kroozer 

I’m looking around for general recreation road bike for my wife, who is a tad over 5 feet tall. Most regular road frames are just too large for her, seemingly because of the large diameter 700c wheels. On the other hand, many mountain bikes have suitable frame sizes, but they tend to be pretty slow riders. Are there any decent mid-range 26” wheel road bikes out there? Any other good options?

revolator

REI Novora Pulse

Sprocket Man

Terry makes a few bikes that are well suited for women:
https://www.terrybicycles.com/

kcirick

Trek makes small frames that are women-specific.

I don't know much about it but maybe junior frames are alternative options?

roadiejorge 

A friend of mine is about that height and rides a Trek, though I don't remember the size but I believe it is a WSD. How much the WSD factors into the frame size I'm not sure because what I've read is that WSD is more of a marketing tactic than anything else.

Nick29

I'm 5'1" and ride a 43cm Trek 2.1 (650c wheels). The 1.2 is also available in that size, and there are WSD versions of both bikes. It kinda sucks (for me) that the 1.5 and 2.3 aren't available in <50cm sizes. I guess they don't think short people are interested in having a better groupset.

Randochap

Consider 650b, or 650C

RichinPeoria

We bought a Performance "Scattante" aluminum frame in XS (48cm) for my wife and she is about five feet tall. Its a very nice frame. We had to find a very short (50cm) stem to compensate for the the top tube length. I also bought woman specific handlebars wich are shorter and compensate for small hands. I was able to get within the other ranges the Competitive Cyclist fit calculator gave me. We are using 700c wheels

late

My wife is 5'2" and rides 650b. The wheels are about the same size as 26", but
the bikes are a classic design. She loves it, and it's something I wouldn't mind having.

You can convert some road bikes to 650b.

https://www.freewebs.com/650b/650bresources.htm

MDcatV

my wife, who is a towering 5'2" tall would recommend a bianchi eros donna

https://www.bianchiusa.com/05_eros_donna.html

very nice frame, uses 700 wheels so you dont have the inconvenience of locating new irregular sized tires and other wheelsets

plus they are a bit more rare than the standard trek, cannondale, etc., which is kind of cool

MichaelW

Definately look for a smaller wheeled bike.
650C is the smaller standard for road bikes and most of the major brands (except Specialized) produce smaller 650C bikes. The only downside to 650c is the lack of medium width tyres; 28mm is very hard to find.
650B is too niche a size to be worth considering. You can get some 26" MTB toad-touring bikes. Surley make their smaller LHT model using MTB wheels and there are some good mid-sized slick tyres around.
Good WSD bikes should also have shorter cranks (160mm), narrower bars and a shorter top tube.

kroozer 

Thanks for your ideas, everyone. Now to check out some of these leads...