bike for little bloke

mal6186

I want to buy road bike - thinking of cube attempt triple 2011? I am only 5'3'' so wondered if anybody out there as small as me who has bought road bike recently. Would I be better with women specific model as they may be shorter top tube etc. Returning to road cycling for first time since I had Dave Yates frame made to measure 25 years ago cos I couldnt get decent bike small enough. Advice appreciated .

Lossie Loon

It will also depend on your leg/body length too. I'm 5'4" with short legs but a long body (the human equivalent of a sausage dog really ) and I get on relatively fine with a Trek 1 series road bike with a size of 50cm - although the saddle is down quite low and I've moved the handlebars to below the spacers. Not perfect by any means, but I get on ok and enjoy it - if I was more serious and wanted to compete I would have to think again though (could perhaps do with a longer stem due to my long body length). A decent LBS should be able to help you out as I'm sure they see folk of all sizes coming in.

Monty Dog

Kinesis do a road frame in fairly small sizes - you'll probably need something with a toptube in the region of 50-51cm to make it handle properly - don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

1_reaper

Hi I'm 5" 2' and ride a 50 Trek 5.2 for summer and a 1000 for winter. Just had to fit a shorter stem

b16 b3n

My wife bought a Ribble sportive in a 49cm and her friend bought a 44cm Ribble evo carbon. Have a look on their site mate.

simon_e

I'm 5'4" on a good day, bought a Giant SCR in size XS (43cm seat tube), which fits me perfectly. The 46cm Small was slightly longer and it would have fitted OK but I wanted a short top tube.

The current equivalent is the Defy (2011 bike, so discounted), sizing is still the same AFAIK. Giant women's road frames are the same as the men's so no difference in top tube.

Moda Tempo, a nice alu race bike, is available in quite a small size, the 48cm frame (with a horizontal top tube) is intended to fit 5'3" and up. I know someone the same height as me who's very happy with their Moda Stretto.

After seeing Graham Briggs on a particularly small Condor race bike (piccy), it seems they produce a good range of sizes as well.

floosy

Most Italian manufactures make xs frames... I have a 46cm seat tube (horizontal equivalant) and 515mm top tube.
Oh and im only 5`1" and a bit.

But if I was going to replace mine (Viner), I would probaly go for a Condor...

Dave.

PS the best thing I did was get short cranks 155mm.

demorider87

Halfords do a cracking bike for the smaller rider: http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... zone=PLPz1

small_bloke

I'm 5' 3" and bought a Pinarello FP2 in size 44cm a few months back when they were doing 40% off. Some other brands would be a 47cm.

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/pinarello-fp2-105-2011/

Only 25% off from Wiggle at the moment though.

MichaelW

5'3" is about the limit for 700c so you may be OK on a "normal" bike.
The XS size bike in a range sometimes uses smaller 650C wheels. These permit a short frame with sensible steering geometry. The disadvantage of 650C for small riders is mainly about the availability of tyres and tubes.
XS size should also feature XS cranks but usually they just bung on med 70mm length. If you can find 65mm, so much the better.

Ouija

Don't Pro-Lite do a racer for small people where they've shrunk everything down proportionally? Uses 650C wheels i recall.

MattC59

petemadoc

MattC59 wrote:

That's just mean

MattC59

PeteMadoc wrote:

MattC59 wrote:

That's just mean

Made me smile though
Sorry mal6186

rick_chasey

Must weigh less than me! :O

Mr Dog

That's just wicked.. but made me smile too. The Giant women's TCR range is available in XS with a top tube of 51.5.
We won't be smiling when you cane us on the hills. 8)

trekker12

I'm just shy of 5'4" and ride a Trek 1.2 52cm. It's a 2008 bike but I'm sure the geometry won't have changed much. Interesting Lossie Loon rides the slightly smaller frame, I've already got my saddle some way clear of the top tube.

The toy bike made me laugh little worried about the crank length though.

Monty Dog

trekker12 wrote:

I'm just shy of 5'4" and ride a Trek 1.2 52cm.

I'm taller than you and would probably find that frame too big - I suspect you bought what they had, not what you needed which is a common problem. Don't let shops fob you off with inline seatposts and 6cm stems either.

Kinesis Racelight KR210L is available in down to 40cm in a geometry adapted to suit smaller riders:
http://www.kinesisbikes.co.uk/products/ ... ht-kr-210l

Ouija

Ahhh! http://www.pro-lite.net/?option=com_content&task=view&id=114&Itemid=55Here's the one i was thinking of.

Lossie Loon

trekker12 wrote:

I'm just shy of 5'4" and ride a Trek 1.2 52cm. It's a 2008 bike but I'm sure the geometry won't have changed much. Interesting Lossie Loon rides the slightly smaller frame, I've already got my saddle some way clear of the top tube.

The toy bike made me laugh little worried about the crank length though.

Might be in the leg length - I mentioned I have really short legs in terms of proportion, so I need a smaller frame. To put it into perspective if I am sitting next to a friend who is 6ft then we look the same height as we have a similar body length - until you clock the fact that his knees stick out a fair bit compared to mine. It's the leg length where I 'lose' height.

Kneesaway

Came across this recently http://bikesize.info

It suggests that a 48 or 50 would suit you, depending on your proportions.

N

puppiesdanglybits

Like op said be carefull not to let shops fob you off with what they want rid of. I am 5'8 & Evans were telling me I needed medium frame, tried allez & pinnacle but these just felt like I was on to big a bike, went to good lbs who sat me on medium & straight away identified I had short legs & longer body, Giant Defy small tried (they had all sizes) & after a couple of adjustments following spin on turbo trainer we agreed small was a better fit than medium. They could have sold me any frame size but spent time making sure what I bought wascgoing to be right, in their words worth spending time with you now on your first bike as then you will feel you have been looked after & come back to spend more with us in the longer term.
Hope you find something that fits well

suzyb

I'm 5ft and when I started cycling again I got a hybrid at first, it was 16" frame with 700c wheels. The guy in the shop looked at me, asked me my height and said 'yeah, 16" should fit'.

Not long after I bought a road bike and realised just how big the hybrid was for me. I couldn't turn sharply without hitting my foot with the wheel and I always felt like I was perched on top of the bike and not really riding it. I feel much more confident on my road bike because it fits me properly.

imho you really need to get an idea of sizing by trying out a few bikes and seeing what feels right. if you can, go to your LBS and try out a few bikes. Even if they don't have one quite small enough you may find out for sure what size is too big.

mal6186

Thank you for all your useful/not so useful! advice. At the age of 47 there are no jokes you can say/show that I haven't seen! And that Halfords link was a girls bike!
I have worked out I basically have short legs for my height which is useful to know and armed with that information am off to bike shop now. Sizing chart link was useful. Thanks again. Just looked at my old (very) road bike and that had 165 mm cranks too.

mal6186

Well I tried Giant Defy 2 2012 small at my LBS today and still felt little too large, especially reach to bars so as x-small only available in women's version, the Avail, I bought one of these at very good price as it felt 'right' and I have more scope to adjust saddle, stem etc as I get used to it. Hope I've made right choice.

suzyb

I'm sure you'll enjoy the new bike.

Does the x-small's still come with 650c wheels?

mal6186

No. It has 700x25 tyresas opposed to Defy which has 700x23. Funny that. Have they actually based this on what women want or because men want to be seen to be racier etc? Same with brakes as avail comes with cross style levers on top of bars also beacuse women 'like them' ?

suzyb

Interesting, my 2007 Giant SCR 3 x-small has 650c wheels so sometime in the past 4 years Giant has must have decided to just put 700c wheels on their smaller bikes. Presumably because it's cheaper to manufacture.

The brake thing might be due to women having smaller hands and Giant trying to position the brake levers somewhere easy to reach for them.

AndyMalone

Useful thread for me as well, thanks. Hope you don't mind me jumping in.

I'm 5'4" (ish, maybe a bit less if I'm honest) with a 30" inseam without shoes. I don't suppose anyone similar has tried the Boardman Comp in small? It's apparently a 50cm and theoretically suitable. I've seen a good offer on one that I'm tempted by. Unfortunately the Halfords near me doesn't have a good selection and isn't carrying any smalls at the moment for me to try.

Cheers.

tx14

AndyMalone wrote:

Useful thread for me as well, thanks. Hope you don't mind me jumping in.

I'm 5'4" (ish, maybe a bit less if I'm honest) with a 30" inseam without shoes. I don't suppose anyone similar has tried the Boardman Comp in small? It's apparently a 50cm and theoretically suitable. I've seen a good offer on one that I'm tempted by. Unfortunately the Halfords near me doesn't have a good selection and isn't carrying any smalls at the moment for me to try.

Cheers.

I'm in similar shape to you. 5'5'' 30' inseam. 50cm traditional geometry fits me okay. you have to look at toptube length, the small boardman is more like a medium compared to other companies bike.
people quote the seattube length as size, this worked when all bikes had horizontal toptubes. it doesn't work anymore.

simon_e

mal6186 wrote:

Well I tried Giant Defy 2 2012 small at my LBS today and still felt little too large, especially reach to bars so as x-small only available in women's version, the Avail, I bought one of these at very good price as it felt 'right' and I have more scope to adjust saddle, stem etc as I get used to it. Hope I've made right choice.

You surely have, the Defy/Avail is a great bike. Hope you enjoy riding it.

Re. the difference between 23 and 25mm tyres - I suspect Giant chose to spec the Avail with the larger tyres, perhaps for increased comfort courtesy of the slightly larger volume of air. Yes, perhaps they felt men would prefer the 'racier' 23mm. SCRs were sold with 26mm Kenda tyres which weren't great and the first thing I did was replace them.

suzyb, Giant changed their sizing for women's bikes when they introduced the Defy/Avail. The XS for both is now 43cm whereas the women's SCR XS was 39cm with 650c wheels while the men's XS was 43cm and 700c wheels.