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I believe women tend to have LONGER legs and SHORTER upper bodies relative to their height compare to men? (but men on average will have larger feet relative to their height)?
I'm quite happy on men's bikes, but once you go below a 50cm TT a 700C wheel becomes hard to use with non-toe-murdering geo, and that doesn't make it easy, so now 650C bikes are offered by Evans, among others.
Pink and flowers on women's frames are deffo my big fit issues... :P
JWestland-
No. As that would mean I am a woman. 170cm height with 81cm inseam.
No. Because 650b and custom if you are a freak. You cant have it all.
Just no.
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Here's what I found.
Women can fit on men bicycle (the majority of "women" bicycles are the same as the men).
The keys issues is poor design, as the frame sizing isn't consistent, like Specialized, whose smallest frame isn't as short as their medium frame.
That's usually why Cervelo is popular with both genders, despite them not offering a "women" version, because their sizing is much more in relation to the fit.
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I believe women tend to have LONGER legs and SHORTER upper bodies relative to their height compare to men?
They, in general, don't. Our western aesthetic finds long legs attractive--- linked to preception of youth whence fertility--- so creates the image of longer legs though fashion. Its as they say "smoke and mirrors".
Leg length is particularly interesting amongst elite cyclists since longer legs tend to be advantageous-- just as shorter legs to swimmers and height to basketball players. That means that one would expect the sport to define a certain kind of preference filter towards individuals with comparatively longer legs. I was quite suprized when back in the 1980s the data collected on female elite cyclists did not show this response.
(but men on average will have larger feet relative to their height)?
Again they really don't. Women wear smaller shoes since they are on average shorter and they tend to purchase shoes that are comparatively smaller. Small feet, like long legs, is considered sexually attractive so women's shoes tend to typically be made in patterns to give the impression of a smaller foot. Compare the the court shoe to its female high street variant: the "pump". Women, in turn, tend to try to fit into shoes like Anastasia into those glass slippers--- witness the high frequency of noncongenital foot problems amongst women.
amey
edscoble
EdwardZ
The factors to correlate foot length to height etc. are gender (and to a certain extent race) specific. Foot length seems to reach mature length much earlier than legs (femur, tibia). Given the impact on growth from estrogen it seems that women can have comparatively longer feet yet shorter legs and whence longer torsos. The reason that women have smaller feet is that they are shorter and there is a social aesthetic trend to wear too small shoes (in its most cruel form as the sexual fetish of Chinese foot bindings)! Woman's bicycle fit is, however, additionally complicated by the gender differences in muscle mass, flexibility etc.