Ladies / Women's Bike Fitting

488mm TT, 361mm reach

Cheers IB.

Right...am hankering after a road bike/get another Bike To Work good deal whilst I'm still employed by the University of London (am seconded to NHS London atm who don't operate any such scheme?!)

Can the ladies of this fine parish/forum point me in the direction of female friendly/helpful bike stores, where they've not been patronised/ignored/pointed in the direction of the nice bike with flowers on? Ta!

Shameless plug, but I were able to do such thing at the Wimbledon Evans.

However, I think Brixton Cycles is pretty women-friendly (as a couple of them do work there), Nhatt! left BC sadly, but they should still be able to help.

This is AFAIK, being a bloke I have no idea how the other bicycle shop may treat the women, Condor Cycles is quite good mind.

Best experience recently was 'On Your Bike' on Tooley St where a v nice chap (can't remember his name) gave me loads of info without mentioning the paint job once. He took a wheel off the Eddie Merckx to demonstrate some clever aspect of non-crossed spokes, we had a conversation on gearing where he didn't assume that I wanted a granny gear, explained square tapers/external bearings and he put me up on the turbo trainer to play around with different fits on the Cannondale they had. I learned a hell of a lot in that hour (admittedly from a low base)!

Brixton Cycles were very very helpful but didn't have much in my shortarsed-size to demo with. The Evans at The Cut had most bikes in my size but the woman who served me was on a different planet. Evans on Mortimer St were quite helpful once I got their attention but most female customers in there were trying out Pashleys by cycling round the basement displays...

+1 for Brixton Cycles
Never shopped for bikes in OYB, but always found them to be really friendly and knowledgable in there when I've gone in for bits and pieces.

Have got tomorrow afternoon off work. May swing past BC and see what they recommend. Ta!

What are your dimensions? Are you v. small or have a short torso?

I'm on the short side, around 5ft 3 or so and I think I'm pretty much in proportion. I wouldn't say I'm especially long or short in leg or torso etc. Just average sigh

You got any particular frames/makes in mind IB?

I'm a similar height. I can tell you what frames were in stock a few weeks ago when I was doing the grand tour. The Evans on The Cut had the most bikes in a 47-50cm size to try out - an Eddie Merckx, the two cheaper Specialized Dolces, a Scott Contessa and various Trek Lexas. They also had a couple of gorgeous carbon frames depending on how far your budget is going. OYB only had a 51cm Cannondale. Evans on Mortimer St had the Specialized Elite, a couple of Fuji and the Lexa. BC only had the Specialized Sport in that size last month. Bon Velo on Herne Hill had a single lovely carbon Orbea in that size.

Ooh applespider...don't tempt me with this talk of "lovely carbon Orbea" ; )

Am going to be loitering around South all weekend so reckon I might pop into Bon Velo and BC. If nothing else, I want to try some sidis on for size in BC.

Bike shop types - have I imagined this or does lots of new season stock come into stores around August?

My new baby and I went out for our first ride today - just did my regular commute since I figured I was familiar with the route and knew how things usually felt. And phew, she feels pretty good. I will probably play with the saddle position a bit (or get a new one - this one feels a tad chunky/padded). Probably also need to find some shims to play with the brake levers - they're OK but I think I'd like them a teeny bit closer to the bars. But I was able to move from drops to hoods relatively easily, signal and filter through traffic so all in all... a successful outing.

And I stopped in at Evans Victoria to pick up some SPD pedals (price-matched obviously!) and when I asked for a pedal wrench, the v helpful assistant offered to change them for me.

So...pootsmanuva... did you see anything you liked over the weekend?

I'm surprised we haven't discussed this before, I don't think it's covered in the 'What bike' thread.

Getting a decent bike fit is hard for women, especially on track bikes, so I'd love to hear how you've all made it happen.
I'm basically trying to get Mrs. Wicksie comfortable on her bike as she's having a very tough time of it.
She has an awesome track bike that measures 51.5 cm ST c-c, 53cm TT with an 85mm stem and is 177.5mm tall.
An online bike fit tells us she needs a bike that's 58cm x 53cm with a 100mm stem.
No manor of clown bike currently exists, and paying for a full bike fit isn't really an option, so does anyone have any tips or ideas?
We're looking at getting a longer stem but wondering if we do perhaps need a bigger bike, even though TT is more important than ST.

I've really struggled to dial in my bikes also so there must be others struggling out there?

At least there are beginning to be some women's specific fixed / ss bikes:

Why?

Oh why?

Better, but still...

In my experience, finding a suitable bike is tough if a woman is short (less than 5' 3'' say) or particularly long legged (and short torso'ed). For the rest, getting a good fit is as hard (or as easy) as for men.

I suggest paying a lot of attention to effective top tube as a decider of whether then bike will fit. After that, consider seat angle (some smaller bike have silly steep angles which kind of defeats the point of an apparently short top tube)- chasing the saddle WAY back makes an apparently suitable bike too damn long again.

Depending on your intended use I would then consider head tube length as an indicator of whether you will be able to get your hands high or low enough.

Good advice sherrit.

The seatube angle also determines the position of the BB, in terms of how far in front of the saddle it is. Having a seat further back in relation to BB allows you to use more of your hamstrings when riding and can take strain of hands. Sometimes short torso riders can end up pushing saddle forward to improve handlebar reach. But this greatly changes pedalling mechanics making it more quad dominant, and can put strain on hands.

There are other little effects of saddle position too, to some degree it determines how upright your torso will me when riding. Sometimes what is more upright (forward saddle position) can end up being an awkward angle where your low back gets fatigued because you are trying to keep weight off wrists. But setting it far back or having to reach too far forwards, can make you so bent over that there is a lot of pressure on your sensitive bits instead of your 'sit bones' as ed would say.

I suggest paying a lot of attention to effective top tube
After that, consider seat angle

Depending on your intended use I would then consider head tube length as an indicator of whether you will be able to get your hands high or low enough.

That's all great advice, thank you Sherrit.
The HT is way too short here even though the TT is about right so it's causing the troubles.

Good advice sherrit.

Having a seat further back in relation to BB...

having to reach too far forwards, can make you so bent over that there is a lot of pressure on your sensitive bits instead of your 'sit bones' as ed would say.

The saddle position was bang on according to Fit Calculator but the later point is the issue here.

I'm looking at quill stems with an aggressive rise to solve the problem. Ugly I know but it's causing a lot of pain atm so will try anything.

Thanks for the advice

This best way I think is to go to a bike builder like Condor, Chas Roberts, Mercian, get measured and a frame custom built. Obviously this is not the cheapest way but you will get your dream machine

OYB on Tooley St, can get you fitted for fifty pounds...

^ I rate OYB - a chap called Denver in particular - as does CafeWanda if I recall rightly.

I can't brake properly on the hoods on my road bike, despite it fitting perfectly in every other way and having wsd bars/midget stem/ar levers. It means I ride on the drops allthefuckingtime which is frankly quite boring.

I should really do something about that.

^ Have you tried a shorter stem? Or raising the handlebars in and the brake hoods up?

My stem's only 70mm anyway and 10mm isn't going to do it. I could change the angle but given how I'm used to riding (particularly now I'm on the drops allthefuckingtime) I suspect it might cause me large amounts of distress.

New bike?