WSD road bike for tall women?

[KnottedYet]

The big deal seems to be torso length compared to appendage length.

If you think of the stereotyped female build as long appendages and relatively short torso compared to a male of the same height, then the chick may want the same size bike, but with a shorter top tube.

So yeah, there are WSD bikes for taller women, with relatively short top tubes compared to a standard bike of the same seat tube length.

WSD also takes into account a woman's longer femurs relative to a man of the same height, so tend to have slacker seat tube angles to keep KOPS correct.

WSD is also often applied to mean "small", which is unfortunate because then the benefit for taller female riders gets lost in translation.

But there is such a wide range of top-tube lengths (in the same seat tube size) and seat tube angles in the average sized bikes that it's fairly easy for most taller women to find one that fits. The selection and variation is much larger in the "average" sizes. (And those who can't find a geometry in the standard bikes should be able to find one in WSD, but with the emphasis on WSD=small, that can be tough to arrange.)

And some tall women (like me) have such long torsos that shorter top-tube WSD feel kind of freaky and cramped.

Hip, with all your clothing design experience you probably have a darn good idea about your torso/leg proportions, so you have a great short-cut to guide you on the WSD choice. If you want someone to take a peek, wander up to Free Range and ask Steen to help you. She is awesome about women and fit. She talked me out of a Soma Buena Vista, advising me to wait until they solved some issues... sigh.