Road Cycling - looking for small frame for my girlfriend

She swears she will ride with me if i build her a bike, she wants a specific paint job, specific parts, etc. a complete prebuilt bike is no good, i will use mostly all stuff that as on my cannondale before i upgraded it and tiagra etc for what i dont have. i need a small cheap frame. She may ride it once and complain so i dont want to lose too much money. I think i need a 40cm frame she is 4'11''. steel, aluminum, new, used, i dont care. i looked on ebay and found nada. any help is appreciated alot. thanks, david

Hi,
my wife is 5' 2". Having just gone though this with here; I can tell you that you need to go to shops and try bikes. Do look in the archives here, the women's forum has had a number of threads on this subject. A 650 or 26 inch wheel will be a better choice than a 700.

I was looking for a while but finally just got measured and ordered. I still look around every once in a while just for the heck of it and have yet to see one :(

Oh yeah..I ended up getting a Specialized Allez Elite, but not the women's version (long arms). Alot of people seem to have them and love them.

I agree with Late- go to the shops and have her ride around... however, I'm 5' 1 1/2" and a 700c wheel is no biggie for me, and I got short, stubby legs too. At 4'11" inches though... whoooooo.... it could be a close call.

Good luck with all that, man. And I thought I was short! :eek: ;)

Koffee

Originally posted by Koffee Brown

Good luck with all that, man. And I thought I was short! :eek: ;)

Koffee

You are short :)

Just kidding my vertically changed friend :p

Bill F.

hey my gf is getting a giant.. she's only 5' and the XS fits her well.

i am looking for super cheap, there is a 75% chance she will never ride it, i know it sounds ******** but we all do stupid things for girlfriends.

Damn... can I be your girlfriend then?

:lol:

My wife used to have a small frame. Eight years of marriage and two kids latter, and well, its gotten a tad bigger.

Originally posted by Greg
My wife used to have a small frame. Eight years of marriage and two kids latter, and well, its gotten a tad bigger.

Well the frame is the same size, but it has bigger tires, right?:D

c'mon help me please, i can't find jack****

Ok- how about a Schwinn Navigator or a Schwinn Frontier?

Those are good, solid comfort bikes, and I've seen my shorter girlfriends running around on them. They tend to go for cheap- new, you can pick them up for like $150 or less.

If you have a Performance Bike store nearby, check with them- they have cheap bikes for women that go as low as $99 when they have a sale. A Performance bike isn't too bad- I thought about getting one for my mom at one point, and she's a little shorter than me (she's about 5' 1/2"), but she's so freakin' lazy sometimes, I just figured it wouldn't be worth it. A year later, I'm certainly glad I made the decision NOT to buy- I had no idea she had a bike at my apartment complex until she called me last week and asked me to look in on it, but she couldn't tell me where in the building it was, and she didn't have a key to any room, so it's basically lost forever! :rolleyes:

Koffee

Do you have access to a bike she can borrow for a while to see if she even likes to ride a bike? Assuming the borrowed bike meets her high standards :rolleyes:.

I'd hate to see you work your tail off investing time and money just to have her blow it all off.

Take it from experience, do as much up front value engineering as you can.

But, If you are nest building and are willing to do anything to win this girl over including degrading acts of heroism and have time and money falling out of your ***, then dissregard all I've said above. I've been there too and would hate to ruin the lesson it'll teach you.

I just read your bio. "Broke, Bored, and Generally Angry."

I think things will work out just fine.:D

she has a trek mtb that was baught last year it is very very heavy. she bought it before i was into bikes ( i sold all my bike stuff when i broke my arm in a jumping accident on the bike, and dtopped riding about 8 years ago and just started again this year) she liked the color size etc, it must weight 35lbs or something its a brick, i think that contibutes to her not riding it much

How about a Bianchi Eros Donna?

http://www.epinions.com/bicycles_2003_Bianchi_Eros_Donna


Sweet!! Just beat her if she doesn't ride it. LOL

Or a Terry Symmetry:

http://www.terrybicycles.com/Bikes/symmetry.lasso

:D

I agree with the Terry Symmetry. I just purchased one, took it for two short rides and decided to do a MS 150 with it, instead of the hybrid I was used to riding. The ride was no problem, even though I was a little apprehensive about riding a bike I wasn't really used to and a saddle that was not broke in. I think on the Terry website they have a 2002 for $750.00. By the way, I am 4'10 1/2" and purchased the 16 in (40.6 cm). It fit me perfectly. :D