mountain bike fit?

[madisongrrl]

Jones,

I've just seen the geometry of the Trek and it is quite short at the 16", but the top tube length jumps when it goes up to 18". The non-wsd trek may actually be a better bet for you as you don't have the body proportions that the WSD is aimed at, I am the same - short legs, long torso and ride "men's" bikes. Its not compulsory to have a WSD bike even if they look better!

This is so true! I'm looking at buying a nice full suspension bike for racing purposes. I have it narrowed down to a few bikes. I was looking at the Specialized Stumpjumper FSR Expert WMNS and also the Trek Fuel EX 9 WSD. I spent 2.5+ hours with my fitter yesterday discussing geometry and fit. What we actually found is that my most perfect geometry is with the Trek Fuel EX 9 men's 15.5" bike! The other bikes aren't total rule outs, but on paper, the men's Trek is looking like the best option. No WSD for me.

So certainly look to some of the smaller men's bikes also!

I think it is nice that some companies are doing the WSD thing, they are not always making intellgent design decisions. They make large jumps between some categories (between sizes) and little jumps in others.

This weekend, I'm taking my tape measure and level and I'm heading out to test ride those bikes. I'm going to take over the situation, set up my potential bikes to my fit sheet and I'm going to tell that bossy male bike salesman to back off! I can't wait, it should be fun.