A friend of mine is 5' 1" tall, with a long torso and short(er) arms and legs. She's having a hard time finding something that fits well. Her current bike is a 14.5" Trek Navigator 200, but she's looking for something a bit closer to a flat-bar racer/commuter than the hybrid-with-front-suspension she has now. Suggestions?

No specific bike suggestions, but she may need to try a set back seat post to get the proper balance over the pedals. ( she can approximate this by pushing the saddle all the way back for test rides). Otherwise, her mass will always be leaning forward, and she'll have too much weight on her hands.

Long reach / short stack, frame type might help.

Someone else here may know a manufacturer that tends to make that type frame.

I'm pretty close to the same size and proportions to your friend. There are NO adult bikes that are anything like the right size. I have a custom road bike with 650c wheels, 125-140mm cranks and a very relaxed seat tube angle. Bikes with 700c wheels simply will not fit anyone our size.

Recommendations?

See this thread. https://www.bikeforums.net/fitting-yo...long-arms.html Not exactly the same but the principles are the same.

Apart from a custom bike made around short cranks and small wheels, the only viable alternative I have seen is to start from a child/juvenile bike and modify to suit.

Anthony

and, consider the US made Bike Friday .. by letting go of the Big Wheels, the fit geometry can be sorted out without the Problems

compromises to make a small bike with Big wheels .. they are a Built upon Order bike , with many options. size is one of 8 different top tube lengths

and they functionally are step through frames ..


A 451 20" wheel is a good choice for the faster ride , the 406 1.5" is still Good, and tires more abundant.

I'm 5'10" but with a 30" inseam, so I'm basically 5'6" from the waist down, and 6'2"ish from the waist up. This was great in high school wrestling, and not so good since. It makes cars annoying (my head squishes on anything sporty, because I'm close to the wheel), and with bikes and motorcycles, it's also a challenge unless I'm sitting straight up with city bike handlebars. I was thinking of extending the stem ona 53cm or so bike, but I hadn't thought of backing out the saddle. Any suggestions, or should I just go to my LBS and see what they say?

5'9" with 29" inseam here, so much the same.

I made do with Medium frame off the rack bikes for years, but just this spring pulled the trigger on a custom frame.

Night and day difference, so much more comfortable and my pedaling is noticeably more efficient.

As the poster above implied, my best wheel size fit was also 26" and not 700c.

Thanks! I'll look into 26". If I stick with it, I have a strong suspicion my next bike will be a custom frame, particularly since (I think) I want to do some long tours eventually, and steel touring frames seem to be a sweet spot for custom builders.

The OP's friend sounds like a perfect candidate for a custom frame . . . Or . . . An older mountain bike conversion.

Back in the 1990s, rigid mountain bikes often had short seat tubes and long top tubes, which is the geometry your friend needs. This was for lots of crotch clearance plus a racy position. Their head tubes were low, allowing plenty of saddle to bar drop (because they didn't need to accommodate suspension forks). They had 26" wheels, of course. The higher end models were quite light and of high quality. With road tires, they are plenty speedy. They can be converted to drop bars, or you can cut the bars a bit narrower and fit bar ends for a variety of hand positions. In the Classic & Vintage forum there is a long running thread about Vintage MTB conversions. You might check that out.

The nice thing is, a 1990s rigid MTB is usually quite inexpensive. Even one that was close to top of the line back then.

Found it

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...nversions.html