Recreational & Family - Looking to buy a bike...

Hello,
I'm looking for some help in knowing how to determine if a bicycle is appropriate for a petite, 5'2" female with some knee problems who will be riding with her teen child in mostly a urban pavement environment, mostly flat terrain and under 15 miles. I don't want to spend a ton of $$, preferably under $200. I don't know about the 'fit' for my size on a hybrid vs. comfort. Anyone who can enlighten how a small person best shop around, especially if you don't have opportunity to test ride and would buy it over the net. Thanks. Susan

You might want to have a look at this thread on Team Estrogen's site:

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=2152

It's a post from a man seeking advice for purchasing a bike for his 5'3" wife. There are several responses pointing out key bike characteristics and needs for someone of that size. For example, the size of your hands come into play. Check it out. If you don't find some useful info, post your inquiry directly.

Cheers

/s

For your size, a women's 15" frame bike should work. It's important to correctly position your saddle; both front/back setting and height, to keep your knees from hurting.

There are hybrids, fitness bikes, comfort bikes that will serve you well. To keep up with the teen, a comfort bike may be too slow, depending upon its setup.

For paved travel only, you don't need or want knobby tires. The wider the tire, the more comfortable the ride but also the slower the ride. The harsh ride of skinny road tires is probably not something you want. Smooth tires or ones with minimal tread are the best. Knobby mountain bike tires will give you the worst traction and a noisy ride on pavement.

"Road tire" size are usually listed as 700C x 32 with the 700C referring to the diameter of the tire and the 32 being the width of the tire in millimeters. A 700C x 32 or 700C x 35 would be good tires for your needs.

"Mountain bike" or comfort bike tires are usually sized in inches. 26" x 1.5" or 26" x 2" tires are examples.

Look for an adjustable stem on your bike. That's the part that connects the handlebars to the frame. An adjustable one allows you to set the position of the handlebars from being in an upright position to something more forward, more aggressive.

Handlebars are either going to be flat or riser bars. Flat bars are just straight or slightly bent bars. Riser bars have the handles curving back a bit towards the rider. You can adjust the riser bars towards you or away to adjust the fit more so than you can with flat bars.

Bikes specifically designed for women should also have smaller brake levers. Women's bikes will also have slightly wider saddles. The frame geometry of women's bikes has a shorter distance from seat to handlebars because women have a shorter torso and arms than men.

Trek has a 2005 hybrid 7000 for $260.

Giant has a Women's Sedona for $290.

Marin has the Kentfield for $350.

Raleigh SC 40 for ~$300.

You can check out these bikes on the internet and then head to eBay to see what's there. Or you can check the local newspapers for a good used bike. For your budget, that is what I'd recommend. Cheaper bikes such as those sold at Wal-mart tend to give you more trouble and are harder to fix. They don't ride as well and so you end up not riding them as often as you'd like.

If you have more specific questions about what to look for in a bike, feel free to ask.

For your size, a women's 15" frame bike should work. It's important to correctly position your saddle; both front/back setting and height, to keep your knees from hurting.

A 5'2" woman may or may not fit on a 15 inch frame. There are a lot more factors to consider than just her height. My daughter is 5'4" and fits on a 15 inch mountain bike (26" wheel). My wife who is 5' tall fits on a 14" mountain bike. One has long legs and one has shortish legs. A bike shop (stay away from the X-Marts of the world) will help in fitting the proper size bike.


There are hybrids, fitness bikes, comfort bikes that will serve you well. To keep up with the teen, a comfort bike may be too slow, depending upon its setup.

For paved travel only, you don't need or want knobby tires. The wider the tire, the more comfortable the ride but also the slower the ride. The harsh ride of skinny road tires is probably not something you want. Smooth tires or ones with minimal tread are the best. Knobby mountain bike tires will give you the worst traction and a noisy ride on pavement.

"Road tire" size are usually listed as 700C x 32 with the 700C referring to the diameter of the tire and the 32 being the width of the tire in millimeters. A 700C x 32 or 700C x 35 would be good tires for your needs.

"Mountain bike" or comfort bike tires are usually sized in inches. 26" x 1.5" or 26" x 2" tires are examples.

Look for an adjustable stem on your bike. That's the part that connects the handlebars to the frame. An adjustable one allows you to set the position of the handlebars from being in an upright position to something more forward, more aggressive.

Handlebars are either going to be flat or riser bars. Flat bars are just straight or slightly bent bars. Riser bars have the handles curving back a bit towards the rider. You can adjust the riser bars towards you or away to adjust the fit more so than you can with flat bars.

Bikes specifically designed for women should also have smaller brake levers. Women's bikes will also have slightly wider saddles. The frame geometry of women's bikes has a shorter distance from seat to handlebars because women have a shorter torso and arms than men.

Trek has a 2005 hybrid 7000 for $260.

Giant has a Women's Sedona for $290.

Marin has the Kentfield for $350.

Raleigh SC 40 for ~$300.

You can check out these bikes on the internet and then head to eBay to see what's there. Or you can check the local newspapers for a good used bike. For your budget, that is what I'd recommend. Cheaper bikes such as those sold at Wal-mart tend to give you more trouble and are harder to fix. They don't ride as well and so you end up not riding them as often as you'd like.

If you have more specific questions about what to look for in a bike, feel free to ask.

Your other advice is solid enough except that I might add, especially for small people, to look at bikes with 26" wheels over bikes with 700c. You gain a bit in height (lowth? :) ) with the smaller wheel then with the larger one. The only other thing I might add about the X-mart bikes is that they come in one size while bikes sold in bike shops come in all kinds of sizes. Would you walk in to X-mart and buy a coat if it only came in xxxL? That's how bikes are sold at X-marts.

Your thinking is right on, my wife is 5'0" but she only has a barely 26 in. inseam all the normal shaped frames on the comfort bikes, still gave her "no room" over the top bar. She finally got a Fuji Monterey "womens" model with a "u-shaped" frame so she can get off the seat and easily flat foot the bicycle! It's going to be a serious challenge to find my wife a MTB when we decide to upgrade from the comfort Fuji Monterey's bikes we have now! :O

Your thinking is right on, my wife is 5'0" but she only has a barely 26 in. inseam all the normal shaped frames on the comfort bikes, still gave her "no room" over the top bar. She finally got a Fuji Monterey "womens" model with a "u-shaped" frame so she can get off the seat and easily flat foot the bicycle! It's going to be a serious challenge to find my wife a MTB when we decide to upgrade from the comfort Fuji Monterey's bikes we have now! :O

My wife has a Trek WSD that she loves. For mountain bikes you might what to stay away from long travel bikes. A hardtail with an 80mm fork doesn't raise the nose much. If you are looking for long travel bikes, they are all tall! I have an FSR that feels like I'm wheeling around a garaffe when I'm not on it.

My wife has a Trek WSD that she loves. For mountain bikes you might what to stay away from long travel bikes. A hardtail with an 80mm fork doesn't raise the nose much. If you are looking for long travel bikes, they are all tall! I have an FSR that feels like I'm wheeling around a garaffe when I'm not on it.

I'll check that Trek WSD out when the time for serious buying comes about. Ya know I was all jazzed about going to a FS-MTB but after really thinking of my riding style and pace, I don't think I will ever "ride hard" enough to really use a FS-MTB so we will be sticking to "hardtails". We only have 50mm suspension forks on the comfort bikes we ride, that and the suspension seat posts work pretty well on the MTB club rides I've gone on with the local cycling club.

LOL, they all think I'm nuts taking a comfort bike MTB'ing but too me it's no different than my old 1985 Raliegh Mt. Crestted Butte Hardtail, (with the old style U fork up front) that I used to do novice NORBA MTB racing with my son back in the mid to late 80's. I do miss the "seat spring" we used to have that would force and hold the seat down when going down a steep decent, bang it with your butt and it would come back up normal height, guess they went' out of favor with the MTB riders? :(

Can you find a local bike shop who can advise you on fit? Buying over the net is really for more experienced riders. A "net bike" would need some final assembly and you have no post-sales servicing or support. Use it as a last resort only.
Fit includes standover and saddle height, the reach from saddle to bars and the size of the various components (bar width, crank length).
Most brands do entry-level "comfort" bikes which are basically low-spec MTBs for leisure riding. Pick your bike shop first and see what brands they offer.
Examples include:
Giant Boulder
Jamis Explorer

You can usually upgrade the tyres to an efficient 1.5" slick and get a huge increase in performance.