After a bike for the lady in my life, little unsure on sizes

Benjamin Hall

As the title says, i'm looking for a bike for my missus. She likes the look of retro ladies racers, somthing along the lines of this.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Raleigh-Impul ... 500wt_1156

She is 5ft 4, with normal proportions and is after something comfortable so that she can come out on my recovery rides, and perhaps a little tour or two. Size suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

merak

17 - 18 inch, or 0.67 x inside leg to the floor but try before buy is best. The older road bikes with ladies frames like in the link sometimes had an uncomfortably long reach (saddle to bars) for smaller women, so beware.

KulaBen

Hmmm i'm not sure I can help with the retro roadie bit, but my missus has just bought a WSD trek hybrid and though she's 5'8'' and could easily fit a blokes bike she found the proportions much better. They do racers in WSD as do Specialized. Not retro, but might be a better fit.

geoff_ss

My wife has done well over 30,000 miles on her Marin hybrid and she loves it. She usually uses 23mm tyres. She's not particularly fast but she fairly frequently manages 90/100 mile rides (she did 73 last Wednesday). Not bad for an old lady of 70

She's still got her Mercian touring bike but she much prefers the Marin.

slowlanejane

I am 5'4". You need to check her / the bike's standover height because that excluded a few options for me as I'm short-legged. And the top tube length is critical for her comfort. If she likes girly retro, I saw the perfect thing the other day, admired it because itwas pretty without all the decal florals that bedeck many women's frames. But can't remeber what it was now. If it comes to me I'll post again.

In the meantime, I'd ride this one, i have a weakness for Bianchi. But not very retro. And A few quid. You didn't mention budget.
http://www.jejamescycles.co.uk/bianchi- ... 64904.html

schweiz

Mrs Schweiz is 169 cm (5'6"/5'7") and she has a 50 cm Trek 2.5 WSD. She also test rode a 51 cm CAAD8 and that was fine apart from the handlebars. Also, she tried Campag on a Basso but couldn't use the thumbshifter as her hands are tiny.

The Trek came with shallow drop bars as standard and with the STI spacers in, the finger reach is reduced. She felt far more in control of the bike. She also got a new saddle after a few rides as the Bontrager WSD saddle was painful in a sensitive area!

Based on that I would say a 47-48 cm frame for your wife but it's not the only dimension to consider.