[speedygirlwilso]

Hi,

I stumbled onto this forum tonight and it is a goldmine of information! I have a cheap road bike and an old MTB and am looking to buy a new bike that I can use for doing some off-roading as well as some road biking. All of my research has lead me to cyclo cross bikes. The racing sounds like so much fun but for now, I'm not looking to spend more than $1500 on a bike.

I'm wondering if there are bikes out there that would be good for someone my size, though. I'm a female, 5'3" and only weigh 100 pounds. Does anyone have recommendations for bikes/brands that would be good for someone that is my small size?? I was looking at the JTS tonight but their smallest frame is 49cm and even though they didn't have one in the store for me to try out, I am thinking that will be too big for me...

Thanks!!

[The BikeForums Team]

This is an archived thread, you can find the full version of this thread, with images, links and more content here.

Ready to buy? Check out these two online bike stores:
- http://www.nashbar.com (you can find the latest bike nashbar coupons in this thread)
- http://www.performancebike.com (you can find the latest performance bike coupons in this thread)

Cya on the forums,
- The BikeForums Team
- http://www.bikeforums.net

[Ziemas]

If you aren't going to be racing check out the Surly Cross Check. They come in both 42cm and 46cm.

http://www.surlybikes.com/crosscheck_comp.html

[dzinehaus]

Here you go, she's one of the authorities on women's cyclocross bikes and finding one. I read through it a while ago and had to re-search for it this morning when I saw your posting.

http://kerrylitka.com/crosstips.html

also i'm pro-converting an old road bike into a cross bike. On mine (being completed in a couple of weeks) I have gone as far as strip all the old parts off and replaced them with new ones, stripped the paint, changed the headset, fork, stem, wheels and cassette, stripped the paint and am repainting it. Essentially I kept the frame and replaced everything else. Thus lowering my cost on a bike that I really like and the fact that I'm building it is more gratifying. So far I'm at about 400$ for building my bike (cause you don't always need fancy parts).

Whichever route you take good luck to you and may it be one hell of a ride

edit: found some more useful links for you:
http://www.teamestrogen.com/wsdBikes.asp
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/bik/361812479.html (bianchi volpe for 500$ used)

[92degrees]

You might ask over at the Team Estrogen forum. They have a subforum for cx and probably have a lot of advice. I would bet the 49cm JTS would fit. I think Bianchi makes a very small cx bike too.

[dzinehaus]

so far as I have seen the bianchi and the surly cross check are the smallest

[gadgetadam]

I'm a 5 foot 4 inch male looking for a cyclocross bike also. My problem is standover. The Jamis Nova has a standover of like 27.6 inches. The crosschecks I think are higher than that. From what I've researched so far Jamis looks like they have the smallest bikes for short people.

-GadgetAdam

[speedygirlwilso]

Thanks for all your help! I'm going to look at the Surly and the JTS to see if either of those will work for me. The kerrylitka website is a great resource as well.

Thanks -
Kristen

[eofelis]

If you aren't going to be racing check out the Surly Cross Check. They come in both 42cm and 46cm.

http://www.surlybikes.com/crosscheck_comp.html

The Crosschecks seem to run big. The standover on the 42cm is 73cm.

I have a 42cm Pacer road bike and a 42cm LHT and the standover on those is 70cm. I'd love to have a CC, but it would be too big for me :(