Womens' Bikes: Thoughts On Frame Size and Design

The most most important part of buying a bike is frame size and design. The frame is the heart of the bike and it is a complicated topic. Here are some considerations for women.


Bars and Stems

A main concern for women is getting the bars closer to them. In short, get the bar futher back (a shorter stem) and get the bar higher up. A good way of getting the bar higher is to get a bar with an upward slope in the extension part. The old-fashioned quill stem consistes of two parts, the quill that goes down into the steerer tube, and the extension that goes forward and grips your bars. If you have a threadless stem, the entire length of the stem is the extension. If you use a quill stem, get a longer quill. If you have a threadless stem, then get a longer steerer tube on your fork.

The width of your handelbars is another concern. For road and mountain bikes, the width of the handelbars should be approximately the width of your shoulders. Since women generally have narrower shoulders, more narrow handelbars are in order. Keep in mind that MTB magazines will speak about bars that are too narrow. Remember, the writers are exclusively men. Only pay attention to articles about women's specific bikes.


The Juliana Handlebar

Many MTBers use a "riser bar." These are handlebars that bend up and back from the stem area. They are useful for raising the grip up if you have trouble getting a hand position that is high enough. The problem for women is that they are usually significantly wider than flat bars. This means that you can end up with bars that are far too wide for you. Unfortunately, they can't actually be shortened because of the design. They curve at the wrong position, preventing proper positioning of the shift and brake levers. Fortunately, some relief is had with the Juliana handlebar, by Wylder. It has a narrower grip, and they are better padded than standard grips. However, be aware that a thinner grip area will prevent you from using bars ends or SRAM twist-shift levers.


The Terry Handlebar

The Terry handlebar has a nice feature. The handelbars have hand indentations that allow you closer to the brake levers when your hands are on the drops. A nice feature especially if you have smaller hands. This is useful if you want to use Campagnolo or Shimano integrated shifter/brake levers. These levers put the brake lever even further from the bar than the usual drop bar brake lever, making them more difficult to use from the drops with small hands.


Brake Levers

The choice of levers is especially important to women. Women may wish to avoid Dia Compe short-reach brake levers (BL-24C) for drop bars. These levers have more cable friction than brake levers from Campagnolo and Shimano. This is a particular problem for women because a strong grip is required. Of course, Magura makes hydralic rim brakes that with drop bars. These breakes reduces cable friction and stretching.

Many women prefer to use the Campagnolo and Shimano integrated brake/shift levers combination because it is convenien to operate from the brake lever hood. Nevertheless, women may have some difficulty reaching the brakes/shifters from the drops. Women that have small hands may want to use and want to use the Terry handlebars with Campagnolo/Shimano levers.

Shimano Sora conveniently places an adjustment screw that allows shift/brake levers to be closer to the bars. Setting these up properly makes it much easier to reach the brake levers.


Cranks

It is very important that the crank length suit the length of the rider's leg. Unfortunately, many manufacturers may little regard to the shorter leg length of women. It is necessary for shorter women to look hard in order to locate an appropriate crank length. It is time well spent.

I hope these ideas have helped.