Looking a cheap 09' fraes to build one up for my wife. She is 5' 4" tall. Traditional sizing suggest 50-52 Frame size (also comapring reach on my road frame vs my MTB ratio).

Are WSD road frames more suitable of is this less of an issue with road frame VS MTB? i.e. is it worth going for a WSD frame?

The WSD is not exactly a misnomer for someone short but it kinda depends on which frame/brand you are looking at. You may well find a small/XS "blokes" frame just as good.

For what it's worth my Mrs is around that height and loved her On-One Pompino 48cm (more like a 52 in other roadie frames and has a 525mm horiz top tube), geometry is the same as Pompetamine and Kaffenback.

She now has a carbon fibre Spesh Ruby WSD in 51cm and a Trek 1.2 again WSD that I can't remember the size of but probably a smidge smaller than the Spesh. Anyway they are all different yet she gets on fine. Much less fussy/decrepit than me.

Biggest difference is in some of the bike parts – top end roadie levers can be a pain to reach and are un adjustable so many come with spacers on WSD bikes that seem impossible to get aftermarket. Shorter cranks can also be a boon – particularly if there's likely to be toe overlap.

I'm 5'6" and generally ride a 52cm frame with 525mm horizontal top tube measurement ( I also had a Pompino and currently ride a Bianchi 928). I'd therefore suggest you look at geometries and head below the 520mm horiz top tube dimension as that is probably the most meaningful measurement.

By the way 48cm Pompino suffered toe overlap. The Ruby doesn't and neither does the Trek with size 7's or my Bianchi.

Careful therefore of building her something that may spit her off at an in opportune moment – she may not thank you for it.

In answer to your main question though – you sit for much longer on a road bike so arguably it needs to fit better than a mountainbike for good weight distribution and reach. Ergo don't get hung up on WSD or not just go for something that fits the best in terms of reach.

Oh, saw a 48cm WSD Dolce in Total Fitness, Bath on Saturday. Heavilly discounted if that is of any interest?

I'd recommend going to a proper bike shop and find out what fits her rather than asking a random collection of database programmers and then just buying what you want. Does she not have any say in what bike you're going to make her ride? If I tried to do that to my SO I'd get a bread knife pushed through both of my eyes.

Your SO sounds a bit assertive aP. Guess she doesn't like surprise presents either 😉

haha. She did go on one of those courses a couple of years ago, she's just about stopped shouting now…
Surprise presents are good – just not a bike frame in pastel blue with flowers stuck on it.

Ah, you see pastel blue would be ok here. Pink on the otherhand might see a glint of ice hardened sharpened carbon steel kitchen implements.

Mine would just be amazed if the surprise bike were for her and not myself 🙂

Assuming it's for semi serious road riding and not just an occasional blast.
Then having just seen the results of a proper biomechanical and bike position assessment for Mrs Mugsy confirming the poor position of her on her current road bike, copuled with my identical experience 2 years earlier…

Then I would suggest determine exactly what dimensions she requires via a profesional and THEN look at bikes, rather than going 'sit on this love, yeah that looks about right'…. Take note a recently burgled well known yorkshire bike shop.

Mind you not all bad, I got a nice custom carbon frame that fits me spot on! And Mrs Mugsy is likely to do the same.

I am about the same height and ride a 48cm trek madone wsd but then I did have the dimensions that suited me from a custom built bike so I spent hours pouring over geometries – it is quite difficult to find a bike shop that stocks 48cm frames to test ride. I would look at shorter cranks (mine are TA vegalite 165mm), short stems and wsd handlebars (3T used to do the diva handlebars but I don't think they do anymore but cinelli do the littlewing which appear to be pretty much the same). Also don't assume that you will have 650c wheels on such a small frame – mine are 700c and there is no toe over lap but then I do have small feet. If you are building from scratch then I would recommend looking at campag over shimano (controversial on here I know) – I found the throw of the shimano levers too big whereas the campag do seem to fit my small hands better.
Surprise presents in the form of a bike frame would not go unwelcome with me – especially if it was a De Rosa Titanio in my size……

Thanks everyone – of course I would ask her rather than suprise he on something like this. Anyway some great stuff there from London_lady and Tasso. I have had 2 road bikes and 6 MTB's and have built 3 bikes from scrathc so I understand about sizing – however LL comments make me this more about WSD 🙂 I found a lovely Felt which ticks all the box's esp as all 105 (old style). Were gonna measure her up tonight 😉

De Rosa Titanio – you'll be lucky…

I am a 5'4" lady and have a Specialized Ruby (WSD) size 51.
I have just had a professional bike fit and luckily this is the correct size ( I may need to change the stem and get shorter cranks). I would have thought that a 48 would be too small.

The Felt looks lovely!

I was feeling to lazy to read the other replies so apologies if I repeat anything.

I too am 5' 4" (although obviously arm / leg length extra may be different!)

I rode a 54 cm langster with no problems at all. My newish road bike is a 48cm Iceni frame, I've had to swap my seatpost to an inline post and put a 60mm stem on because it was too long.

Definitely try before you buy. Even if it is theoretically the right size your wife might be more comfortable on a shorter frame if coming from an mtb background, or might like to be a bit more stretched.

Hope that helps 🙂

I'm 5'2-3 ish and ride a 48 wsd trek 5000. It felt right and natural from the second I sat in it in the shop. Changed the bars to 38s and tweaked the set up according to my measurements and it's perfect. No toe over lap here either, but again small feet.

Interestingly I bought a cheaper trek, the 1.5 I think as a winter bike and commuter and hated it. They had to order it in for me and despite it being set up to my measurements, never felt right or comfortable. Lots of toe overlap too which I didn't discover until I was in mud traffic and had a wheel/foot incident.

If you can, get her to try out as many as possible (difficult I know because not many shops stock small sizes) and then get her fitter properly for it.

Sorry that should be fitted for it 🙂

Cheers all for the input 🙂