Now then
Having given birth to Arnold jnr in March, my missus is keen to get out on her bike again, and frankly i'd love to see her out on it too. At the moment she's got a horrendous Carrera that she got from Halfrauds on cycle to work (before we got together i'm hastent to add). It's got good components but the frame is too big for her, so i'm looking to get hold of a WSD Zesty or Ex8 frame + shock and swap the bits over.
She is about 5ft 7in but very much typically proportioned for a female.....legs up to her armpits but with very short arms and body.
Looking for some sizing advice, she is no good on medium men's frames as they are far too long for her. Anybody got any experience of similarly proportioned ladies on those bikes?
I used to work at my LBS (Trek and Lapierre dealers) and we never saw any of the women's specific stuff unfortunately.
Any help greatly appreciated
My missus is about 5'6/7 with 32" legs... and rode a 16.5 Trek EX8 WSD.
Looking to the women's specific Zesty's, she could be either a 42 or a 46, (16.5 or 17.5) - as a play bike it'd make more sense to go with the 16.5 with the 570 top tube, and given you said she's no good on a medium - the 570 would be nice an compact.
The trick is to find what ETT she finds best. For my missus it's about 580, and with long legs she needs about 18" of seattube, otherwise it looks like she'll snap the post (so in her case, it'd be a men's 42 Zesty, with a 575 ETT).
This could mean that it opens up the market for her, as there are lots of bikes out there with shorter geometry, i.e. Santa Cruz...
Hope that gives you some food for thought.
Should also say, you'll find it incredibly hard, if not impossible to buy a frame only Zesty L or a EX8 WSD.
They're not sold as frame only options, and there are very few about in the UK.
You'd find it hard to even find a secondhand full bike of either - so you may need a re-think....
The Fuel EX WSD has the same geometry as the mens' Fuel. It comes in more sizes though (13.5, 15.5). I'm 5ft 2 with relatively short legs, and I got on rather well with the 16.5 Fuel 8 WSD when I demoed it earlier this year (I normally ride a small Stumpjumper FSR, which is just under 16").
If she's after something with a short top tube, the Specialized D4W bikes (such as the Safire) might fit the bill - I found them to have ridiculously short top tubes, but it might just be that I have Mr Tickle arms. You can get hold of a new 2008 Myka FSR frame from [url= http://www.bikescene.co.uk/Specialized-Myka-FSR-Expert-Frame-2661-92-0.html ]this place[/url]. Not a Zesty or EX8, but I don't know where you'd get those frame only from.
Been reading this thread with interest as I am 5ft2 and currently ride a small mens stumpjumper but feel this is slightly too big for me. I have also been looking at the fuel ex8 wsd but was thinking the 14.5inch frame may fit me better... Any advice gratefully received mrs toast as thought the 16in would be way too big.
I have also looked at the zesty but they seem to have a very long top tube- also just be aware re sizing.... Some dealers quote that it comes in 40cm-45cm but when you actually look on the website- it appears to only come in 42cm and 46 cm and no stander height is given.
Been reading this thread with interest as I am 5ft2 and currently ride a small mens stumpjumper but feel this is slightly too big for me. I have also been looking at the fuel ex8 wsd but was thinking the 14.5inch frame may fit me better... Any advice gratefully received mrs toast as thought the 16in would be way too big.
I have also looked at the zesty but they seem to have a very long top tube- also just be aware re sizing.... Some dealers quote that it comes in 40cm-45cm but when you actually look on the website- it appears to only come in 42cm and 46 cm and no stander height is given.
I tried the smaller women's Zesty (514L) and got on rather well with it, which might be an indicator it's a long bike. 😛
With my Stumpjumper, I feel that the reach is perfect but I struggle a little bit with standover. I used to have a 14" Trek 4500 WSD, but that was actually far too small for me!
The EX8 WSD comes in 14.5, 15.5, 16.5 and 17.5, so if I was considering it I'd probably want to demo the 16.5 again but also the 15.5, just to see if there was actually any noticable difference. When I tried the 16.5 I felt that I was riding really well, which I don't know was down to the bike or down to me just having a good day. 😛
I would have thought the 16.5 would have been far, far too big for me if I hadn't have ridden it. In fact, I'd originally booked the 14.5, but the guy took one look at me and said I needed the bigger bike. The 14.5 looked tiny!
Thanks for the input folks, sounds like a 15.5 EX frame would suit her right and probably the 42 Zesty. We're coming over to the Lakes in October so perhaps we'll try and get to a well equipped shop and see what demos they have available.
Cheers