Womens/Mens bikes?

DaveR1

My girlfriend wants to start cycling, looking for a cheap racing bike.
Does she need a womens bike or will a small mens do??
Whats the difference between them?

niceonetom

Road bikes designed for women generally have a slightly different geometry to men's bikes. They're also far more likely use flowers as part of the paint scheme. Shorter top-tubes and stems reduce the reach to the bars for women who generally have shorter torsos and arms and longer legs than men of the same height.

Whether your OH needs a female specific bike depends largely on her own proportions. If she' quite small (say <5'3") then it's quite likely she'd get on better with a female specific design. If she's tall but not particularly leggy she might be fine on a man's bike (maybe with a shorter stem). Bike fit is a whole science unto itself so it's hard to tell what would would without actually trying a few different set-ups.

It might be worth pointing out that, for whatever reason, many manufacturers seems to give worse value-for-money to their female specific range - lower spec components for the same price - so if your OH does fit a male frame she may get more for the same cash.

blorg

Generally with a racing bike female specific ones have the geometry altered to take into account that females on average have longer legs and a shorter torso compared to men. Many women however fit male-geometry road bikes fine as long as the size is appropriate. You have a lot of leeway to make adjustments with modern compact frames in any case.

Lumen

I've read that the "shorter torso, longer legs" idea is a myth, but that women do have shorter arms. I have not been given permission to undertake a field study to gather more data, but this suggests the need for a slightly shorter top tube.

There is the other issue that bikes don't scale down past a certain point unless you reduce the wheel size and you end up with greater toe overlap, but that's easily worked around by steering less.

lyders

There are also ladies specific saddles (not really too sure what the difference is) and ladies bikes tend to have narrow handle bars and shallow drops, which make my bike pretty comfortable!

DaveR1

Thanks for that guys. She's been using my bike 54cm frame a bit and in reality it is too big. Hopefully we can find a 50cm bike or a decent womens bike.

blorg

lyders wrote: »

There are also ladies specific saddles (not really too sure what the difference is)

Women's saddles are wider as women's bottoms are wider. Cut-outs or indentations in the middle are also common to avoid pressure where it is not wanted.

The bar width and drop is also a good point although worth bearing in mind that many men's bikes come with shallow drop these days and saddle and bars can be changed easily enough. Brake reach is another issue for women, generally hands are smaller and could do with a shorter reach. This is adjustable with some brakes including SRAM and the newer Shimano groups; older groups I don't think it was.

godihatedehills

The Lance Armstrong book seems to suggest that women specific road bikes are designed to favour comfort at the detriment of performance (ie. higher handle bar position for the poor lady folk who are more concerned with comfort than aerodynamics)

I found that a bit annoying.

Raam

If you are interested, I shall be selling one of these shortly.
I still have to get some pictures of it and post the advert.



It's a size 50 or there abouts, Ladies specific.

Lumen

godihatedehills wrote: »

The Lance Armstrong book seems to suggest that women specific road bikes are designed to favour comfort at the detriment of performance (ie. higher handle bar position for the poor lady folk who are more concerned with comfort than aerodynamics)

Doesn't really make much sense since women typically have better flexibility than men (I think).

DualFrontDiscs

Lumen wrote: »

There is the other issue that bikes don't scale down past a certain point unless you reduce the wheel size and you end up with greater toe overlap, but that's easily worked around by steering less.

Genius!

DFD*

*DeftlyForgettingDirections

blorg

Toe overlap is common on a lot of bikes and in general is not actually a big problem.

It is only an issue when making very tight manoeuvres at very low speeds. If you think about it, when you make a turn at normal cycling speed you barely turn the front wheel at all, certainly not enough to go into your foot.

I even have it with my fixed commuter (foot strikes the guards) and despite the lack of control over my pedal location don't find it a major issue.

radia

When I was browsing bikes a good while back, I was told that because the geometry of men's bike frames (with high crossbar) was more stable, they could be made lighter (thinner tubes etc.), where women's bikes needed thicker, stronger tubes for the frame. I don't know enough to judge, but it sounded plausible.

Lumen

radia wrote: »

When I was browsing bikes a good while back, I was told that because the geometry of men's bike frames (with high crossbar) was more stable, they could be made lighter (thinner tubes etc.), where women's bikes needed thicker, stronger tubes for the frame. I don't know enough to judge, but it sounded plausible.

This is only true for the womens bikes lacking a crossbar for skirt compatibility. Proper womens road bikes look almost identical to the mens ones.