Giant SCR 3.0w (Women's) sizing help/comments

graham_g

I was hoping for a little advice or any comments on the Giant SCR3.0w - I've checked out other manufacturers women's specific designs but want to source it from my local bike shop who deal mainly with Giant on the road bike side (they all seem much alike anyway!).

My problem is that the bike is for my girlfriend as a birthday present and she's currently in Zambia and will be on her birthday up until the end of September! So essentially it's a surprise for when she gets back. I do have at my disposal her height and inside leg measurement (5'3"-4" and 29 1/2") and also her hack single speed road bike which is set up quite well for her.

Now I'm guessing that she'd need either the 43 or possibly the 46.5 but wanted to gauge some opinion on here. I'm thinking the 46.5 because she does prefer having the handlebars close to level with the saddle so I suspect this might be better albeit after swapping for a shorter stem.

THoughts anyone?

gkerr4

I'd go the other way - and get the 43 - reason being - you can far easily extend the reach witha choice of 80 - 140mm stems - and likewise you can raise the seatpost, and raise the bars by turning the stem and using the spacers

but it is far more difficult to shorten the reach if an 80mm step doesn't do enough!

plus you can rejoice in the small frame being slightly lighter

SWC123

I have a giant scr1w and I'm about the same height as your girlfriend but with a slightly longer leg measurement. i have the small frame size (not sure what that is in inches) and it fits me pretty good.

graham_g

I know what you mean but I'm similar to her in terms of long legs and shorter arms/upper body and wasn't really comfortable on a road bike until I went with a 23" frame (with a slightly shorter TT) which I had been told would be too big for me.

Giant don't seem to have the geometry details on their site - one of the reasons I'm hesitant on the smaller size is that on the Spesh Doce equivalent, I worked out that to get the same distance from saddle-pedal as her single speed, there would only be 70mm of seatpost inserted on a 300mm post! I'm afraid that if I go for the smaller that the saddle is going to be too high in relation to the bars which stem flipping/changing could only go someway to rectifying due to the short steerer tube. Quill stems are one serious advantage here!

Hope this makes sense. I won't take a total gamble but if I can be satisfied that it'll fit then it'll be a fantastic surprise as she's wanted to go for longer weekend rides for ages... with gears.

graham_g

SWC123 wrote:

I have a giant scr1w and I'm about the same height as your girlfriend but with a slightly longer leg measurement. i have the small frame size (not sure what that is in inches) and it fits me pretty good.

Couldn't do me a favour and have a check for me could you? The compact road sizing chart (http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-GB/tec ... mpactroad/) really doesn't help as the frame sizes are different from the actual product range!

SWC123

Ok I've had a look and it looks like the SCR w range come in
XX Small - 39
X Small - 42
Small - 46.5
Medium - 50

Mine is a small so is a 46.5. I tried the x small and it was ok but i felt slightly more hunched over than on the small. I've been happy with it and think I made the right chioce.

The other thing to bear in mind is that the women specific frames are built on the assumption that average woman has longer legs and shorter upper body than the average man and so that is reflected in the frame design.

Hope that helps - I'll check the sizing on my frame when I get home later and post on Monday if I've got the size wrong above.
Good present!

comsense

http://www.competitivecyclist.com/za/CC ... ATOR_INTRO

I've posted this elsewhere on the forum today. Its very good and worth the time investment as it will get you close to perfect fit not only on frame size but saddle setback, stem etc. close enough that you will be able to tweak small adjustments yourself to suit your body. giant's geometry chart will then show you ther closest frame to your requirement. Print out the calculator results a couple of times and keep copies in a safe place.

graham_g

Thanks all! I'll email Giant for their geometries.

comsense

firstly apologies - I didn't see that you wanted it as surprise so the calculator isn't much use!
heres the geometry http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-GB/bik ... 156/14247/

Gazza 2905

I took my girlfriend to look at a couple of bikes recently (one of which was the Giant SCR 3.0w), & coincidentally she is 5’ 4” tall.

Now if I recall correctly, the Giant frame is compact, & the sizing is a little confusing. I believe that Giant take the measurement from the bottom bracket to the point where the top tube meets the seat tube. However, there are a couple of inches more seat tube above this joint.

What we found was that she fitted well on a Trek 1000 WSD with a 46cm (non compact) frame. But when we tried the Giant it was the 43cm frame that fitted. This, of course is not surprising, but it does go to show how frame sizing can be confusing.

Really hard choosing without her being there. Good luck.

Gary

edeverett

I bought a SCR Limited for my girlfriend.

After going to a bike shop (non-local chainstore so I don't feel I used them), and her tryinng a few we got an idea of what fitted her. None of the bikes in the shop suited exactly what we needed (road bike with mounts for racks and guards) so I looked up the top tube length of the bike that fitted her in the shop and bought the Giant with the closest t-t length online.

It still seems to fit, and my girlfriend loves riding it, so I'd take the top tube length of the singlespeed and buy the closest Giant. Giant sizes are funny as the top-tube slopes so much, so don't compare them to other manufacturers.

Ed.

mea00csf

I've just bought the 46.5 scr 1 w and i'm 5'4" with shortish legs and it fits perfectly, (i got the bikefit thing done so was confident on the sizing)

Also, when i was looking, the mens and womens SCR frames are exactly the same, tho i believe some of the components are different, for instance my bars are 380mm wide and the mens version i blieve they're 400mm

One other thing, all the bike shops i spoke to very heavily advised against the SCR 3 due to the component being not great on it, i was advised i'd be absolutely fine on a mens scr2 (i don't think they do the scr2 in a womens version). I personally HATED the sora shifter with actually having to take my hand off the bar to use the thumb shifters as i simply couldn't reach it any other way. May be something to consider if girlf has small hands?