks, that is different from teh fact that on average they are shorter as well.

I knew that either way it was different from the fact that on average women are shorter.... but I really thought it was the opposite!

[PiledHigher]

Just out of interest, what is different about the frames of women-specific bikes (apart from being one size smaller)? When I was looking at bikes in shops, at one point one staff member said to me "women have longer legs and shorter trunks...." er, hello, isn't it the opposite??

On average women have proportionally longer legs and shorter trunks, that is different from teh fact that on average they are shorter as well.

I knew that either way it was different from the fact that on average women are shorter.... but I really thought it was the opposite!

Best not to let facts get in the way of a good argument...