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Bought a new 29er for the other half and was surprised to see 800mm wide bars and a 150mm dropper on a small frame size. Exactly same as the large frame size. Crank size is also 175mm for all frame sizes.
Is this normal? Do shorter riders on 29ers usually swap out some components to compensate for this?
The seatpost is the main issue as I see it as full extention on a slammed post seems too high. Rider is bang in the middle of suggested height range for the frame.
Some manufacturers do (Specialized, for example), others don’t.
Yes.
Only within very narrow bounds. Crank length rarely changes but at most you'll see 5mm variation. Women's bikes often have narrower bars., maybe different grips
Yes of course. I’d expect to see shorter cranks, narrower bars and possibly a smaller saddle. Grips might want to be a bit smaller too if possible. Seatpost and stem are geometry apecific but I’d probably want to see a shorter stem as well since there is more adjustment here than in frame size.
Shows they’ve thought about their customers.
Cranks and droppers - yes, as it's linked to leg length. Though you could say droppers are better when longer for any height rider.
Bars - yes in many ways but just cut to suit. Stem - maybe, depends on the bike. Sometimes shortest is better on any size of bike. Grips - Depends. I like slimmer grips and I have XL glove size hands.
Crank size is also 175mm for all frame sizes.
Lazy speccing from either brand or crank manufacturer, or both. But some do see shorter cranks as 'producing less power', still.
Dropper depends on the steps in the sizing, but if its the smallest frame they do then you'd expect them to go shorter just to prevent a poor fit for people in the long tail of the size curve.
Bars - why go smaller if its via a shop? Every shop should own a hacksaw - you can't make them bigger but you can make them smaller.
Saddles - I'd probably leave as unless you do have an odd saddle choice as standard. If its a non gender specific set up then a woman would probably want to change it anyway, and a standard saddle holds more value to a shop thats doing the swap than an odd size one.
Cranks - 175 is so last decade anyway 😉
Bars – why go smaller if its via a shop? Every shop should own a hacksaw – you can’t make them bigger but you can make them smaller.
Some bars are limited in how much width can be removed
I’m 6’5” and 760mm bars seem outrageously wide to me.
I would have thought giving a small person 800s is basically crucifixion.