Help me find a bike for a short person 4'11" - 5'0"
 

i ride 700c gravel and my companion female rider (100 lbs) rides a 27.5" mountain bike...on longer trips, we have issues with the bike being too heavy for the person and not being able to keep up...normal gravel/race frames seem to be out of the question (mounting/dismounting issues) so i was wondering if it would be ok to use a hybrid such as the trek fx1 stagger disc. Would it be a bad idea to put gravel tires on that frame? i assume it might be ok because the person is light weight but we have some pretty rough downhills where the bike really vibrates and the back wheel slides left to right with the size of the rocks under us on those hills; my frame is steel, so im only worried about my walmart wheels on those crazy sections....

if you could recommend a better solution around that price range ($600-700$) it would be much appreciated.

A hybrid bike will probably be as heavy as her current mountain bike (which weighs how much?). Most hybrid bikes weigh 22-30 lbs. Maybe look at used aluminum 26" mountain bike frames. Or, if her current bike fits her, spend the money on a lighter wheelset instead.

i forgot to emphasize that 27.5" wheels cant keep up with 700c tires and this is alpha gold aluminum from trek, so it should be lighter....the extra weight from the schwinn mountain bike is coming from the extra rubber on the tires and the fact that its cheap walmart aluminum.

to suggest i use 26" tires seems contradictory to the problem im having and would make it worse....we ride long, not in town, meaning any time we go over 7 miles then round trip it, we are going to not be doing equal excercise.

To answer your original question, there's no reason you can't throw gravel tires on the Trek, with respect to tire clearance. Trek aluminum will certainly be lighter but only by a little.

Why do you believe 27.5" wheels can't keep up with 700c, regardless of terrain? Your companion is going to have to work harder because the ratio of her weight to the bike's weight is greater. Certainly, you can alleviate some of this by buying a lighter bike. But smaller diameter wheels do not increase or decrease rolling resistance compared to a larger diameter wheel (unless you're riding at 25mph or more).

i have a limited number of posts i can do so i'm going to try to be as complete with this answer. I believe the tire size makes a difference for 2 reasons, one is anecdotal experience and the other is pi (3.14) multiplier....the difference between 26 inch and 29 inch, even though its about 3 inches is really more than 9 inches in the amount of road covered (circumference) per full revolution of tire on road....can you imagine how many miles more the other person has to work the longer the ride even if the tires seem close in diameter? I don't want to be rude to a riding partner and make them work harder with an unequal exercise all the while giving them the illusion that we are doing the same workout and that they need to learn to keep up.....we already reached 40 miles round trip and are moving up to 70 miles round trip per every other day.

Folks ride with slower partners pretty regularly, not a unique situation. If you want to continue having enjoyable rides with your slower partner, then you need to slow down. Easy to do and costs nothing. If you focus on ways to make her ride faster, unless she has asked for help, neither of you will have fun. :rolleyes:

Look for a Georgena Terry bike. Many are specifically designed for short riders.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgena_Terry

​​​​​​https://www.ebay.com/itm/23405906457...sAAOSw~R5gz8ok

Equality is nice and all, but that's not how exercise or cycling works. As a person who is similar in both size and weight to your companion and only rides 650b, 650c, and 26" bikes, I don't expect to achieve the same amount of exercise as the person I ride with. It goes beyond wheel differences (ie physical differences, bike gearing). Wheel travel is also affected by rolling resistance. The difference in wheel revolutions are dependent on the gearing one is riding in, even if one covers more ground than the other. I'm not trying to argue with you, I'm simply stating facts.

If she's happy with the exercise she's getting, then who cares if she has to work harder? And if you're both comfortable, that sounds like a win for everybody.

thanks for keeping me in check, i guess a further clarification is necessary...we live in the midwest where paved routes are limited, and places far between, what we are trying to do is optimize some areas of our excercise, particularly distance per hour, without leaning too hard into wind drag speed range of the spectrum (we want it to be a workout, so 15 mph is a nice goal i think), which i heard increases exponentially starting after 12 mph/20 kmh ...i did time trials on our rides on a 29" mtb and 700c gravel bike doing about 12 miles in an hour and found it much more draining on the similarly weighted 29" mtb...i know im not hitting all the factors that contribute to wattage expenditure, but im trying to get us close to equal footing where we can hold 15 mph for an hour straight so that we can operate within limited excercise time constraints....some days we have 3 hours for excercise, some days more. Our main reason for the speed minimum is that we want to get to some of the towns around here which are 25, 35, and 40 miles away....if i can do an 'average' of 12 - 14 mph, i can get to one of the towns in under 2 hours, and i can get to the 35 mile one in maybe a little over 2 hours, but probably nearing 3 hours if i include breaks, then theres the round trip, so the time constraints. Lawrence KS is the 25 mile from me town, and gardner Ks is the 35 mile away destination, and olathe is the 40 mile destination.

You are still riding a 28 pound bike with lower end components.

I think you have missed the point when you state “what we are trying to do is optimize some areas of our exercise,” and then follow it with a dozen sentences about I.

I think the honest response is to take out the wallet and get your wife a decent e-assist bike so she can ride at her optimized exercise level until you start talking about I too much and then she can just ride away from you.

John

I wonder if this is not a wife or domestic partner. OP was only willing to commit to $250 for his BSO but has a budget of $600-$700 for her. Maybe not his money he's eager to spend.:twitchy:

I have 2 daughters who tour with my wife and me at least once a year. They have ridden thousands of miles on 26" inch wheels. Because of the small frames they require, 42 cm and 50 cm, their touring bikes, Surly Long Haul Truckers, only come in 26" wheel size. The daughter with the 42 cm frame is 4'11". They have no trouble keeping up with us, on our 700c wheels, and often ride ahead and wait for us.

Look at this site and compare your rpm, gear inches, etc. If you both are riding the same gearing (cassette and chainrings) she would would match your speed at a higher pedal cadence, but possibly with the same or less energy than you. Play with this gear calculator, and you can graphically see the differences: Mike Sherman's Bicycle Gear Calculator

This tale is somewhat unbelievable to me. There is ZERO chance of going 15 mph on loose gravel. I don't often average that on paved freeways. Bike weight or going to 700c tires will have little if any consequence. I kind of like the feel of my 650B 3 speed bike.
Last year I got boxed into a loose gravel section with 35 mm tires. I was squirming around at 6 or 7 mph.

Good point. It then it probably makes it impossible if his companion is unable to hit the town to town time limit and doesn’t have the budget.

I do agree that wheel size is not a factor since it can always be geared up to equate to the same as a 700c.

John

with a monicker such as psystemupdate, one would surely be aware that the narrative chosen shouldn't be questioned. Also, it should be understood that human attention is a commodity, so please stop trying to deflect the focus to how someone writes and please focus on helping those in a similar predicament....solutions are what this thread is all about and in relation to the particular constraints:
-excercise time (account for round trip)
- minimum effort 12-15 mph AVERAGE
- destinations constrained to 25, 35, 40 miles (round trip makes it 50, 70, 80 miles)
-height, weight and strength of this rider requires a lighter bike (may be a health condition; will not disclose

is my choice of the trek fx1 stagger disc at the 600-700 $ price range a smart buy with the alpha gold aluminum (they say the welds are stronger and bike lighter than walmart aluminum), or is there something else i should get that can stand up to the gravel beating, hopefully some long time riders can just help with our particular constraints, thanks.
-

A 29" mountain bike wheel is exactly the same size (diameter) as a 700c wheel, so the rim size was not whet made the difference in difficulty. A 700c tire will fit on 29" rim.

It sounds like your companion needs to increase their fitness on her bike before they're able to reach the goals that YOU'VE set for yourselves. A lighter frame is only going to do so much in terms of achieving those goals.

Yes, you can throw gravel tires on it (limited to 38c I believe according to the spec's sheet). Is it a smart purchase? I personally would say no, it is not. You know how long it takes YOU to cover certain distances with the equipment you have. Your statistics are not representative of your companion's. You're the stronger rider and therefore, she's always going to have to work harder to keep up with you until she increases her fitness. If her pace is too easy and slow for you, give yourself a challenge and gear up one cog.

OP could also consider converting Wally to single speed. Provide more of a challenge for him and lose some marginally functional chunks of metal at the same time.

A carbon hybrid would be lighter and more comfortable on gravel, but if you are comparing the Stagger to cheaper Walmart style bikes, it's an upgrade. I'm guessing you want larger tires so you can run lower psi? Otherwise, those 35's would work fine on packed gravel.

I'd go with a quality 26" wheel. Just adjust the gearing so it is comfortable for the rider.

So, a 26" wheel will go about 26"x3.14 or 81 or 82" per revolution.
A 29" wheel will go about 91" per revolution, or about 10% further. So, simply compensate by giving 10% higher gearing (maybe). Also compensate with higher cadence which may be a better choice.


There are some quality 26" frames if you hunt. Perhaps an older 26" carbon fiber frame or titanium frame bike.

:foo:
This Jamis Dragon claim 23lbs. I can't say. I'd probably change a few things to make it a "gravel" bike.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/224660735207

Then choose a very high quality subtle, light weight tire. I'm not sure what I would choose. Would the Compass or Rene Herse 26″ x 1.8″ Naches Pass TC Tire work? Not a lot of tread, but should roll well.

A lot will depend on how much effort you wish to put into building up the perfect bike.

The main factor, is that your partner is a smaller, less powerful rider, and there's only so much you can do to her bike to make up for that disadvantage.
IIf you're both doing the same ride, in the same amount of time, then you're both doing the same amount of Work. The difference, is that it may be 90% of the maximum effort she could do, but only 70% of yours. Unless you're dragging a sled, or something, you will be stronger and therefore faster than her.

It takes a certain amount of power to cruise at your ~13 mph average, and the bike itself absorbs only a small part of that (unless it's in very poor repair). On level ground, bike weight has no effect on cruising speed; now, climbing or turning, it does, but at 12 mph on road routes, it's marginal at best.

Going to a larger wheel wouldn't really change things either; it might go 10% farther per revolution, but it takes more effort to make that revolution, so you shift into a lower gear, and it all washes out. 70 gear inches is 70 gear inches, whether it's a 700c, 26er or 20" mini-velo, if I ride 70", at the same cadence and level of exertion, then I'll go about the same speed regardless of what size the wheel is.

Ignoring component level (quality) it may be that her MTB just doesn't have the right spread of gears for extended cruising, but might also be that she's not using them optimally: grinding on the biggest gear, trying to keep up, and wearing herself out, when she could shift up a couple gears and turning a higher cadence at a lower peak effort.

13-15" -frame MTBs and hybrids from the major brands like TREK, Specialized and Cannondale are out there, as are 48-50cm road bikes, in full 'adult spec' ie; not heavy "budget" kids' bikes (Cannondale CAAD-2's are remarkably light if you can find one)

So you're slow and unskilled? How does that relate to someone else's abilities. I grew up in an area where paving consisted of throwing down a layer of oil and covering it with a layer of loose gravel and hoping the cars packed it down. I regularly did over 20mph on that with basic 27x1 1/4 and later 700x23 tires. So does anyone who lives in the area on a yearly basis.

OP, the trek will give a better result towards your goal. The 7.1fx is a sport hybrid, little lighter and quicker and depending on the mtb could be a lot quicker. You said a schwinn, if a modern, heavy walmart schwinn the trek could be a huge improvement. If an older, shop bike it might not be as big. Personally I would keep an eye out for a lightly used gravel or cross bike from trek, felt, jamis, cannondale or a couple of other brands that offered them in 46 or 47cm. Something like the Caadx tiagra from cannondale can be found 4-5 years old and will be a fine size but should be right in your range. Look up what these brands have offered in the last 5 years and go from there. They will fit someone your GF's size with no trouble. Flat bars on a hybrid like the trek can be fine for an hour or two, past that that add some bar ends or switch up the bars to ones with an extra position or two.

I will agree with you that I think wheel sizes matters to a tiny extent. I know all the numbers sheets say otherwise and I've seen the write ups on why it doesn't but I've watched a dozen kids go from 650c wheels to 700c and they're faster every time. Bikes aren't always better but the kid is still faster and it isn't gearing as all the kids have to pass rollout for racing which is the same regardless of wheel size. Same with the kids that have moved from 24" to 650c. Just always a consistent speed increase. I've noticed that taller seem faster for me as well.

What constitutes 'loose' is different between people. I average more than 15mph on gravel rides and that includes hero gravel as well as loose soupy gravel.
As for you barely averaging that on paved freeways...I dont ride freeways, but I average well over 15mph on paved roads and there are countless people in my little area of the world who can easily ride past me.

Your experience does not equal reality for others.

This is truly one of the strangest sentences I've read on this forum.