Quote Originally Posted by ilima View Post
I think most of us that have responded are skeptical that she would need a 51.5cm TT. It just seems to short given her height, unless she has really short arms, which seems unlikely given her long legs. The steep STA would help to increase the reach on the Diva precisely because the saddle would need to be set back a bit. To me, that would be a good thing as I think the Diva's TT sounds a bit too short.

I'm 5'4", 31" inseam (pretty long for my height) with longish arms and my road bike has a 52cm TT; 74 STA, 80mm stem. A friend that is 5'10" and has loooong legs rides a 56cm Felt men's bike. Probably a 55cm TT, although it's probably a bit too long for her.

The Diva with a setback seatpost just might work. If you need to use a stem shorter than 80-90mm or so though, I'd say it doesn't work.
Wow - thanks everyone for all of your input. I'm getting a bit of conflicting opinion from everyone, though. I checked with the bike shop where I used to work where we did a Fit Kit Pro fitting - her numbers from that were pretty different than what I got from the CC Fit Calculator...it recommended a 545 top tube and a 100-110 stem - waaaay longer than the 515 top tube and 90 stem CC's calculator suggested. I really think a men's frame would work, but nervous about the longer top tubes. She used to have a 56 Men's Felt road bike and felt too stretched out. I had her sit on my 51 Orca (same seat tube length, 10mm longer top tube and slightly slacker ST angle) with the saddle raised and the stem raised to simulate the taller head tube on the Diva 53. She said she felt good on it and was ok with the 5-6cm drop from top of saddle to top of h-bars (which could be decreased even more with a slightly rising stem and/or 1 more spacer).

I agree about getting a bike that fits - I will end up spending about $3000. Buying a frame and building it with Campy Chorus/Record and using her Tri Bike (A Felt 56 B2, by the way - too big for her but she wanted something where her h-bars would be about the same height as saddle for her Ironman race Aug. 9) training wheels. $3k is a lot to spend on a bike that's not a perfect fit, but I'm concerned there may not BE a perfect fit out there. I DID find a Trek and A Specialized at my LBS that have similar geometries to the 53 Diva, so I am going to have her check them out and we'll go from there. I must also admit to being partial to the Diva since I have the Orca.