Fitting for small people...
08-16-09, 09:28 AM
#26
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Hi,
My wife is also very small and could not ever find a bike that she was comfortable with until we started riding Bike Fridays. Here's a picture of her Pocket Rocket Pro Petite. Because her hands don't fit around brifters we went with bar-ends and interrupters. Here are some pictures and specs for the bike. https://www.bikeforums.net/folding-bikes/558415-debby-s-new-pocket-rocket-pro-petite.html. She also has a Pocket LLama for touring.
Greg
My wife is also very small and could not ever find a bike that she was comfortable with until we started riding Bike Fridays. Here's a picture of her Pocket Rocket Pro Petite. Because her hands don't fit around brifters we went with bar-ends and interrupters. Here are some pictures and specs for the bike. https://www.bikeforums.net/folding-bikes/558415-debby-s-new-pocket-rocket-pro-petite.html. She also has a Pocket LLama for touring.
Greg
08-16-09, 10:10 AM
#27
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Your wifes hands aren't any smaller at all than mine. I'm wearing unisex extra small gloves in that shot and sometimes I wear woman's small. As I've said I don't brake from the hoods either because I cant reach but its irrelevant. I brake from the drops.
I'm no lightweight at the moment and I could REALLY do with losing some weight but I have less weight on my hands/shoulders because the tip of the saddle on my bike is over 70 mm behind the bottom bracket. I wouldn't be supprised if the tip of your wifes saddle is IN FRONT of the BB and if its behind it might be no more than 20mm behind the BB. This is a critical point and the fact that her saddle is positioned so far forward is WRONG. Its just a dodgy fix to make up for issues elsewhere.
When it comes to fit for small riders I AM THE expert. If you didn't want expert advise don't ask questions here. Ask down at the store you bought the bike from instead.
I don't want to get into a fight over it with you but I reserve the right to give correct advise because this is a PUBLIC forum and others are reading as well.
Anthony
I'm no lightweight at the moment and I could REALLY do with losing some weight but I have less weight on my hands/shoulders because the tip of the saddle on my bike is over 70 mm behind the bottom bracket. I wouldn't be supprised if the tip of your wifes saddle is IN FRONT of the BB and if its behind it might be no more than 20mm behind the BB. This is a critical point and the fact that her saddle is positioned so far forward is WRONG. Its just a dodgy fix to make up for issues elsewhere.
When it comes to fit for small riders I AM THE expert. If you didn't want expert advise don't ask questions here. Ask down at the store you bought the bike from instead.
I don't want to get into a fight over it with you but I reserve the right to give correct advise because this is a PUBLIC forum and others are reading as well.
Anthony
CCrew, Road Fan's advice is probably the best way to go. Although my pixie wife now uses flat bars, her experience with drops, small size brake levers and bar end shifters worked well for her.
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Stuart Black
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Gold Fever Three days of dirt in Colorado
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Dinosaurs in Colorado A mountain bike guide to the Purgatory Canyon dinosaur trackway
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Stuart Black
Plan Epsilon Around Lake Michigan in the era of Covid
Old School…When It Wasn’t Ancient bikepacking
Gold Fever Three days of dirt in Colorado
Pokin' around the Poconos A cold ride around Lake Erie
Dinosaurs in Colorado A mountain bike guide to the Purgatory Canyon dinosaur trackway
Solo Without Pie. The search for pie in the Midwest.
Picking the Scablands. Washington and Oregon, 2005. Pie and spiders on the Columbia River!
08-19-09, 12:31 PM
#28
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+1. If you've got your heart set on brifters, there's nothing to do about that, but I can vouch for the Tektro levers being quite good for the petite-of-hand. I wear some XS Pearl Izumi gloves, for reference, although it's just as much about finger length as that will indicate whether you can wrap enough of the lever to pull it effectively. Anyways I like the Tektro aero levers+bar end combination, and think being able to come to a full stop is more important than cable routing or whatever people like brifters for.
08-19-09, 06:14 PM
#29
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Guess I have some time to deal with it now....
God love her she decided to go for a ride yesterday to familiarize herself with the bike. 8 miles into the ride she wiped out in loose gravel on the road and road rashed both knees, sprained her right thumb and broke her left collarbone.
And her biggest worry was whether she damaged her new bike
. (One scratch on the top tube)
God love her she decided to go for a ride yesterday to familiarize herself with the bike. 8 miles into the ride she wiped out in loose gravel on the road and road rashed both knees, sprained her right thumb and broke her left collarbone.
And her biggest worry was whether she damaged her new bike
. (One scratch on the top tube)My wife is about the same size as your wife but actually is 5ft and wears a size 5 shoe and she might be 95lb. LOL She is also reading over my shoulder after hearing about the wreck.
I was building up a Mixte for her and on her first ride she managed to crash after about 200ft and face planted. Road rashed the side of he face really bad. The Bike earned a new name that day "Gome de Visage" French for "Face eraser".
She never did warm to that bike and I sold it a few weeks ago.
I'm in the process of building her a Touring bike using a 16.5 inch Trek 950 Mountain bike frame and slicks on a set of Mavic 26inch wheels with Deore hubs. I am trying to find a set of 7 speed brifters but reading about your wife's reach issue I need to check out how she feels the brifters on my T700's fit her. I may go with bar ends if she feels they are too big for her.
Speedy recovery to the misses.
