Touring - Need help with bike fit

I'm trying to surprise my wife with a touring bike. I want to get her the REI Randonee. She is 5'3 and the two sizes they offer are the 47cm and the 52. she has a Raleigh One Way that is a 50 that is "slightly" big on her. I'm horrible with the numbers. Please HELP!

i would safely say 47cm better to be a wee bit small than to big,

Check the stand over height.

The Randonee is kinda tall, even in the smaller sizes.

gift certificate - as the one time recipient of a bike that didn't fit, i can tell you, it's nearly impossible for the giftee to tell the gifter "thanks but it doesn't work"

I don't want to do a gift certificate. I want to have a bike with the rack and panniers on it with our tickets to France clipped to it. Their numbers confuse me because they give them in MM...

The stand over on the 47cm bike is 78.9cm or a little over 31 Inches. That's too tall for me by about an Inch. With about a 31 inch bike seam, I could probably get barely enough stand over with shoes on. I'm 5'6" and change. How long are her legs? Even if they were long enough for stand over, the top tube is 52.4cm or about 26 Inches. That's a little short for me but not by much. The 52cm frame has a top tube of 54.6cm. I'd need an 80mm stem with that top tube and a zero set back seatpost.

I doubt your girlfriend is going to fit either of these two frames.

She'd need to get on the bike, at the very least, to figure out if she could ride the 47cm or not. I'm guessing not.

From what I hear REI has an excellent return policy. If you do get the wrong size you should have no problem exchanging it.

I'm about 5'6.5", and neither of the two closest Randonee sizes fit. The 52cm felt waaay too big, and the 47 was definitely too small. The Jamis Aurora is on its way. :)

OK, I'm not an expert at marriage, but... :D

You really need to make sure the bike fits her, or else she's going to be miserable while she's on tour. I'd find out if REI will allow you to exchange the bike for a different size if it doesn't fit.

Otherwise, I'd clue her in on the bike, and save the airline ticket part as the surprise element.

Thanks for the advice everyone. The standover is very close to what she is riding now, just a tad bigger by about quarter inch but the TT is almost spot on. REI has such a great return policy with a no questions asked. If it doesn't fit I'll just take it back and maybe step up and get her the Raleigh Sojourn even though that's more than I want to spend. She already knows about the tickets. We've been practicing fully loaded on her mountain bike and it's worked alright. The problem is that I don't feel comfortable bringing her custom (read, very expensive) mountain bike on the trip. Anyway, thanks again! I'll update when I get her the bike.

+1 on the standover issue

I just bought a 52cm randonnee, and the Randonnee has a a 1" higher bottom bracket than my Sequoia. It still seems a little small but I'm not certain, so I'm going to take it on a longer ride this weekend to see if I can dial the fit in a bit more. If I can't, I'll be going back to get the next size up. Yes, that will mean the standover might be a bit too high for my stubby legs, but I ride on the seat, not the top tube.

IMHO, I think the Randonnee is a better deal than the sojourn, esp w/ the members 20% discount. 32 spoke wheels are not an adequate trade for a brooks saddle and fenders.

The stand over on the 47cm bike is 78.9cm or a little over 31 Inches. That's too tall for me by about an Inch. With about a 31 inch bike seam, I could probably get barely enough stand over with shoes on. I'm 5'6" and change.

My vote is also for her to get on the bike and try it as two of us, same height, had quite different experiences. I'm 5'6" and tested the fit of a 47cm Randonee this week and found it too small. The 52cm was much better for me, with plenty of clearance between the top tube and my crotch when standing flat on the floor in regular shoes. I took the 52cm for a test ride and was very comfortable on it.