KBentley57

So I'm trying to get an idea for what size my wife would need for a cheap road bike (plan on getting one of BD, she won't be riding that much) and I was wondering what the differences in measurements are between men and women of the same height. To give you some idea, she is:

Weight: 110 lbs
height: a hair under 65 inches tall (5' 5")
arm span: 63"
arm length as measured from finger tip to end of collar bone: 27"
torso as measured from hump on back of neck to the top of the pelvic ridge on back: 20"
inseam: 30.25"

So guys that are around 5' 5", are these measurements similar to yours? Any major differences between guys and gals?

The bike I was planning on was the Liberty 1, size small (46.5 cm). Link here:
https://bikesdirect.com/products/gravity/liberty_1.htm

Let me know your opinions please!

dstrong 

I'm 6'2" and my wife is 5'10"...our hip bones are at the same height. Not sure if that helps.

Ramjm_2000

Most female specific designs have shorter top tubes as compared to a similiar "normal" frame. That said my wife rode for years on a "guys" frame without a problem. The biggest difference I see is being able to get the right TT length without having too short of a head tube (At 5/7" she rides a 54cm female specific Orbea vs. a 52cm Bianchi). Just my 2 cents...

gus6464

I am 6ft and my gf is half an inch shorter than me (5'11.5") and we have ridden the same frame except she used a longer stem. She tried out WSD bikes and did not like the geometry at all. All women will be different so have her try out both a men's and women's frame in her size.

Looigi

Blond, brunette, ???

Seriously. The average women has different proportions than the average man, but individuals can be any place, averages be dammed. As a point of reference, I suggest trying the bike fit calculators at Competitive Cyclist and Wrench Science websites. They take you through the proper measurement step by step which you plug in as you go. They then spit out a suggested frame geometries. I like the Wrench Science calculator better, btw.

Scooper

https://www.teamestrogen.com/content/wsdBikes

Terex

Most women have a longer femur in proportion to their height, and therefore a longer relative inseam, than men. It's why WS bikes usually have a shorter relative top tube. If you try to adjust a man's bike for a woman, you typically have to shorten the stem, which makes them twitchy.

Your wife, at 5'5" has a 30.25" inseam. Most guys at that height would have a shorter inseam. I'm a little over 6' and my inseam is 32. One of my daughters is almost 5' 11", and her inseam is 34".

merlinextraligh

WSD bikes are designed with the assumption that women have comparitively longer legs, and shorter torsos for a given height.

However, that's a generalization. that's not relaible for any particular woman, and there's even data that suggests its not even true on a population basis.

The link to the study is floating around in a thread somewhere on BF.

shiz702

That bike seems a little small for her. I am 5'6", I can't remember my exact inseam but I think it's around 28" and I typically ride a 52cm with a 53ish top tube. Maybe you guys should visit a LBS and have her try out a few sizes to get an idea of what fits her.

edit- I just looked at the size chart and the 46.5 has a 53cm top tube so that would probably work for her. Kind of an unusually long top tube for such a small frame size.

merlinextraligh

here's a reference to the data:

https://www.active.com/triathlon/Arti...-Dimension.htm