Originally Posted by SuperWheel
The women's specific geometry starts to become less critical when the rider is medium to tall (in height). My wife is just a hair over 5 feet-tall and the whole women's specific frame geometry is critical to her, but I've sized plenty of taller women correctly on "mens" bikes.
Good point. If you want some "quasi-scientifically based fit advise", go check out
www.WrenchScience.com. Sign up, log on and visit their Fit System. It'll ask you for a bunch of your wife's data (could make for a fun, cheap & exciting date) and they'll spit out a handful of frames that they suspect are right for her measurements.
It's that site that suggested the Marin Mount Vision for my 5'6" wife, a 15.5" non-WSD model. But again, unless you like rolling the dice, the test ride is still important.