Ladies beginner road bike suggestions?

bulluke23

A friend of mine is looking at taking at road cycling. Anyone have any ideas or suggestions for beginner bikes for women at a good price?

ForumNewbie

bulluke23 wrote:

A friend of mine is looking at taking at road cycling. Anyone have any ideas or suggestions for beginner bikes for women at a good price?

When you say beginner bike, depends whether you mean full road bike etc. My wife has a Specialized Vita hybrid which is a nice light road bike if you are looking for flat bars rather than drops. It cost £550 new last year. She really likes the bike compared to the Dawes Sonoran which she previously had, which was quite heavy in comparison. Specialized also do a range of more expensive women-specific road bikes with drop bars, as do various other brands.

msmancunia

Depends on what you mean by "good price" I guess. I've had a Trek Lexa for three months throughthe cycle to work scheme - not cheap, but it's amazing. Can't believe how quickly it went from "ooh this is a bit skinny and I'm wobbling..." to feeling like a part of me. Yes, that's a nerdy thing to say, but....I LOVE my Trek

mattshrops

Spesh do a couple of women specific road bikes, which are great if you fit into the average body shape category. the theory is women have longer leg length as a percentage of their overall height than men. However should your friend not conform to that model she might be equally comfy on a "mens", and therefore will get lots more choice of style and price. Get her down to the lbs to find out

I believe I am not speaking out of turn if I say that not all women want pink bar tape

cornerblock

The wife has just acquired her first road bike, a Giant Avail. Seems to be a good starter.

team47b

Have a look carefully at the geometry figures, a lot of 'women's specific' bikes are a paint job and a wider saddle.

A good set of measurements help you to realise what geometry is needed, this may turn out to be a 'man's bike.

I found this site really useful for determining correct top tube length/stem length etc.
http://www.competitivecyclist.com/za/CC ... ATOR_INTRO

Mrs T went for the Cube Axial pro, which is the exact same bike as my Cube Stremer, but with, I have to admit, really nice matt white paint job. Oh and a wider saddle - 8mm

jibberjim

Women in the UK do not have longer legs compared to men of the same height, in fact they typically have shorter (see Dangour et al. ) so it's pretty difficult to justify a "women's specific" fit based on that erroneous fact. What you actually generally find is that the womens specific bikes simply have a more "relaxed" sportive geometry - based on the peculiar idea that women are less likely to race - not sure why but I know in my club women are more likely to race not less. (There's a lot fewer of them certainly but those there are are often more competive)

Women are much more likely to have narrower shoulders, so may well want narrower handlebars aswell as a different saddle, but those are changes men are also likely to want. Depressingly you often see inferior components for no reason (although not always, Boardman for example seem pretty well matched). Anyway the conclusion is don't limit yourself to a womens specific bike, get a bike that fits - and potentially change the contact bits to match how you actually are.

MichaelW

Depends what you mean by 'woman". They come in different sizes and the ones below about 5'3" have a hard time finding anything to fit well.

slowlanejane

Its the same advice as beginner bikes for men. My advice is dont look as WSD because youre a woman, look at bikes. WSD is a sizing option, that's all. I found them a bit cramped when I tried them, but I have short legs and long torso, whereas WSD tend to cater for longer leg, shorter torso. At least they've stopped painting them in girly colours with floral decals. I got a Bianchi small mens frame in the end and swapped out the front end for smaller drops, narrower handlebars and a shorter reach to the gears / brakes. I love it.