Help My Marriage; Women's Bike Advice Required!

catbaier

Hi, my wife is just about to get back into commuting a couple of miles each way to work. I thought it would be a nice idea to get her a new bike, as her old one is looking a bit long in the tooth and suffers from having quite a high top tube. This is an issue as she'll be putting a kids bike seat on to the back of the bike, and being about 5'4", she has to tip the bike to step over. This is a bad idea with a kid in the seat, as the centre of gravity is high (I know this from personal experience!).

She's quite keen on something light and fast (aren't we all?) but I'm aware that it needs to be stable, have pannier mountings and have either a step through frame or a steeply sloping top tube.

I like the look of the Whyte Victoria and the Marin Terra Linda. Any other thoughts so that I can put a shortlist together for her to go and try out? I guess I'm looking at <£1k, but if it's got longevity then I can probably push the budget up.

Thanks!

tangled_metal

Some brands give you two versions of the same bike, one with and one without a step through top tube. IIRC Cube, trek and possibly Spesh do that. You should get something good from those brands I think.

I've just made the mistake of fitting a Hamax seat bracket to my hybrid spesh. The bike is an XXL for me and the top tube is high. I find that because the bike is so big the seat is really high above the rack and is very unstable so I know what you mean about needing to be able to step through. I am fortunately still flexible enough to be able to cock my leg over the back and over the lad in the child seat. I tried to get my leg over the top tube and it just forced me away from the bike making it very hard to control the weight of my lad in the seat. Cocking my leg over the seat at the back was my only choice.

I seriously doubt I will use it again on my bike. Although mine is the only bike capable of taking the seat and ortlieb panniers. It leaves touring a bit difficult if she can't fit panniers on so I might have to cope with the kid and a rack full of touring kit/clothes.

Take a look at the trek hybrid bikes, they do some nice ones with both step through and a slightly sloping top tube which could also be ok if the frame size is right or a bit lower than normal. Try them at a good/larger bike shop. My partner and me looked at them in a really big warehouse of a bike shop.

MichaelW

Spesh Vita

El Badgerino

My wife was looking at the Whyte Victoria, she finally went for the next model up (got the 2014 version for the price of the Victoria). She liked both, but I'd say the top tube is fairly horizontal. We're planning on fitting child's seat and I totally know what you mean about stability. It does have pannier mounts, but I'd definitely try to see it in the shop to try out for stability issues.

djp66

Does it have to be a road bike? Something based on a 15" mountain bike frame would have a pretty low top tube.

OK, it'll be a bit heavier but worth considering?