Originally Posted by Michel Gagnon

The last poster highlighted the major differences that exist in theory between "women bikes" (or WSD) and "men bikes".
In theory, the top tube of a woman bike should be shorter than the top tube of a man bike of the same size. But that's not always the case.

Moreover, the bike shop could "womanise" any bike to a point by installing a shorter stem, a woman saddle, narrow handlebars, and short cranks. The stem and saddle swaps are trivial and should be free (unless you go to a higher quality). Changing the handlebars and cranks take more time, so they might want to charge some labour for that.

All in all, you left out the key element: your size. If you are a 1.7 - 1.8-m woman, stay away from WSD designs, because they are almost always made for short to medium size women. On the other hand, if you are a 1.4-1.6 m woman, the WSD frames could be the only ones that fit.


And BTW, for those who are 1.4 - 1.6 m men, than maybe a WSD frame would be a good starting point, with the LBS swapping in a man saddle and wider handlebars.