Help me fit a 5'4" female

[tattiefritter]

Tattiefritter - do you ride a specialized? your description sounds like my Dolce!

Its not a Spesh,though I did consider the Dolce. Its a "man's" frame made by Ribble Cycles which is a bike shop near me that make/import their own road bike frames. They fitted me for size on a jig in the shop and I specced everything myself (nothing too fancy -105) and they then built the bike. They did tell me I would probably spend some time fine tuning the fit particuarly as I come from an mtb background but I think I've got the corect size.

[doc]

Has any of you with her proportions had experience with a Men's Small frame size, like a Giant or something like that?

While you all have been posting here, I have been doing a bit of reading on the web and I feel pretty comfortable with a 48" seat tube (on a standard geometry), but I am still totally lost on cockpit length.

I am 5'4 with a 30" inseam. It's probably only 29.5 but I won't admit it. Anyway I had a WSD which did NOT fit. As mentioned before, she has short legs and should probably stay away from WSD. I ride a men's Giant TCR C1 (all carbon and ultegra/dura ace combo). I love it. BUT I am on the X-small, NOT the small. It fits great. Small would have been huge for me. I love the sloping top tube too. You can definitely pick up a used aluminum giant tcr with shimano 105 (or ocr if she is less aggressive in her stance) pretty cheap.
Good luck

[spokewench]

I am 5'4 with a 30" inseam. It's probably only 29.5 but I won't admit it. Anyway I had a WSD which did NOT fit. As mentioned before, she has short legs and should probably stay away from WSD. I ride a men's Giant TCR C1 (all carbon and ultegra/dura ace combo). I love it. BUT I am on the X-small, NOT the small. It fits great. Small would have been huge for me. I love the sloping top tube too. You can definitely pick up a used aluminum giant tcr with shimano 105 (or ocr if she is less aggressive in her stance) pretty cheap.
Good luck

So, it goes to show you that everyone of our height fits a bike differently! I'm 5'4", about a 30" inseam (I think) and I ride a Giant TCR Small (not extra small). So to answer the question of what size should a 5'4" woman ride, it is different for each woman; you can take a ballpark figure of a 48 cm to 51 cm bike, but the woman in question should then go try bikes to see what works for her. It all depends on how much the person has ridden, what they want to do on the bike, how their body geometry is, i.e short waist or not so short waist, long arms, etc. So, go with the approximation, but have the woman go try bikes.

[jamiewilson3]

Thanks for all of the help you all. I really appreciate your input. I will probably try and get her to go to a shop some time soon and put her on some bikes to try out, focusing on Men's XS and S frames.