Looking at a Ridley cyclocross bike on ebay – size 48cm.

However the guy says its equivalent to a 54 cm road bike.

48cm is the smallest bike they do, so does that mean Ridley to not make bikes for short arses?

Ta

Paul Milnes cycles sell CX bikes for ickle folk, check out their eBay shop. There is also another eBay seller with cheap small frames but the name escapes me at present. Kona do little bikes but not the cheapest. Check out IslaBike too.

Graham Weigh is the other one, currently has a 45cm frame and fork on eBay for £200.

Ridley measure their bikes differently – I was in my LBS the other day and he was trying to sell me a Ridley CX to replace my aging S-Works but the geometry just wasn’t equivalent at all. He reckoned I’d need a 58cm (my S-Works is a 61cm) so what they size up as is about 3-4cm different from most other bike companies.

PITA.
They do make bikes for smaller people but again I’d say trying them out is a definite before buying.

My resident small bike expert tells me that Ridley do make small cx frames, just not in the high end frames. For herself, she has a Blue Norcross SL in xs which she likes a lot.

Eventually found a geometry sheet from Ridley that shows there 48cm is equivalent stand over to something like a medium or 54cm frame!

I’ll keep looking, just not Ridley

Ridley have a high stand over (as you’ve found out) but the length (top tube) won’t be anything like a 54!