I waded through this thread and read the chatter concerning Soma mixte sizing & fit. Let me preface my remarks by saying I am a bike shop owner and have a sizeable female customer base (I've built road, cross, mtb, singlespeed, touring, TT, and commuter/town bikes for dozens of women and all were frame up builds - no bikes out of a box.)

And I just finished a Buena Vista for a woman who plans to pick it up shortly (I'll post some photos soon). In order to possibly start a bit of a dialogue I'll lead off by saying that a majority of the fears, comments, concerns, and what ifs, etc., about the Buena Vista not being suitable for women are simply unfounded and unfortunate.