sizing a bike for my girlfriend

cookiemonster

RIght, my girly wants a bike - we're talking "basket at the front" and hub gearing here rather than which weave of carbon fibre and record vs red

Thing is, the strange world of commuter and hybrid bikes doesnt seem to have any concept of standard sizing. On the planet I live on, I know I'm a 58cm effective top tube, and pretty much it'll be there. If I'm spending 2k on a cervelo then I'll probably want to try it first, but I know what size the thing is going to be when the box arrives.

What good is it telling me that the seat tube is 17" or 19"? I mean, do these bikes not have seat posts?

So, she's 5'4" and I'm struggling - I'd prefer to go down the gumtree route and get her moving for cheapness, and then we'll upgrade in 6 months to something good when she's clearer on what she wants. Its impossible though - the folk selling these bikes dont know what size they are (suitable for anyone from 5'2" to 6' etc). And when they do its "medium" or "small" which is all that ridgeback are telling them

nightmare

edhornby

girls fit bikes different to boys and if she's not a regular bikeist then it'll be doubledifficult

I would say look for something that's not too heavyweight - my mum has an old raleigh mixte frame that fits her great and keeps getting new drivetrain etc as a daily commuter
Also, try them out, if the reach is too big then she'll be leaning too far forward and it won't work.
if you can, get something with 700c wheels as you can get a 25 or 28 tyre on it. this will make it skim along

baskets can be bought and attached :-) have you tried trawling the old secondhand bike shops? also try the edinburgh bike coop, they have some really good options for inexpensive starter commuters

best of luck with it

Al_38

I built a bike for my gf 2 summers ago. She is slightly smaller than your good lady by the sounds of things (5'3"). Got an old small (13.5 inch seat tube) marin rocky ridge (I think) frame and a well specced and badly listed Scott mtb off ebay and rebuilt all the bits onto the marin frame after a good service.

Anyway as for sizing it depends, one of my mtbs is something like a 16.5 inch seat tube, but I run the saddle basically on the maximum extention possible to fit me (6' tall and would ride 56/57 cm road bikes). I would normally have something like a 19inch frame. My gf's bike has 4-5 inches of seat post showing. Something around a 15 inch frame would probably be best for yours I'd suggest. As you say you can always adjust seat height. Also think about getting a shorter and slightly higher rise stem and possible some low riser bars to use too as these will help shorten the reach and keep it comfy for her to ride

cookiemonster

cool - yep, im probably getting way to worried about it. over in carbon-land we're paying for bikefits to move the saddle forward 3mm and raise the stem a nanometer. Out here in crappy-commuter territory the things that matter are whether your wheels are facing the same way, roughly, and if you have brakes...

I'll just try and find something that she can sit on about right and not have a stretch to the bars. The tough choices are going to come when we're looking at wicker versus flax baskets...

(god, I hope she doesnt read this.... )

nick hanson

Take her down the local bike shop & get her sat on whatever they've got in,to get a size guide,& go from there (you could always add 6" for size,give it a good service fnur fnur...etc)
I'll get me coat............Tumble weed ....... silence ..... :oops: