Originally Posted by
Shaylie
It's so hard when you're short. The stores just don't carry many small bikes and I've never seen an extra small in a bike store.
There are plenty of small bikes available. The problem is that manufacturers aren't differentiating between the needs of children and short adults. I have some 5-footish adult friends who are very happy riding small 24" MTBs.
Our local road shop had a 24" wheel Giant road bike, and I've seen both Fuji Ace 650 and 24 bikes at the local Performance shop.
Perhaps this is also where the Lexa, Dolce, and WSD designations will backfire. I'd have put my nephew on a used Lexa, but decided I couldn't do it to him. It could be brutal if anybody ever found out it was a "Girl's Bike". So it encourages one group in market, while making them unavailable for another group.
Many manufactures have also chosen not to make extremely tall bikes, with anything larger than say 62cm being hard to find.
It is all great for the "average" rider.
