Do you ride a female designed frame/bike?

Looking at a Scott Contessa for my wife and was wondering if the limited range of proper female MTB’s available was partly due to folks simply riding smaller men’s bikes.

No, I ride a cove stiffee 15.5″ 26″ hardtail and a small 2012 nukeproof mega. Also had a 15.5″ 26″ cove hustler that fitted great.

I am 164cm with a 31″ inside leg. Short top tube seems to be the secret, not many of these about.

Had a 16″ 5 that was too long in the top tube and the 14″ was too small.

Not yet really been tempted by ladies frames, although the propain tyee flo’s looks great. Think they are the same geo as men’s ones, but just added a smaller size and tuned the shock differently.

Simone

Mrs is 5′,3 and rides a small Zesty with a softer shock tune, she Loves it.

Redwoods bikes are both medium men’s with different saddles. She didn’t want pink, purple or powder blue.

Redwoods bikes are both medium men’s with different saddles. She didn’t want pink, purple or powder blue.

Solarpowered’s bike is a small gents trek, but she REALLY wants pink and purple…

I reckon you need to try and find what fits, and if that’s a small “mans” bike so be it….!!!

All of mine are men’s but at 5’5″ it’s not a problem. I did once have a Juliana though but blokes bikes suit me better. 🙂

My SO rides men’s bike in XS size. She doesn’t want girly colors and the equipment/spec/model choice never seems to be as good on women specific models. She gets the saddle swapped and may get a shorter stem.

172cm here – Ibis Ripley. Stylish & light 🙂

Generally the main 2 geo differences are a proportionally shorter top tube and narrower handlebars. But again, whichever fits and feels the best. Sadle change certainly.

Mrs Devbrix rides a medium Spech Epic Carbon Expert. Only change is a woman’s saddle. Geometry suits her fine and she’s v. v fast on it.

FWIW Mrs Ambrose recently purchased a new women’s road bike. The shop spent a long time fitting it to her. Stem, saddle, pedals and bars all changed for her. They really seem to know their stuff, she has not wanted any alterations at all except for new bar tape now that the original white tape is mucky. She’s riding four or five times a week and never complains about the fit. So I suppose the message here is go to your LBS for a fitting.

County Cycles, Cross Hands, Carmarthenshire FWIW. I have no affiliation whatsoever.

None of my mountain bikes are wsd. I am 5ft 3″ and ride xs bikes – yeti asr, niner emd9, samta cruz chameleon. If your wife is short then yes she will be limited by the range of xs small frames available. When I was looking for a decent hardtail I found that the range available to me was limited. TBH the scott contessa is a pretty good bike and I know a number of ladies who ride them and are happy with them. Go try it.

Mrs Gnusmas is 5’3″ and started off with a Kona Four in a size small. She didn’t really get on with it so she borrowed a friend’s old Viper B52 framed bike and loved it. She now has a DDG Shooter frame with all the kit from her Kona on it and fits her really well. She likes the jump style bikes as they are small, something similar may be worth a look.

Mrs MC started out on my medium Maverick then bought a medium Genesis Core 40, which she loves, plus a women’s Giant road bike, little bit less popular. If the hat fits.

My better half had a cube wsd, found it too compact, great for an hour or two but too cramped for long rides.

5’4″ tall. Now rides a mens iron horse bootleg fs [15′] and a kona kula supreme ht [14′]. 21.5 top tube seems to be the magic number. both 2010 bikes. From 2011 kona added half an inch to the tt so lucky to pick 2010 version half price from chain reaction cycles 18 months back. iron horse no longer in business. Getting a bike with a shorter tt is getting harder every year.

She’s in love with light wheels, [hope sp3/crest] and super narrow saddles funnily enough [125mm]

Many thanks for the replies, this goes a long way in explaining a few things.

All 9/10 of mrsbeanZ bike’s have been mens . 14″ frames fit her at 5’2″ ish and she hates the patronising colour schemes of the women specific models.

Yes, I have a women’s stumpjumper fsr. I preferred the colours on the men’s but the female specific one was £200 cheaper in the sale (same spec) so went with the pink.

Had women’s version of the zesty previously and I’m now back to a men’s specific bike. It’s a Bronson tho so they have relatively short top tubes which accounts for my lower back problems I have otherwise. Find men’s bikes priced reasonably and fit me better and better availability so generally always go for a men’s.

How do they ride side saddle off road? Very clever those ladies 🙂

my wife has 3 bikes, they’re all ‘womens’ models, but only because we haven’t been able to find Xs ‘mens’ bikes.

the idea that men/women are such radically different body shapes that they couldn’t possibly just ride a bike designed for a ‘human’ and adjust the fit to their liking with a change of stem, saddle, etc. is daft.

oh, and the world needs more, shorter cranks. My wife needs 150mm cranks a lot more than she needs a pink seat clamp.

ahwiles – look at TA vega cranks – I have the 155mm cranks on my bike.
http://www.specialites-ta.com/gb/manivelle-vega.html

Mrs MTG rides my old men’s Kona Big Unit.
It was always a bit small for me at 6’1″, but I bought it because it was local and cheap when I needed a frame in a hurry while I was waiting for my frame to be repaired under warranty.
She’s 5’6″ and finds it just right.

Edit:
I bought my CX bike off a woman and that’s a men’s frame as well.

MrsB has two mens bikes. A 15″ Rockhopper (as the womens specific one had “stupid butterfly’s all over it”) which we asked the shop to change the saddle on when she bought it.

The other is a small Meta5 frame she built from scratch so could spec shorter cranks etc herself. After looking at the colour schemes of ladies specific stuff i don’t think it ever crossed her mind to buy one.

Another reason for buying men’s frames is that when you’re a serial frame swapper it’s easier to sell. 🙂

Agree with comments re colours, it’s just so patronising. Black is where it’s at.

Missus rides the same sized frames as me. Looked at women’s specific and the generally are the same thing in a crap colour.

I prefer pink!

The wife has been looking for a while now, but finally at the weekend ordered an On One Inbred build in XS (14″). She’s 5’2. Not much selection of womens bikes around the £800 mark, and the ones that we could find she didn’t like – below spec parts and pink graphics. Will cut the bars down a little and get a womens saddle and it should be ideal.

My other hald is 5 1 and rides a small Chameleon.

She quote likes girly colours so it is now white with black and pink decals, pink hoses and pink decals on the Pikes. She likes it and it actually looks OK. The Charge Ladle saddle seems to suit her really well and is the only one she hasn’t complained about.

Mrs blobby rides a couple of lady specific models. She’s got a Giant Anthem mtb and an Avail for the road. Both small sizes as she’s 5’3″. Just seemed a better fit for her with the standard components than a xs men’s bike (she did try a few.) Giant seems pretty good at this sort of thing (and they don’t paint them all pink either!)

Scott contessa would be good, they come up shorter than most so would be agile and comfy.

Afaik much of the difference in frames is shorter top tube, based on the idea that many women have shorter torsos. However, it is my observation that the short torso thing is far from ubiquitous.

My wife is 5’7 but has a 32″ inside leg, the same as me at 5’11. So she qualifies, and enjoys her WSD Specialized. Or at least she did when she last rode it…

Abigale, Katie and me ride mens bikes. We have a mixture between us