Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
  • Ladies Road Bike
  • dickydutch
    Full Member

    Right. My girlfriend is showing an interest in a roadbike after using the mountain bike a lot in the past year. She’s only 5ft 2 so needs to be something small. Anybody got any reccommendations/past experience/bargains, theyd care to give?!
    Budget isn’t massive (dont want to spend a fortune for her to not use it much, but im not really upto speed on the ladies roadbike scene!
    Any information gratefully received!

    Ed2001
    Free Member

    Kinesis do junior/women specic race frames in small sizes, although I dont know about cost.

    aP
    Free Member

    My SO is about 5’3″ so not much taller than your GF. Sh normally rides a 49cm Trek WSD Madone, but with 155mm cranks, 70mm stem and 3T Eva bars for a fit that she likes and with Campag Chorus groupset as the ergolevers suit her hands.
    Its all dependent upon your budget and then making some carefully considered exchange of components to get the bike to suit.

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middling Edition

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middlin...
    Latest Singletrack Videos
    redted
    Free Member

    Cannondale and Trek both do 650c wheeled versions of their road bikes usually in their very small frame sizes. My wife rides a Cannondale 650c and gets on fine with it.(She’s 5′ 1″) All Terrain at Saltaire had a Trek in with 650c wheels if it’s anywhere near you and it was an entry level model to with Sora kit IIRC.

    Pinkstiffee
    Free Member

    Specialized Dolce bikes are really nice. Few cheap ones around on ebay

    london_lady
    Free Member

    There are a lot of wsd off-the-peg road bikes on the market – the hardest part is finding somewhere that carries more than just specialized dolce and has more than one size in stock so that she can try them for size. Mid-price bikes – look at bianchi, cinelli, trek, pinnacle, giant, orbea, specialized, cannondale, scott etc etc or push the budget and go for a wsd pinarello fp3…..behind me in the queue!

    stratobiker
    Free Member

    How about a Dolce Elite like new @ £575?

    mrsflash
    Free Member

    Mine isn’t a woman’s one, it’s the smallest size Ribble and fits fine (5ft2). They can be great value.

    dickydutch
    Full Member

    Thanks for all the replies. I was hoping to come across a 2008 model lurking in the depths of the internet somewhere, but to no avail! The dolce seems to get good write ups and have had recommendations from other people about these.

    mrsflash – do you not have any problems reaching brake levers etc with it not being a ladies bike? Am i right in thinking that this is one of the areas where it is notably different from a ladies specific bike?

    london_lady
    Free Member

    If you have small hands then reaching the brake leves is one issue. Personally I have found, from my experience, that my small hands are not suited to shimano and I have found the sweep of the lever too great so switched to campag which, IMO, works better for me with small hands. You can get shims for shimano that bring the levers closer to the bars. You may also want to think about wsd handlebars which provide two widths on the same bar which shortens the brake lever reach. The horizontal part tends to be narrower and the bars flare out wider on the drops to give more stability when descending. There are a few ladies handlebars on the market ranging in price from £50 to £150 for carbon fibre ladies bars.

    hopster
    Free Member

    How about one of these? Available in limited numbers for £995. Merida Juliet 904

Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)

The topic ‘Ladies Road Bike’ is closed to new replies.