Originally Posted by
jppe
Why did they make a different frames for females in the early days anyway? Because they wore the ankle length skirts?
Actually, women wore fashionable cycling "bloomers", not skirts. Reason for the "ladies" bike design was because it was "unseemly" (read this as "sexually suggestive") for a woman to "throw a leg over" a horse - which is why women rode sidesaddle - and that followed through to the mounting of bikes as well. Thus the step through was born (ie: to discourage a gentlemen from get all hot and bothered seeing a lady mount up.)
And now you know.