Originally Posted by
ChowChow
Oh forgot to add. My wife is 4'10 and her bike frame is a 15 inch and it's a perfect fit for her.
15 Ladies fits most riders 4'10" to 5'5"
17 Ladies fits most riders 5'5" to 5'9"
15" Mens fits most riders 5' 3" to 5' 7"
17" Mens fits most riders 5' 7" to 5' 10"
19" Mens fits most riders 5'9" to 6'
21" Mens fits most riders 6' to 6’4”
The two bike that I've recommended was for your price range and for your style of riding. Which you said it would be in dirt roads. Plus the shocks help absorb bump. Which most dirt road might have a few here and there. Unless i would recommend this one. Mostly for roads and hard pavement.
http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/.../avenue_fb.htm
You have a small wife and you don't find anything a little funky about that fitting advice? I have several bike riding women in my life and that advice is so far off base as to be laughable. First, bikes have different sizes for different uses. A mountain bike has a smaller frame (with a proportionally longer top tube) than a road bike. My 5'5" daughter rides a 15" mountain bike but my 5' tall wife could never ride one that large. Her mountain bike is a 13" frame. My daughter rides a 49cm (19") road bike while my wife rides a 15" road bike. But that road frame doesn't have a 22" standover height due to a front fork.
The rest of those numbers are absolutely bogus for a road bike. They are mountain bike sizes. At around 6' tall, I ride a 19"
mountain bike but those values above are listed for a hybrid which is sized more like a road bike. In road bikes, I ride a 58cm frame.