Road bikes for short people



Originally Posted by SmallPackage
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alfeng, this is my 3rd attempt at answering your post to me. The browser on my iPad keeps getting booted closed, so I'm switching over to my new laptop with Windows 8.

I loved my St Etienne bicycle. It was beautiful and well designed aerodynamically. Lovely shade of blue-green. I don't remember what happened to it after all these years. It could be something horrible, so I would rather not think about it. The things that occur when you are poor are not cool at all. It wasn't the best size for me. Even back then when I was just a shade under 5 feet, I had to hop up onto the seat and off. I couldn't reach the ground. My St Etienne was flown from Los Angeles to Southern Florida, back to Los Angeles, then driven to Orlando, then to Upstate New York where I have been for decades now. After repairing and refurbishing the bike back in 1974, someone broke into our shed where it was stored and stripped it. We couldn't afford to fix it again. It was like watching one of my children get badly injured. It really hurt me. After that I didn't have a bike for a long time. Then I went to a bike shop one day looking for a Terry bike and was talked into buying a crappy used bike by the shop owner. The stupid thing fell apart on my first time out, about a mile from home. The St Etienne had drop handlebars which were great for me at 16 through 21 or so. But I would rather have my handlebars up now (regular handlebars?). Riding here in the country for me is interesting. Our dirt road is very steep and goes 150-200 feet from the end of our driveway down to the state road. The state road is busy with cars, trucks and buses going 55-70 mph. Then a mile to a quiet county road. I can either stay on the county road or turn onto another steep dirt road up into the hills. It's lovely up in the hills and you can go on forever. Coming back home I will have to push my bike up the hill to my driveway, unless there's a bike made that I could ride up (if I could ever be strong enough!). I have had fibromyalgia for most of my life and it will take a long time to get strong again. My budget will be no more than $1,500 at the most (thanks to my mother who just passed and left a bit for my twin and me). My husband used to be handy around the house and he helped me with bike repairs too. But he doesn't have that kind of time anymore since his hours were increased at his job. It will be nice when he can retire, but that won't be for another 4 years or more.

Thank you for the birthday sentiment! I'm approaching a new era of my life. After all the things I have been through, I find it amazing that I have made it this far. So I might as well make an attempt at being as healthy as I possibly can. Thank you for all your help!
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There's a lot of companies out there that do women specific bikes. They're not just painted a pretty color - they have a different frame geometry, stems and handlebars that don't make you stretch as far and saddles that are more appropriate for women.

As you seem to have a hill on

Maybe something like this:
~~The Specialized Vita is a mix of road bike with mountain bike - this one also has disk brakes that should work better on those steep dirt roads.

http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bikes/fitness/vita/vita-elite-disc-eq

This one isn't quite as fancy but has lower gears that may allow you to ride up the hill to your driveway.

http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bikes/fitness/vita/vita-elite#specs

At $820 msrp, that leaves a nice chunk of change from some nice bike shorts and helmet...

Other companies like Cannondale, Trek and Terry offer similar bikes.

The ones I provided links to are just 'hybrid' bikes. There's also womens specific sizing in regular road and mountain bikes too.

like this one...

http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bikes/road/dolce/dolce-triple

Happy riding...
... and happy birthday!
 
Sorry that I have to say this but I´ve looked at the specs of the Specialized bike.
It is the same brainless stuff that all the companies are building that have to do compromises.

A short seat´tube does not make a bike fort short people!
-Top tube is too long
-Crank lenght 170 mm is fitting people with an inseam around 81 cm. Show me a person at 1,5 m size with that inseam...
-Therefore BB drop is wrong, fitting the too long cranks. They give away a lower gravity center, a lower instep/standover height and a much better feeling to sit "in the bike".

And what I hate: they write on the website in "Tech and design/women`s components": and size-specific crank lengths.

May I introduce those size-specific crank lenghts:


Size XS SM MD LG XL Seat-Tube Length, B-B Center to Top 360mm 395mm 440mm 475mm 510mm Crank Length 170mm 170mm 170mm 170mm 170mm












As I said, it is a compromise, may be not even the best, made by businessmen. Goal is to make money, not to make a custom bike.

May be good to know:
Normally I like Specialized bikes! They feature good geometries, are innovative and have nice details (AND look great!)

Regards,
Thomas Veidt
 
Alfeng, you went to quite a bit of trouble to do the research that you have given me here. Thank you very much. When my schedule slows down a bit I will go look at the bikes you have suggested. The idea of possibly getting a classic bike is inspired. I would not have thought about that. I'm in Nevada this week, closing my mother's house and other things. She passed on and I'm the executrix of her will. But I also am in a larger metropolitan area (close to Reno) where I can check out some of the bikes that you have recommended. I hate the thought of shipping a bike, but it looks like that's what I'm going to end up doing no matter what I decide to get. Thank you so much for all your help. It is much appreciated. Charlene
 
Swampy1970, wow! That's some pretty awesome and interesting stuff for me to consider. I like that you took the steep hills into account. It would be nice to actually ride up my road to my house. I have a confession, I don't know about parts of bikes and what they do. Tires, handlebars, disc brakes I get. I tried to find a book on Amazon to help me to learn more about bikes, parts and what they do and how to repair them, but there are so many of them, I didn't know which to choose. I would like to get over to a bIke store this week while I'm close to Reno, but honestly I don't think I'll have the time. I'll probably end up driving an hour and a half to Syracuse, NY when I get back to New York to see what's out there for someone as small as I am. The information here will be very helpfu. And then I will consider all my options and get the best bike for me. Thank you for all your help. After the snow melts, I am looking forward to getting on a bicycle again. Charlene
 
Thomas, thank you for your response to the previous post. Honestly, I am struggling with the terminology here. As I said, I really do need to get a good book about bikes to help me to understand them and their parts and to make an informed decision. Obviously the best bike (I believe) would be one that is built specifically for a person. I am a seamstress and see how a dress made to a person's measurements fits much better than one off the rack at a store. Hopefully you have seen my highest limit for buying a bike, but it bears repeating because I don't want to waste your time if it's not doable at my price limit. I am willing to pay up to @ $1,500 American (I could look up the price in Euros, but it's past 3am in the morning and I'm very sleepy. I wanted to get this out there while I have a moment.). Thank you so much for writing. Let me know when you can if you can build me a bike for my price. Are you in Germany? I'm still a little confused about where you are. I looked up your town on the Google map and it came up in Germany. :embarrassed:Charlene
 
In searching for a bike for my girlfriend, I found some bikes for shorter people.
http://www.wabicycles.com/classic_bike_spec_650C.html
They are called Wabi bicycles located in California. They build a complete 42cm bike for 750 at the time of this post.
The bike seems to be well made with good steel, except its offered only as a fixed gear or single speed.
They offer a special bike for shorter people with 650c wheels and 42cm frame size.

Here a website did a review on the bike: http://www.fixedgeargallery.com/framebuilders/wabi-42/index.htm
I believe the model they reviewed is the older model (with scandium tubing and carbon fork) which is lighter than the current "Classic" model.

Another option which I considered are mini velo bikes. Particularly the "nano mini velo" offered by Bikesdirect: http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/mercier/nano.htm#specs
Its priced around 300 at the time of this post. But it doesn't look like a road bike.

There are also other road bikes in small sizes (48cm) and affordable prices on the bikesdirect site (http://www.bikesdirect.com/primalstuff.htm). That is an option if you dont want to pay for a Terry Waterford-built bike.
 
I am so glad you posted this as I had so much trouble when I started, I am 5ft and I really struggled with finding a comfortable bike that did not make me look and feel as though I was a toddler that had got hold of my fathers bike. It was rather embarrassing actually and I did leave one store because one of the staff members laughed at me!
 
There's a lot of good ones. I would say you can get the medium size one that's made for teenagers or more less ages. Best way to tell what you can get is going to a shop you trust and look at prices and compare, or perhaps look online, you can see so many suitable sizes for you.
 
Well, not sure if you have check the Trek site. When you go to their website, you will find they have a kind of selector, where you can see all the different models they have for short people, and they have like 15 or 20 models to choose from. The other brand I know is Scott-Seven Contessa, that's the only one so far, that is supposed to be XXS size. Honestly, I haven't seen it in person, so I'm not fully sure if it really is smaller than XS size, but the reviews are very good, and buyers seem to be very pleased with it.