http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Topic: How does one go about.... en Sun, 28 Jun 2026 11:41:49 +0000 http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15554&page=2#post-201124 Tue, 06 Oct 2015 23:34:09 +0000 le_soigneur 201124@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>A 21" sounds big and in my view would be for someone over 6ft,<br /> it will not be as stiff or handle as well as a 19". But 17" sounds too small, a 9cm stem would make it too tail-light for braking downhill. But who am I to say what her preference would be?<br /> I would order the 19" on a sale-or-re-fit basis. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15554&page=2#post-201109 Tue, 06 Oct 2015 19:24:46 +0000 chdot 201109@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>"that's quite tall for a woman"</p> <p>Statistically... </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15554&page=2#post-201108 Tue, 06 Oct 2015 18:18:48 +0000 sallyhinch 201108@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>TBH if there's only two sizes and it's a women's frame and she's 5'10 then get the larger of the two, as that's quite tall for a woman </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15554#post-201107 Tue, 06 Oct 2015 18:11:54 +0000 chdot 201107@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>"This forum becomes awfully technical sometimes"</p> <p>Only when necessary...! </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15554#post-201098 Tue, 06 Oct 2015 16:39:33 +0000 SRD 201098@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>sorry Roibeard! </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15554#post-201096 Tue, 06 Oct 2015 16:04:05 +0000 Roibeard 201096@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Ah, I was being imprecise - what I meant to say was that I no longer need to adjust the saddle height when swapping between my daughter and myself.</p> <p>I confess I've never actually measured (or indeed tried on!) her trousers...</p> <p>Robert </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15554#post-201095 Tue, 06 Oct 2015 15:58:01 +0000 amir 201095@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>This forum becomes awfully technical sometimes </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15554#post-201094 Tue, 06 Oct 2015 15:54:29 +0000 SRD 201094@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>@roibeard - inseams depend on fashion as much as on actual inner leg length, which is *exactly* why i didn't suggest Davec measure his girlfriend's trousers. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15554#post-201092 Tue, 06 Oct 2015 15:40:37 +0000 chdot 201092@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>"now has the same inseam as myself"</p> <p>Then there is the question of foot size </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15554#post-201091 Tue, 06 Oct 2015 15:40:02 +0000 Darkerside 201091@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>At what stage do we reach the level of involvement where the gift should be marked as "from CCE" rather than "from DaveC"? </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15554#post-201090 Tue, 06 Oct 2015 15:35:19 +0000 Roibeard 201090@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>To add another anecdata point, my daughter now has the same inseam as myself, despite remaining significantly shorter.</p> <p>Ergo the internet is wrong, in my experience...</p> <p>;-)</p> <p>Robert </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15554#post-201086 Tue, 06 Oct 2015 14:42:51 +0000 amir 201086@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>"DaveC, far be it for me to tell you how to give a present to your girlfriend, but would it not be better to present her with a "voucher"/small model of a bike or something, and then go shopping with her and get a bike that you know fits her? "</p> <p>Perhaps DaveC has a ET-based fantasy </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15554#post-201084 Tue, 06 Oct 2015 14:23:17 +0000 sallyhinch 201084@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Statistically speaking women may or may not have different proportions from men but I imagine that DaveC's girlfriend only has the one set of proportions so that's not going to help much.</p> <p>I would definitely go down the 'go out for a ride and see what fits her' approach as this may also give some idea of whether or not she's actually going to like her present... </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15554#post-201080 Tue, 06 Oct 2015 13:56:37 +0000 chdot 201080@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>"Stastically speaking ..."</p> <p>I'm confident that's true. </p> <p>Obviously there are men with remarkably short legs. </p> <p>Most people (m+f) don't require 'precision fits' for speed/efficiency/distance. </p> <p>With 'step-through'/ladies frames size isn't particularly critical. </p> <p>Bikes tend to come with quite long seatposts these days. </p> <p>Stems are slightly more problematic as they are more of a pain to swap. If rider is expected to want a 'more upright' ride might be better to choose a bike designed like that, but changing stem and bars can make a big difference. </p> <p>I've made a lot of bikes 'fit' by moving the saddle forward. </p> <p>On bikes with saddle clips (rather than micro-adjust seatposts) a lot of adjustment is possible by turning the clip round (fiddly!) </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15554#post-201079 Tue, 06 Oct 2015 13:48:39 +0000 Darkerside 201079@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>&lt;elaborate scheme&gt;</p> <p>Come to Glasgow. Hire pair of next bikes. Adjust apporpriately. Promenade delightfully around the city. Upon dismounting, you (or an accomplice, for added stealth) take measurements of adjusted bicycle. Rejoice in a plan well executed.</p> <p>&lt;/elaborate scheme&gt; </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15554#post-201078 Tue, 06 Oct 2015 13:48:27 +0000 Arellcat 201078@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p><a href="http://www.womenscycling.ca/blog/georgena-terry/womens-body-proportions-different-mens/">Georgina Terry</a> (of Terry saddles) suggests that women-specific frame design is helpful because the centre of mass of a woman's torso is higher up (closer to the shoulderblades) than that of a man of equivalent height. Hourglass vs. cylinder would be the most obvious analogy. WSD can thereby ameliorate the stress on the lower back and the arms.</p> <p>But there does seem to be evidence that the mass of body sections is notably different. This page has numbers pointing to greater mass in the pelvis and legs(ok, maybe stating the obvious). It would benefit from diagrams though. The Plagenhoef stats seem to suggest much smaller differences between male and female mass and dimensions than you might expect though.</p> <p><a href="http://www.exrx.net/Kinesiology/Segments.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.exrx.net/Kinesiology/Segments.html</a> </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15554#post-201077 Tue, 06 Oct 2015 13:47:30 +0000 fimm 201077@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>I also read somewhere on the internet that the thing about women having different proportions to men is incorrect, but I likewise don't recall more than that!</p> <p>DaveC, far be it for me to tell you how to give a present to your girlfriend, but would it not be better to present her with a "voucher"/small model of a bike or something, and then go shopping with her and get a bike that you know fits her? </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15554#post-201075 Tue, 06 Oct 2015 13:41:08 +0000 chdot 201075@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>"social media <strike>has spent all week telling me</strike> that's bunk" </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15554#post-201070 Tue, 06 Oct 2015 13:13:52 +0000 SRD 201070@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>"Stastically speaking women have longer legs and shorter torsoes in proportion to the rest of their body than men"</p> <p>social media has spent all week telling me that's bunk, but I've not read further to discover why or how. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15554#post-201069 Tue, 06 Oct 2015 13:09:03 +0000 Cyclops 201069@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Stastically speaking women have longer legs and shorter torsoes in proportion to the rest of their body than men. If you buy a man's frame it might well fit her legs but it could be a bit of a stretch to reach the bars. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15554#post-201063 Tue, 06 Oct 2015 12:21:08 +0000 kaputnik 201063@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>bear in mind what dimension of the frame a "56" (cm) measurement is actually measuring is not necessarily the same as what a "19" (inch) measurement is measuring...</p> <p>"Road" bikes are normally quoted in metric, MTBs / hybrids in inches, for whatever reason. Compact geometry road frames introduce a whole new geometry. I seem to have a whole range of different quoted sizes which are more or less all the same on the ground.</p> <p>Uncle Sheldon has much to say on the matter; <a href="http://www.sheldonbrown.com/frame-sizing.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.sheldonbrown.com/frame-sizing.html</a></p> <p><strong><em>"Bottom line: seat tube "frame size" numbers are nearly meaningless unless you know how they are measured! "</strong></em> </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15554#post-201061 Tue, 06 Oct 2015 12:09:10 +0000 biketrain 201061@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Are men's bike frames measured in centimeters from the bottom bracket to the seat clamp and ladies' bike frames measured in inches between the same to points? </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15554#post-201060 Tue, 06 Oct 2015 12:08:13 +0000 amir 201060@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>I suspect the sizing requirements for this type of bike may be different from your bikes. @laidback may be able to help </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15554#post-201059 Tue, 06 Oct 2015 12:06:48 +0000 DaveC 201059@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>amir "I usually have a "56 frame" as well. But I'm 178. Do you have short arms? "</p> <p>No, perhaps its just what I'm used to? My Dawes (which I ave based all my comfort fitting off) is a 56 or a 57? I don't know to be precise, is comfortable so I bought a 56 Carbon bike which has also been comfortable. Hmm perhaps I should get her a 22? She is around 5.10 tall. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15554#post-201057 Tue, 06 Oct 2015 12:04:08 +0000 wingpig 201057@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>If she operates exclusively indoors then it's unlikely she'd have much need for a bicycle. Alternatively, if it's just that your terminology is borrowed from the 1970s and she is able to freely go outside then 1: measure a pair of her trousers or 2: take a photo of her standing next to something you can go back and measure when she's not watching. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15554#post-201051 Tue, 06 Oct 2015 11:47:27 +0000 chdot 201051@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>That's taking N+1 to new extremes! </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15554#post-201050 Tue, 06 Oct 2015 11:47:24 +0000 biketrain 201050@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Are we confusing inches and centimetres?<br /> Cue dodgy comments...<br /> I will get my coat. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15554#post-201049 Tue, 06 Oct 2015 11:46:31 +0000 amir 201049@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>I usually have a "56 frame" as well. But I'm 178. Do you have short arms? </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15554#post-201048 Tue, 06 Oct 2015 11:45:40 +0000 DaveC 201048@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>This is another... but also just checking as there are 2 sizes and I had bought the 18 but then changed my mind and went for the 22.</p> <p>This is for a Ridgeback Vanteo or such. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=15554#post-201045 Tue, 06 Oct 2015 11:36:18 +0000 chdot 201045@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Thought you'd already bought it... </p>