My little Sweetie (bless her heart) is interested in tri’s now because she wants to actually do them with me instead of being my #1 cheerleader… She’s after me for a little bike advice… she wants to start off with a road bike for group riding as well (which I think is a good choice as a first bike as well) And she has asked me about women’s specific design… Now, I was under the impression that this is a load of crap. A bike fit is a bike fit right? I know that things like a shorter torso and arms have to be taken into consideration. But she’ll likely get as a good a fit on a properly sized road frame… Correct? Any comments are much appreciated since I really had no basis for my comments other than what I suspected.
This is valid. Top tube length is often the largest thing that changed with the womens specific frame sets. I am quite impressed with some of what I have seen for womens framesets. Tracy has a Specialized Dolce - that I quickly tore off the Ultrgra and replaced it with Chorus…been a great bike - and stupid light for a built bike not meant to be super light. 16lbs…small frame though.
Chorus 10 groupset, Velemax wheels, stock fork, carbon post, bars and what not - not bad for less than $1800 total for the bike as it sat with Ultegra
Kind of depending on her size. If she is not too “petite”, a regular geometry should probably be o.k.
it depends on if she has girly dimensions or not. In my experience, a girl only NEEEDS a WSD if both of the following criteria are met: under 5’4" AND her height is 2/3 or more legs.
I really only have to do it with petite girls who are more legs than anyone cares to deal with. However, WSD works in more situations that when it is apsolutely necesary. The bottm line is that your experienced fitter will know instantly if WSD is right for her or not.
for the 4’ 9" queen of my life, WSD is a life saver on her 40CM Cannondale r500 fem.
First off, it’s great that she wants to ride! The more women who get involved in cycling, the more likely bike mfrs will make bikes that fit shorties like me! It irritates me that, say, the top end Felts are too big for me. Pinarello, Colnago, Opera, Look, Time – I’ll never comfortably ride most of the bikes I lust after because they’re too big!
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I’m 5’2" and am looking for a new road bike, too. Right now, I ride a Kestrel Talon, 48cm. It fits … okay. What I’ve seen is that a lot of mfrs shorten the top tube on smaller frames by steepening the seat tube angle. But then you have to push the saddle back to get comfortable over the bottom bracket, which then lengthens the effective top tube, which stretches you out even more, which is exactly opposite of what you were trying to achieve. I think there’s something about this on Cervelo’s website.
I don’t know how helpful the above is. I’m planning on going to 650 wheels for my road bike – it just makes more sense for such small frames.
And not to hijack the thread or anything, but is there a formula for comparing different geometries’ top tube v. seat tube angle? Seems like there should be, but I could be wrong. Quite frequently am …
Yes. A saddle either works or it doesn’t.
Depends. Some companies paint a normal road bike pink and call it women’s specific.
Here’s my opinion:
Many women have long legs/short torsos and many men have short legs/long torsos but many others do not. That’s a bit of a generalization about leg/torso lengths. I don’t think they should really call it a “women’s specific” design as much as it should be a “smaller person specific” design. My wife is 5’4" but rides a normal sized road bike but with a small grip drop bar and Specialized Alias (unisex) saddle. These parts are more small person specific than just for women. A six foot tall woman will not have the same requirements as my wife. Why would my wife’s fit requirement be that much different from a 5’4" male. She is long legged for her height but that is not to assume that there are no males of her height who are not. A man or woman of her height with shorter legs would need a longer top tube or perhaps only a longer stem.
There are a number of women specific geometries from Lemond, Trek, etc that make one or two sizes with a shorter top tube, but get your wife properly measured before deciding on the “women’s specific” model.
You’re right, it is a load of crap. Once a suitable frame is chosen according to suitable top tube length, suitable ride height can be chosen simply by adjusting seat post for saddle height to suit leg reach. Rest of adjustments saddle fore and aft and steering stem length don’t require any kind of WSD.
Yup WSD is all about placebo and spending more but getting nothing better. Some women especially beginners will prefer the modesty of a slanting top tube as in compact frames. In which case instead of buying expensive WSD simply choose a compact frame. In reality the slanting tube if the woman is bike handling savy doesn’t need any sloping tube. After all in reality us gents have more exposed down there than our femme counter parts.
roo…I luv ya and all…but you are wrong. I tried and tried to get a “normal” frame to fit Tracy, I couldn’t. The Specialized WSD fell into place instantly. I changed the seat, and put Chorus 10 on it…that is all. She loves it. Women are built diffrent than men…that is a fact…and in the world of cycling where my top tube on my road bike is 1/2 cm longer than stock…why should there no be a valid correction for women on a whole?
I don’t doubt what you say for Tracy at all.
But I’m thinking fit requires 2 basic things. Leg reach (adjustable thro saddle height setting) and upper body reach (choosing the best top tube length). The rest is fine tuning. Many of our gals here opt for the Giant compact frames, some use the Cannondale WSDs. Some just use generic bicycles of varyious brands and models.
My wifey’s just about to drop another out of the oven, but 6 months down the road I’ll be scouting a road bike for her. I’ll take what you say into consideration.
Have a look at this article on WSD. I me this guy over the weekend, he’s been fitting athletes for years.
http://www.cyclefitcentre.com/pdf%20final%20docs/sensitive_issues.pdf
http://www.cyclefitcentre.com/pdf%20final%20docs/more_sensitive_issues.pdf
Cheers
Lucas
another thing … The one change I have made to my bike that has made more of a difference than practically anything else was to switch out the normal-size STIs for the small-hand STIs. I can now easily shift while in the drops.
WSDs probably come with these smaller shifters (and if they don’t, they SHOULD), but it’s another thing to think about.
Not always, unless my wife goes WSD or custom, when the tt is short enough the stand ver is way to short and the fork would need abut 4 inches of spacers.
Styrrell
I think it is all about options. I think WSD stuff gives additional options for a good fit. Hell, some smaller guys may benefit from what some companies do for WSD. And some of the benefits have more to do with spec than with the frame. I agree with Tom D. that a saddle either works or it doesn’t, but there are many lower quality LBS out there that are not so ready to swap out the 44 cm long drop bars that come stock on some standard smaller frames, so if a woman can walk in and buy a bike that already has bars/stem/shifters/seat that are more likely to work for her - GREAT.
I don’t think it is all hype, but I don’t think it is perfection. You can’t just send a female customer over to the WSD section of the shop and expect her to get the perfect bike with no changes every time. But if it works for some, it can’t be a total load of crap. And why make a girl go through a big long fit session to determine she needs a new saddle, stem, and bars if the bike with that spec is already available?
well I guess I’m defective, 'cause I have a long torso and a shorter inseam. 
I require a boy bike painted pink. 
Again, I think it depends on her size. I’m 5’8" and I ride a normal road frame.
Dawn
“Not always, unless my wife goes WSD or custom, when the tt is short enough the stand ver is way to short and the fork would need abut 4 inches of spacers.”
styrell,
What is a tt?
There’s nothing wrong with using spacers to tune in the steering height. For more flexible adjustments just make suer the shop doesn’t go ahead and saw off too much of that steering stem off. After fixing everything up, and putting in some actual riding one may find the need to move the steering up a little. If it’s all chopped off there will be no option to do this. In general if the rider is new he/she will ride a little higher and as the back muscles get used to it a spacer or two can be moved up from below the handlebar to on top, moving the ride position down a little.
I don’t quite agree with what Todder says about WSD bikes needing less screwing around for fit for the gals than generic bikes. Womens’ body geometry in terms of torso and limb length ratios plus comforts of riding positions due to other factors such as muscle strengths also vary from person to person no diff from us guys. Kresten and Dawn here both say they are using generic frames fitted for their suitability no problems. As mentioned also WSD frames often are made in small sizes factoring in that the gals are generally shorter. But as we know some girls can be pretty lengthy and long of limb. Again them sloping top tubes are placebo good for gals who aren’t that serious but any reasonably seasoned gal rider should not have a problem with a straight bar frame and compact frames are always available.
My bike is WSD. To look at the bike, you wouldn’t really know it unless you went to the manufacturer’s website and looked up the model name. Good thing too, because I hate pink.
I’m 5’7" and could have easily found a regular bike to fit but this one was on sale. I doubt that there is much demand in this area for a WSD Ti bike, so I figure that it was a bit of a score.
The narrower handlebars and shorter-reach levers make it a lot more comfortable than my previous bike. I will likely go for a similar handlebar/lever system on future bikes.