databike

I mean, there are woman's road bikes right? the one with the sunk frames.

so are there woman's track bikes? i've just seen girls riding normal road bikes, fixies, why would they even make woman's bikes? shouldn't they all just be unisex bikes? i'm confused. i'm trying to get a single speed bike for a chick friend and i don't know what is what.

the_don

Those frames were so that girls could get on and off with a skirt on and keep their dignity.

New road racer and MTBs can come in Womens specific geometry. Because their proportions are different to men, upper torso and arm reach vs leg length.

rogwilco

Yes, bicycles are pretty much unisex. Bikes like the one in the picture you posted are made that way for comfort/practicality, because it's easier to get off and on - especially in a skirt/dress - not for performance, which is what track bikes are (technically) all about.

queerpunk

Sort of, but also not really. I mean, it's not "men's frames" and "women's frames" the way that crappy bike boom era bikes made them (see photo above), but there's are generalizations about the different ways that women's bodies and men's bodies tend to be beyond just, you know, painting women's frames pastels and giving it a paint scheme that features flowers.

things like the different ratios in inseam to reach length; smaller hands, narrower shoulders, and wider sitbones mean that speccing a bike for women (in general) should require some different elements than specing one foe men (in general).

www.terrybicycles.com - terry bicycles has made a business out of building bicycles specifically for women. one of the things they did in the past that i liked a lot was to put 24" wheels on the front, with a longer headtube. this allowed them to get top tubes smaller than 51cm without resorting to lots of toe overlap or terrible-handling super-shallow head tube angles.

i don't know of anybody who makes track bikes for specifically for women, but it wouldn't take much and might not be worth the deviation from unisex. A women's saddle, maybe some narrower handlebars... that's all it would take.

leed

IRO makes some of their framesets in 650c, not sure if I would consider them "Women's track bikes" per se, but it's one step closer.
https://www.irocycle.com/index.asp?Pa...TS&Category=35

skinnyland

Woman's track bike:

JohnDThompson 

I built some track frames for the 1984 Women's National Cycling Team when I worked for Trek. Does that count?

ADSR

No girls allowed.

vegipowrd

What elements changed when you designed those? Shorter reach? Assumptions of longer legs? Different saddle? Handle bars would have been fairly narrow back then anyways.

JohnDThompson 

They were custom designed for each rider. We just built the frames (Reynolds 753, Campy ends); the riders (or their mechanics) did the set up, but Campy Record "Pista" was de rigueur.

We did have some trouble with some new-fangled "aero" track frames for the team. They rode them without problems at the Nationals, but UCI wouldn't let them be used at the worlds.

adriano 

gentlemen only. ladies forbidden.

K_phomma

https://www.sweetpeabicycles.com/blog/


hayoooo

jtgotsjets

The step-through frame design is associated with women because of its association with skirts, but step through frames don't have to be women's frames. In fact, mixte (the best kind of step through frame) is actually French for unisex.

Actual women's frames have a little more research put into measurements than simply dropping the top tube.

That said, I don't know whether you're looking for a step-through track frame or a track frame with female-specific geometry. Either one is likely going to be hard, if not impossible, to find.
Finding a suitable bike with female-specific geometry is going to be hard in general—there aren't a lot of makers catering to women specifically (although the terry bikes mentioned earlier are great—quite a few small Centurions were made in the 80s via collab with Terry, very nice bikes).

Finding a suitable step-through frame shouldn't be a problem. Look for a decent mixte frame—butted chromoly, etc—and convert it to fixed. Done.

wearyourtruth

pretty much everything has been said about the topic of "women's" frames.

the first thing i thought of, though, was spicer cycles, who makes a whole bunch of crazy frames, including some "step through"-esque track frames

ichitz

hey! i'm a girl! and i'm staying!

I think it dates way back when.. when women wore dresses a lot more than girls these days. So u don't have to swing ur legs across the back and the skirt can fall over in front of u while pedaling.

If you're buying for a female friend, totally depends on how she likes to ride and what she's comfortable with. I can ride my track frame no problem. But I don't wear skirts while on my bike. I think 'most' girls who would get on a bike these days could deal with not having to wear skirts for that one day (or most days if that's gonna be her main commuting source).

A lot of my girl friends' bikes does not have a women frame. At the same time, I also know some girls who just can't get used to the 'stepping down from the seat when u stop' thing, so they would have those women frames and their seat would be too low. So again, depend on the girl you are buying for.

Scrodzilla

Correction: Woman's tarck bike.

andmalc

Wouldn't a frame designed for women have a slacker seat tube angle to fit women's relatively longer legs?

Astronomical

yes there is such a thing, a track bike that belongs to a woman.

Raiden

SOMA has a mixte track bike now. Just sayin'.

bonechilling

Exactly. WSD and all that crap is just bull**** invented to make girls feel more comfortable buying a road bike. Here are Cervelo's thoughts on women's frames, and they know more about this **** that anyone here. Pretty insightful.

jeanHTX

i've seen a link to a recent mixte track bike, but unfortunately can't pull up a link at the moment. anyways, nowadays i don't really think there's any correlation between girls riding with skirts on and the "sunk" top tubes. i've worn skirts when i ride before, it's no biggie. of course, they're not mini skirts (although i have seen girls in mini skirts riding their fixed/track bikes).

the_don

I have to say it, I am sorry.

"Too many dicks on the dancefloor!!!"