Bikeradar for ladies?

needforspeed1

Does anyone know if there's a similar site as bikeradar for ladies, particularly for road bike reviews?. The reviews facility here is outstanding but appears to only cater for men's bikes.

rolf_f

There is a womens specific bit somewhere in the MTB section but that might be the only such place. TBH, as far as bike reviews go, most reviewed bikes on here are not especially male or female specific - but certainly it would be worth posting a request for a search function (go here - viewforum.php?f=40033) to pick up on bikes with Women Specific Design (which usually means tweaked geometries, different saddles and narrower bars) - at the moment that isn't present and should be.

That said, the BR bike reviews tend to be pretty meaningless really. They are full of marketing jargon and there is a notable lack of consistency in the scoring.

Otherwise, whilst the social side of the forum is a bit like a load of blokes in a bar, if you are after helpful advice I think you'll be fine here!

Anonymous

Mostly girls on here anyway

crankycrank

Not exactly what needforspeed1 is asking for but some good info on women specific bikes. http://www.teamestrogen.com/content/wsdBikes

team47b

Which part of the mens bike reviews do you find are not applicable to you?

Aren't mens bikes/women's bikes the same geometry these days (except saddle width/paint colour)?

on-yer-bike

Womens specific bikes are just a marketing ploy. Unless you are after a Pashley, with out a top tube and a basket on the front.

rolf_f

team47b wrote:

Which part of the mens bike reviews do you find are not applicable to you?

Aren't mens bikes/women's bikes the same geometry these days (except saddle width/paint colour)?

No, the geometry is (hopefully) different - shorter top tube, taller head tube. Effectively similar to sportive geometry but probably available in smaller sizes.

smidsy

It will never catch on :-)

sloppyschleckonds

I'm pretty sure there are some old women on here...

jibberjim

Rolf F wrote:

team47b wrote:

Which part of the mens bike reviews do you find are not applicable to you?

Aren't mens bikes/women's bikes the same geometry these days (except saddle width/paint colour)?

No, the geometry is (hopefully) different - shorter top tube, taller head tube. Effectively similar to sportive geometry but probably available in smaller sizes.

"hopefully" ? based on what? If it's typical ratios of male/female torso/leg length, then women should be riding mens bikes and men "sportive" bikes since in the UK, the ratio is such that women are more likely to fit such a bike
( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12031138 has the data) However, individually there's more variation between any two individuals than between a man/woman, so there's no reason why bikes should be gender split on the frame. There are differences which are much more substantial in the sit bones and shoulders which would suggest a different saddle and handlebars at the same size.

But for the frame, the geometry is the same, women are just generally sold "sportive" frames, because it's a more appropriate bike for everyone who doesn't want to compete. You'll see very, very few of the top women racers on "womens specific" frames.

team47b

I am looking at a cube WSD bike now, they have used exactly the same frame as the 'mens' bikes and the only difference is the saddle is 20mm wider, oh and there's bit of type on the seat tube that says 'woman like geometry'

Not sure if it means women in general prefer certain areas of mathematics or the frame shape is similar in design to the female anatomy

rolf_f

jibberjim wrote:

"hopefully" ? based on what? If it's typical ratios of male/female torso/leg length, then women should be riding mens bikes and men "sportive" bikes since in the UK, the ratio is such that women are more likely to fit such a bike
( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12031138 has the data) However, individually there's more variation between any two individuals than between a man/woman, so there's no reason why bikes should be gender split on the frame. There are differences which are much more substantial in the sit bones and shoulders which would suggest a different saddle and handlebars at the same size.

I can't find any accessible data in that link. I assumed women have generally longer legs vs overall height which is why logically the WSD bikes would be shorter.

Otherwise I agree with you. The concept of the 'Sportive' bike itself is ridiculous - as is the tendency for manufacturers to have proportionately much the same geometries across all bikes in their entire range. The concept that you have larger or smaller frames to account for total height yet not differently proportioned frames to account for differently proportioned people is a bit weak.

Ka12

When buying road bikes I have always tried both men's bikes and women specific bikes but always ended up with a women's bike as I could go up to a bigger frame size due to longer legs/shorter arms, the fit seems to suit me better.

I know lots of women who ride men's bikes with no issues - just a case of trying them out and seeing what suits you best.

jibberjim

Rolf F wrote:

I assumed women have generally longer legs vs overall height which is why logically the WSD bikes would be shorter.

A common assumption (you need the full paper for the data, or the full data might've been in another paper by Dangour et al., I don't have full access any more so can't check) And it's true for some populations of the world, but for male/females in the south east of England (and probably reasonably similar in other areas of the UK but not guaranteed) have the exact opposite with men having the longer legs and women longer bodies. However it's a tiny difference and there's a bigger difference within the population.

needforspeed1

Thanks for all the replies. I got thinking about this because I wanted a Giant Defy 1 but they don't do one small enough for me - or at least that's what the guy in the shop said. Instead I got an Avail 1 (size XS) but he did say the spec wasn't quite as good as the Defy 1 despite being the same price.

Anyway, it seems the majority here don't consider women-specific bikes necessary. The only issue is whether they can get a men's bike in their size. In my case I couldn't.

chris_bass

I was talking to someone in a bike shop about women specific bikes and they were of the opinion that proportionally men and women are pretty similar, it would make more sense to have geography specific bikes as people from different parts of the world show more variation than men and women do, except for women being a bit shorter! I've not looked into it though (although I can confirm women are often shorter!!)