BIKES THAT FIT WOMEN under 5'4"

[Triskeliongirl]

I thought Lisa posted that her ramboulleit weighed 27 lbs hence my concern. As you know I am a fan of light steel, but by light I mean bikes in the under 22 lb range. I although think bikes with a sloping top tube are better aesthetically for those of us that prefer our bars high, although my bikes have straight ones.

[Triskeliongirl]

Then, for a a whole lot more money, there's the Rivendell Bleriot 49cm with a 50 cm top tube. The one I looked at today had 650 wheels. I didn't test drive it,
now I wish I had.
This bike is guaranteed to take fenders. I think this is Lisa's bike.

Here is a good price on that frame, if you test drive it and like it you may want to buy the frameset here, and transfer the parts from your veloce. I normally don't do this, try a bike in a shop and buy online, but if you can't afford the complete bike and/or don't like the build (shimano right?) I don't think its an awful thing to do. You can also get a feel for how heavy it is by looking at the one in your LBS. Only parts that won't transfer are the brakes, you'll need to purchase cantis, and you'll need a 650c wheelset (which you can buy on ebay), and a nitto technomic stem. I can help you with that if you need since I did that conversion a couple of times and know good places to get the brakes and stem ($39 each brake, and stem, $35). Usually if you bring the frame and parts to a bike shop they'll charge you ~$100 for assembly, maybe a bit more if they also have to strip down the veloce.

http://www.bikemannetwork.com/biking/p/CELLFRMRD/FM2400

[Triskeliongirl]

You got me interested in this bike, and I found a pdf with many details on it here. http://www.cyclofiend.com/rbw/index.html
Note that while the top tube appears longish the seat tube angle is so slack it has a shorter reach than many bikes you are looking at. If I was in the market for a true touring bike I would grab it in a second, since my problem is finding bikes with a slack enough seat tube angle. However, when I read the brochure I noticed it takes 650B tires. This is not the 650C that is on many womens racing bikes. What is wrong with this is that the narrowest tire you can get in this size they say is 30mm. I think that may be too wide for the fast club riding you like. ANother reason to go custom, the framebuilder makes the bike do what you want. Light steel, you got it. Fenders, you got it. Tire range from racing to touring, you got it. As I said before, finding a bike that is both light enough to keep up with a group and takes real fenders is just not htat easy, but it seems to me necessary where you live.

p.s. I just read a bit more in the brochure. Actually, you can buy it direct from rivendell for less than the price I posted above. If you don't care about the wheels, I suggest talking with grant about what parts will and won't transfer from the veloce and have him install what you need. He says he'll sell the frameset with headset installed for 775 direct. It takes long reach side pull brakes not cantis, but that is ok too since they also should have fender clearance.

[KnottedYet]

I thought Lisa posted that her ramboulleit weighed 27 lbs hence my concern.

Hmm, maybe it was the Legolas? Someone has a Riv that weighs the same as my Waterford... it's gonna bug me now until I find it....

I was looking at a Bleriot at Robinson Wheel Works in San Leandro CA, and thought it was a pretty spiffy frame. Mimi, you really might wanna check this one out!

[Triskeliongirl]

Hmm, maybe it was the Legolas? Someone has a Riv that weighs the same as my Waterford... it's gonna bug me now until I find it....


I was looking at a Bleriot at Robinson Wheel Works in San Leandro CA, and thought it was a pretty spiffy frame. Mimi, you really might wanna check this one out!

You are thinking of Veronica's Legolos. I agree the Bleriot is a very spiffy frame in a very women friendly geometry (I just love the slack seat tube angles) but it would bug me to not be able to use tires narrower than 30mm. That is very wide for the minimum size.

[KnottedYet]

I guess I'm missing something here. Why the minimum tire size? Is that determined by the rims you put on the frame or by the frame itself?

[Triskeliongirl]

I guess I'm missing something here. Why the minimum tire size? Is that determined by the rims you put on the frame or by the frame itself?

If you go to the link above, there is a 15 page pdf file you can download about the bike. For some reason Grant designed it to use a very non-standard wheel size, 650B. He says that tires for 650B rims only start at 30mm and then go considerably wider. I think he chose them over 650C since while 650C tires are available in racing widths, the widest they go is 28mm. THat's the catch.

HEre is the relevant section of the pdf:

What’s the Bleriot frame/bike?
It’s a multi-purpose bike built for 650B wheels. The rest of this brochure
goes into more detail.
What’s a 650B wheel?
It’s bigger in diameter than a mountain bike 26-inch wheel, and smaller than
a typical road 700c wheel. Rims are sized by something called “bead seat diameter” (bsd)—the diameter at the point where the tire bead nestles to the rim. Every tire made has its bsd molded into it, because bsd is the universal language of rim & tire compatibility. Here’s a chart.

rim size bsd
700c 622mm
650B 584mm
26-inch (mtn) 559mm

Why 650B?
A 650B wheel is smaller than a 700c wheel, so it allows more tire and fender
clearance, which is especially helpful on small-to-medium sizes.

650B history:
Bikes with 650B wheels go back 60 years, and still have a strong following in
France, with a growing, fan base here in the United States. It’s a smart size that one could argue should have been the mountain bike size, but in the frenzy to get a bike out there, it was easier to use the current mountain bike size (559mm bsd 26-inch), and once that caught on there was no going back.

Tires:The 650B tire that people think of when they think of 650B tires if
they think of 650B tires at all, is one that’s about 36 to 38mm wide and runs
on 30 to 50 psi. You can get 650B tires as narrow as 30mm and as wide as
41.5mm. Start off with a 33 to 38mm tire, and see how you like those (you will like those).


p.s. The 650C tire found on many wsd racing bikes have a bsd of 571 and are not interchangeable w 650B. I do not believe this frame will support a 650C rim but I am not sure of that. One reason I went with the terry bikes with the 700c/24" combo is that 24" (520 bsd) high pressure tires are available in sizes ranging from 23c racing to 32c touring, the range I was interested in using.

[salsabike]

here's another one, a steel bike made by Bianchi.. Bianchi Eros Donna
what an awesome name. but what kind of fenders would fit it? (it's about $1600.00)

I put clip-on fenders on mine, but don't know how they'd work in a close group. They keep me reasonably dry, myself.

Ask the LBS guys.

You can get a good basic Rodriguez for about that price, also--with the smaller wheels. I test rode one and really liked it.

[mimitabby]

Hi guys, i'm in seaside. we're delaying our ride start until 11am because the ground is frozen and no one wants a slip and slide fall.

we are talking about rodriguez here too. I think that is pretty interesting, the coincidence.
I think Lisa's bike is a ramboullet, but it's the color of the bleriott i'm not sure.

I might take my components and put them on a new bike, we've talked about that too.

I don't like the idea of those big fat tires either, Trisk.

And Grant wrote to me again, still snotty. he told me that the Legolas would
not suit my needs. You know, I don't want to deal with someone like that!

[roguedog]

Hey Mimi,

I'm going to quietly pipe in for a Giant OCR bike. Reasonably priced bike. It's not fancy. It's not high end. It's not steel.

But I think it's in the price range you're looking for and it can take fenders if I'm looking at the pictures correctly.

I love my Giant bike. I too have been in your shoes, shopping for bikes for the uh.. height challenged. I had to go to bike stores all over Northern California just so I could find shops with bikes in my size to test.

In the end, I just kinda found my bike. It felt great, was used and I think I got it it at a fair, if not good price. I got the racing style and I'm kinda looking for a used steel "everyday" bike so I can put on fenders and racks for commuting and just putzing about town. I also looking for that "steal" of a steel deal . It's hard tho to find something in my size new much less used and "vintage"!

Best of luck.

[mimitabby]

Roguedog,
thanks, I'll look at the Giant OCR too. I started this thread, not just for me.
I think it's helpful for folks to look at the brands and the pictures of the bikes to get some recognition of who is making bikes that cater to women who are
not the size of an average man!

[Eden]

by all means look at the OCR as I may be wrong - but it probably will not work for you. As I recall from my search for shortie bikes, Giants are very long for their size - they have some of the longest top tubes for their frame size around even on their wsd models. I'm not at all saying that they aren't nice bikes, but they are not particularly friendly to us with short arms/torsos.

p.s. if you all want a new custom bike builder to drool over try www.hampsten.com - Andy Hampsten is actually a local now and he's got a bike in town. Every bike is basically custom to your measurements, but they are pretty pricey.

[Triskeliongirl]

I agree Eden. The Strada Bianca seems to be exacty what Mimi is looking for:
http://www.hampsten.com/Bikes/Gravel...adabianca.html

Light, fast, fender friendly. You guys in Seattle are lucky to have so many great custom builders!

[mimitabby]

oh yeah! I will definitely visit that shop! thanks girls. I have been meaning to visit them but now i have another reason. He's friends wiht the son of the man who wrote the book about Alfonsina.

thank you.

[roguedog]

Eden.. ya... I've been drolling over their Tournesol line. Just beautiful.. uh..

Hmm.. interesting observation re: the Giant bikes. I guess my torso is about the same length as my body and I dunno if my arms are of the longer or shorter variety for my height.

Still love my bike. Fits me and my checkbook But uh.. I love it too much to just run errands on it and maybe let it be mauled or stolen. So that's why I wanna "run around town" or in college we called it a "beater bike."