My wife “used” to be happy with her Santa Cruz Superlite, well I thought so, but now getting back into riding after a few years off having kids she has announced it doesn’t fit and it doesn’t fill her with confidence. Well, who am I to disagree, I wasn’t the one that “squeezed” out two bairns! And she’s always made do with my cast offs, which might not be ideal for her!
So what to buy? Our local trails are rocky rooty steep etc etc so 5″ full sus needed and although I would tend to the build it up myself route, I reckon a readymade would be cheaper.
So, come on ladies what you riding – ladies specific rigs or just smaller mens?

I ride a Juliana and a Voodoo.

Hmmm mrsflash, Julianna was my first thought, but measured up a medium Superlite is apparently the same geometry as a medium Julianna. It’s the stretch and toptube clearance thing that’s wrong with the frame at the mo’.

Well a superlight and a Juliana are essentially the same bike, the juliana is just tweaked slightly for the ladies.

What sort of size is she? Toptube length tends to be the problem with blokes bikes as generally speaking women have longer legs and shorter bodies than blokes. Have you tried mucking about a bit with stem length, seat position etc?

I’ve got a Juliana and the top tube is shaped slightly to improve toptube clearance. Reach may be adjusted with saddle/handlebars I guess – also I have about 3 spacers on mine to lift the bars higher.

I ride a small Marin Attack Trail, a small Santa Cruz (custom build) Chammy and a not-so-small (15″) Orange 222

No need to get a women specific bike, but they are worth looking at – my first proper MTB was a Kona Queen Kikapu and it was brilliant for me to learn on because it felt so compact. But as soon as I tried out the ‘Attack’ on a demo-day I realised just how much better there was out there, and how I didn’t have to be limited to women specific set ups. Now I tend to find they have mediocre spec, too-narrow bars, and assume that all women like flowers and pink.

Oh, and I’m 5’3″

yeti 575 would be good for her on those trails….
good news… i’ve got one available!
even better news… i live just round the corner from you!
bad news… you know the size of it!!!!!
😛

Hi, How about a small 5-spot. I have one for sale.

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/reduced-turner-5-spot-horst-link-size-small

My Missus brought a Giant Cypher (and I upgraded some bits) and its improved her riding no end, as (apparently) its more confidence inspiring that any other bike she’s ridden (which were Kona HT, Titus switchblade, Spesh WSD FSR thing).

Plus its in bling gold. Its this one:

Another Juliana rider here.

This was a piece of advice I was given by a female skiing instructor. She said that when a woman has a baby, her mind set is such that she is aware that she needs to preserve herself due to the fact there is another human being to consider, so probably won’t ride or ski like she used to, that’s assuming she did mad crazy jumps and technical stuff before. imo. this seems to be the case.

Hopefully her confidence will build up again, it’s only natural having been off the bike for so long to be a little wary.

I’d rather have the second hand 5spot than anything mentioned above. Of course I’m not a women or your wife, so guess it’s her opinion that matters and not a bunch of bike obsessed geeks – like us!

If you want to know more about my 5-spot then my email is:

colinb@swordfishadvertising.co.uk

Wont be there on Friday though.

The Pikes may be available too.

how short are 5 spots? as my SO tried the WSD Cypher and the blokes Trance X and found that the shorter TT on the WSD version made for a much better fit.

22.2″ top tube on the small horst link