small frame bike ideas needed

peanut

A triathlete friend of mine has just started cycling again after a 4 year lay off. Her original road race bike is too big for her as She is about 5'5".
Is it possible to get road race frames off the shelf to take 650mm wheels or do you have to get one special built ?

redddraggon

You can get the Planet X stealth frames that take 650C wheels - ideal for a triathlete surely?

http://www.planet-x-warehouse.co.uk/aca ... d_XS_.html

5'5" is not that short, you can get smaller frames that suit such a height which take 700C wheels.

peanut

mmmmmmmmmvery very nice but a tad over her budget at £650 for a frame. Thats £1000+ bike :shock:
she is using an old steel 19" Raliegh atm and the geometry is all wrong for her.Impossible for her to stand comfotably over the crossbar

maddog 2

as RD says, there are 650c bikes and they're a good solution for many people. A (girl) friend about the same size runs a 700c frame and the handling is compromised and toe-overlap is a big problem.

Having said that there are companies who have tried to build a bike that suits the female body. See the Trek website for example:

http://www.trekbikes.com/uk/en/bikes/women/

Monty Dog

The critical dimension is top tube length and don't worry so much about standover - many small compact frames go down to 44cm seatube for good standover, but getting a TT shorter than 52cm with 700c wheels and avoiding front wheel overlap is difficult - but not impossible - sadly some of the worst offenders are the 'big brands' who scale-down their standard frames and still end up with top tubes of around 53-54cm. For triathlon / timetrial use it's also preferrable to have a top tube on the short side i.e. 50-51cm and as short a headtube as possible so you are probably better served by a 650c wheeled bike rather than a 700c. Suggest your friend goes for a bike-fit - the extra cost will be offset by the savings in not having to buy more suitable components or even a new frame - sadly many shops will sell the smallest they have at a given price, not the one that fits!

redddraggon

peanut wrote:

mmmmmmmmmvery very nice but a tad over her budget at £650 for a frame. Thats £1000+ bike :shock:
she is using an old steel 19" Raliegh atm and the geometry is all wrong for her.Impossible for her to stand comfotably over the crossbar

I was also going to suggest a Cervelo P2SL or P2C, but I guess they're also way over budget.........

gematkinson1

im about 5'5 and i ride a 50cm frame, with normal sized wheels

floosy

Im 5`2 (male) and ride a 41cm compact with 700c wheels. Made by Viner.

but Ribbles Audax frames start at 41cm too....

peanut

thanks for all your suggestions everone.
My friend currently rides a 700c 50cm frame that I built up for her 5 years ago. Its ok but not really ideal. There is toe overlap and the top tube is too high to straddle comfortably when stopping at junctions etc.
She is happy enough to carry on using this because she cannot justify the expense of a new bike which is essentially used for fitness and weight loss.

I'll check out the Ribble and Trek frames and maybe take a look on SJS site too

Lagavulin

What about Specialized with their Ruby and Dolce frames?
From their website though it appears even the sub 50cm TT bikes come with 700c wheels.

Slightly OT but does anyone know if Emma Pooley rides 650c or 700c's? I remember her S-Works being Bike of the Week in the comic and it looked tiny.

peanut

I read that Emma uses 650c somewhere but can't remember where. She's a little pocket rocket isn't she ! reminds me of SWMBO . Taught her to ride and 4 weeks later she was dropping me on the hills

synchronicity

I'm another one to [highly] recommend 650c. Only cause it fits smaller riders much better.
There are still quite a few 650c tyres around.

Jeannie Longo, the petite French pro who is also 5'5", uses 650c wheels. She's 49 years old and recently competed in the Beijing road race. While it looks like she opted for 700c wheels in that event (probably for backup/support reasons I'd imagine). Here's what she has to say about 650c wheels:

"I ride the P3 because of its aerodynamics and the possibility to ride it with a 78 degree seattube angle. I have two P3s, a 48cm and a 51cm. I use the 51cm bike mostly in predominantly flat races, where I feel it rolls nicely. In hilly time trials, I prefer the lighter wheels of the 48cm frame with 650c wheels, both from a point of view of direct weight and with regards to the rotational mass, accelerating around corners."

Honestly, people who say "700c wheels are fine for smaller riders" are either:
1) tall
or
2) biased in some other way

acorn_user

Some of the cheaper UK custom builders start under 400 pounds. They could make a very nice, very suitable frame for your friend. Some of the womens bikes you see around have really weird geometries. They kind of mangle the frame in order to fit 700c wheels. To me, it makes more sense to scale the wheels to the frame, eg 650c or 26" wheels so as to maintain optimal geometry. Terry bicycles and Sweatpea bicycles over here do women's specific bikes. Typically, they look nothing like the womens bikes you see from the major manufacturers...
http://www.terrybicycles.com/
http://sweetpeabicycles.com/