Originally Posted by
abdon
My daughter wants a gravel bike, she's into vintage and touring, so while the easiest thing would be to do a non suspension early mountain bike, I figured it would not hurt to ask here if somebody had a tiny vintage touring frame they are willing to sell. I know Trek made tiny 520/620/720 frames, I have seen a tiny Specialized touring, and I'm pretty sure some other vendors also built for the vertically-challenged.
There are several issue here. Let’s start with the early mountain bike. Many people make the mistake of thinking that a small mountain bike works for a small person but mountain bikes are proportioned so that the frame is 2 to 4” smaller than a road bike for the same person. Someone who rides a 58cm (23”) road bike, for example, would ride a 19” (48cm) mountain bike. Trying to put a small person on the smallest vintage mountain bike which was usually a 15” is the equivalent of putting them on a 19” road bike. From long experience (not my own), I know that a 15” mountain bike is far too large for a 5’2” tall rider just as a 19” (49cm) road bike is also too tall.
A petite rider like your daughter really needs a 44cm (17”) road bike and a 13” mountain bike. Both are rare as hen’s teeth in vintage. Even into the 90s, 13” mountain bike were rare. Schwinn did happen to make some for their Home Grown line but they often aren’t even listed in their catalog. I happen to have 2 of them (not for sale, sorry) but they are around. The black one is a 2000 with a kind of funky headset…proprietary. And the bass boat one is a 1998. The black one has been repurposed for use in Tucson with a rigid fork where the 1.75” tires are much more forgiving on Tucson (literal) rough streets than her previous 650C x 23mm.
Unfortunately, neither Home Grown is capable of taking a rack and, for small riders, bike packing bags just don’t work. The triangle is too small for a triangle bag and the seat can’t take a seat bag.
Since small bikes were really made for small people in the vintage days, I’d suggest something a bit better for the small rider…an extra small hybrid. Or in the case of my wife, an XXS hybrid. This is a 2023 Specialized Sirrus. Not a great bike as it sits but adequate. It is long enough for racks and the fork has mid-blade braze-ons for a low rider rack. It is a 700C equipped bike but it has disc brakes which opens up a wide field of wheel sizes. It is also inexpensive at about $650.
I extensively modified her’s with carbon bars, carbon seat post, carbon fork (the OEM fork is a boat anchor), and I put a set of 26” wheels on it to lower the stand-over even more. It weighs in at 24 lb as in the picture.
One other thing I would suggest for a small rider is going to much shorter cranks than the common 165mm. The ones in the picture above have been cut down to 140mm. We found that even the 165s are too long and cause her knees to hurt. With the 140mm, she has been able to ride out of the saddle on hills which is not something she has been able to do on the cranks I would usually put on her bike. The way I came to the length is to use the ratio of my inseam to my 175mm crank and apply that same ratio to her inseam. 140 to 145 mm seems optimal.
I know the allure of vintage is strong but the bike industry ignored small people for close to 30 of the last 40 to 50 years. They don’t make a lot of bikes for small people now…the more expensive Sirrus hybrid doesn’t come in an XXS size…but at least it’s easier to find something now. At $650 for the original bike vs $2800 for the “fancier” hybrid (but improperly sized), the cost of upgrades isn't’ all that much and she now has a bike that fits and is really a joy to ride.