Names and faces to bikes

the 52.5cm is the top tube length, not the seat tube, the problem with bicycle is that women tend to need a bike with a slighty shorter top tube than usual.

saddle are much more opinionated, for instance, my sit bones is defintely wider than tricitybendix, who find a normal Brooks B17 saddle to be a comfortable fit.

I am well fussy about saddle angle though so that will make a difference where my sit bones are, er, sitting on the saddle.

I'm used to doing long rides on an Arione... I have a B17 on my tourer that I haven't ridden more than 60 miles in one go on so I may retract the bit about it being comfortable.

^^ Don't listen to her, she sets her bike up to go at 88mph.

True

They say women on average have proportionally longer legs than men so that would make sense mostly.

I thought it was shorter torso?

I don't think that's true, or at least I remember reading a complicated but convincing rebuttal. There is some difference, but it's not that simple, I think. Experts in anatomy, please.

The general consensus is both - longer legs and shorter torso - but obviously this isn't going to be the case for all women. It does seem to be the case for me though and I like a bit of generalisation.

Brake levers with drops take a bit of getting used to whatever size you've got. When I first got a road bike (06 langster) I think I was on a 54 top tube with the crazy long stock stem (and I was riding it singlespeed so HAD to be leaning forwards miles to stop). I was very happy to discover I'd just bought the wrong size bike and riding with drops isn't meant to be incredibly uncomfortable. Now all my bikes have drops. Except the Brompton (one day though).

I could ramble in an ill-informed manner about girl bike sizing for hours.