CompleteStreets

This is for a friend. She's 4'10" and is considering getting a bike for the first time in a long time. She hasn't looked very hard yet, but already she's realizing that many adult bikes simply don't come in sizes small enough for her body. She's leaning towards a road bike, but hasn't ruled out a more upright style.

Can anyone recommend a line of bikes known for accommodating someone her size? Thanks.

fietsbob

Bike Friday Builds to suit the customer .. 451 wheel is their go fast . Pocket Rocket can be built with all the best components

or something less according to your budget

Georgina Terry is another builder of womens bikes , a little bigger wheels (ala 559) , some are Waterford frames.

rydabent

How about a hybrid with a drop center bar with road tires.

Berta

See if Scott (REI) and Cannondale have something in women's bikes, maybe Trek too. I know up to around 2012? the Cannondale Quick women's series carried an XS frame, but I don't think they do now. If she's open to used bikes, it might be possible to find one of those.

Otherwise, a decent LBS should be able to get a good idea of proper size (standover, effective top tube/reach etc.) and give recommendations. If that isn't a possibility, she'll need to do some bike geometry homework. I ended up with a Soma Groove after a lot of research, which I'm very happy with, but then I wasn't looking for a road bike or even a hybrid. I don't know what your friend's budget is, but Soma and possibly Surly make some touring and road frames that could possibly work; also Soma offers a nice mixte.

delcrossv

Scott or Felt road bike with 24" wheels. IIRC Culprit makes a very nice one too, for bigger $$$.

E.g.: F24 - Felt Bicycles

Junior Bikes

Still Pedaling

Absolutely. I would highly recommend that she looks at folding bikes. They can accommodate someone of her size up to a person 6' tall, and whats really nice is they can fold up and be put away in a closet or under a desk at work. My wife rides a Dahon Curve D3. Check out this video on the D3;


If she has the funds for a more quality folding bike, then I would recommend a Brompton folding bike. I have one and its the best bike I have ever owned. Here's a video on the Brompton;


For more info on folding bikes, check out the folding bike forum;

Folding Bikes

Whatever she chooses, I hope she gets the right one, otherwise she will loose interest in riding and end up giving up on a great form of exercise and fun.

Cheers
Wayne

cyccommute 

A good place to start looking would be here.

Fitting bikes to small women can be a challenge. I've been struggling with finding the right bike for a petite wife for 30+ years. In the last 5 years or so, we finally went to a Terry and she is much happier. The bike is lighter and of higher quality than many other bikes she has tried to ride. She currently has 3 Terry Symmetrys...one has an old 24" wheel front/700C rear and the other 2 are 650C wheel bikes. The old bike is nice to ride but handles a bit odd. The new ones are a joy. I actually have to work (a bit) to keep up. Try to find a 650C wheel bike or a used Terry. They show up on Craigslist from time to time. Otherwise a "youth" bike may be the ticket.

A Trek KRX or Specialized Allez 650 would be good to look at. The Allez is relatively inexpensive as well.

Good luck.

Lone

even big people don't like big bikes. small bikes feel a lot better.

MichaelW

Youth racing bikes use 24 or 26" (MTB) wheels.
Some women's bikes use 650c, the road 26" size.
Avoid all 700c wheels, they are too big.
Check also for short cranks (160mm) and narrow drop bars (36 or 38cm). Women's drop bars may feature reduced reach.

If you do find a suitable bike, report back.


Note 650C is different to 650B

Wilfred Laurier

I think this is because many shops set tall people up on too-small bikes, and they get used to them. A bike that fits is better than both one that is too big and one that is too small.

cyccommute 

The opposite reason is true for many women who don't feel comfortable on a properly sized bike. It took years for my wife to get used to a bike that was the proper size. She grew up, as a 5' tall woman, riding Sears ten speeds which are 22" to 23" frames. She looked ridiculous but she was used to it.

Wilfred Laurier

The flip side of the same problem - uneducated shop employees and friends who are 'bike experts' assume that the best available from whatever bikes are available is adequate, but for people on either end of the spectrum, there is a much smaller population of properly fitting bikes available.

Still Pedaling

Hey, how about that we agree on something. Just kidding.

My wife is 5' 2" tall, and dealt with the very same thing. The proper sized bike, they told her, was a problem for her to ride, until I got her the Dahon Curve D3. Now she's very pleased.

79pmooney

My first thought was also Terry. Georgina Terry was racing when I was. She has done a lot, directly and indirectly, to make huge changes in the options for women.

My second thought, "Sweet Pea". Natalie Ramsland in Portland, OR builds custom bikes for women. More money, but she isn't restrained by anything that can be made in steel. And she does very nice work. Started her trade sharing workspace with some of the best and it shows. Google Sweat Pea and give her a call. Even if your friend does not go with her, it will not be a waste of time.

Ben

cyccommute 

It doesn't help that my wife's (and my) formative years were back in the days of 27" bikes. And they weren't talking about the frame.

It's gotten better over the last 15 years or so but I see backsliding in some of the major manufacturers' lines. The smallest of Trek's WSD road bikes come in a 47 cm frame. The actual size may be different but a "47 cm" frame says to me that it is proportioned for someone 5'4" or taller. Specialized makes a 700C frame for women in a "44 cm" frame which is still tall for someone <5' tall. The Allez looks like a really good little bike.

fietsbob

When wedded to 700c/27" wheels the geometry gets compromised, steep seat tube angles often the 1st problem.

StephenH

My suggestion: Go get a bike fitting, then start shopping. You may eliminate 90% of the bikes out there, but likely not all of them.

I've seen two very petite riders. One, I understood, used a custom frame- I think that's her in the picture below. Looks like wheels are smaller than 700's. The other was on a tandem, that'd be another option.

delcrossv

+1. For someone 4'10" I'd probably be looking at 140mm cranks. Available here The old French juvenile bikes and Ofmega junior cranks were 127's.

MichaelW

Why?
They have just introduced Yet Another Wheel Size for the MTB market, for marginal performance gain, which will take up shelf space in the bike shop. They have dropped 650C for small road riders which is a massive drop in performance. As 26" MTB loses its place in competition start-lines, you can expect support to dwindle, eg quality rims and tyres.

Retro Grouch 

During the time when I owned my shop I never, even once, had a short woman test ride a Terry bike and not buy it. I suspect it's because it was probably the first bike they'd ever ridden that fit right.

cyccommute 

I'm not sure where you are going with this. Most of the reason that bicycle companies are back sliding on women's bikes is because they aren't offering enough sizes. The average height of a women in the US is about 5'4" and they take frame size of 47 cm. That happens to be the smallest frame that Trek offers in road bikes. It's as if Trek decided that there isn't any need for men's sized bikes smaller than a 56 cm.

As for the "new" wheel size for MTB, I see that as a tacit admission that the 29er just isn't working out for them. And the 27.5er isn't all that good an idea for small women (or even average sized women) either. A 26" (559mm) wheel is a pretty good wheel for smaller women who have standover issues. The 27.5" (584mm) increases minimum standover which isn't something most smaller women want or need.

I'm also not sure where you are going with the comment about 650C but my wife's bike seems to perform very well indeed. For the first time ever, I have to do a little work to keep up with her. She didn't experience any kind of drop in performance, much less massive and actually experienced a performance increase.

qclabrat

see this article for options
Road bikes for short women |

I have a friend about the same height as your and she found the XS Spec Dolce comfortable as her first road bike
Giant appears to have the smallest frame as a XXS to cater to even smaller riders
definitely suggest for your friend to visit an LBS, as we have not clue of her dimensions or riding preference, and most of us are not fit experts

Folders are not for everyone, for example my wife would never ride my Bike Friday, because it's "dorky" to her

KenshiBiker

Took me a while to even notice who you were talking about. I'm guessing people behind her don't get much of a benefit from drafting.

Good advice about getting a fitting first. At least it'll get her in the ballpark.

Personally I like 650c wheels (I have them on my 46 cm fixed gear, and my wife has them on her road bike), but when I spec'd out my road bike and the framebuilder said he could make it work with 700c, I went for the larger wheels (even though I knew I'd be compromising standover height), just for the choices in tire selection you have with 700c vs 650c. In 650c almost every tire (and there aren't that many to begin with) are 23 mm wide; although I think Terry makes one that's 25 or maybe 28 mm wide.

MichaelW

Bad phrasing.
I mean, the new MTB wheel size adds very little. The removal of the 650C road option affects riders a lot.

CompleteStreets

Thanks for the input everyone. This has been very helpful.