Bikes for short people...do they exist?

[tree]

I am having serious trouble finding a bike to fit me. I'm 5'2" and do not want a WSD or anything with 650c wheels. I thought I'd turn to the experts for help...anyone out there have a suggestion? I have been through several fit calculators and all signs point to something in the 46-48cm range. All advice is appreciated!

[flydhest]

That's what custom bikes are for . . .
Seriously, my wife is 5'5" but has short . . . uh, I mean, has a long torso for her height. As a result, she rides a 50. Getting things to work out right, with 700c wheels was a result of a good fitting (thanks Smiley) and interaction with the good folk at Serotta.

It can be done.

[gt6267a]

tree -- i'm a bit taller at 5'7" but am in the smaller size group with you. i share your frustrations. when looking at non-custom and used bikes last year i had a hard time. i had two main problems. 1) most of the used selections were too big for me and 2) to get the frame geometry to work, most of the smaller sizes have a longer TT than ST. for me this makes finding the right fit difficult.

a few thoughts for you:
make sure you test ride the bike. this applies to every bike. specifically, what i find is that because the TT is long in the smaller sizes there is a large potential for the bike to not feel right.
if you do not want to go custom, be very patient. there are bikes out there, but they are hard to find.
a little toe over-lap is nothing to worry about.

[gt6267a]

i just re-read your post and notice you say fit calculators. be careful. for example, the fit calculator wants to put me on a 55.5 TT and my serotta fit says to ride a 53.5. i ride a 53.5 and cannot imagine adding 2cm. i recommend you take some actions to confirm the size, i.e. TT. actions meaning a serotta fit or a number of test rides.

[Jollymon]

I am around 5-7 and have had problems getting a bike to fit. I have cycled since I was 15 and never had a bike on which I felt comfortable until I road my custom Serotta. I think custom is the only way to go for us vertically challenged folk.

[zap]

If your not racing, why no 650 bike. Properly designed, you will get a much better handling bike. My wife is a smig taller and she out handles most weekend warriors on her 650c Serotta.

IMO, you can not design a proper handling bike (<50 cm frame) using 700c wheels with that kind of cg.

[Smiley]

650 wheel bikes have come of age with better availabe wheel sets and tires. Don't sell this option short ( no pun intended here ). Your better spaced over the wheel base and the bike will handle like a dream. It also looks better proportioned for your size .

[christian]

I am having serious trouble finding a bike to fit me. I'm 5'2" and do not want a WSD or anything with 650c wheels.

Grow 4 inches.

Seriously, there are extreme compromises and fudges involved in making a bike smaller than 52st/52tt using 622mm (700c) wheels. These involve steep 74-75-76! degree seattubes, high bottom brackets (60mm of drop!) and slack head angles (71! degrees), all to make the top tube short, while avoiding interference between the front wheel and downtube. They also generally suffer unnecessarily from toe-clip overlap.

If you don't like the tires available for 571mm (650c) wheels, you can generally replace the brakes with Shimano 47-57mm reach dual-pivots and run 559mm wheels, which I think is preferable anyway, as it will give you many more choices in tires.

My wife is 5'3", and she is getting a custom Vanilla. It will allow her to use 559mm wheels with the brake pads at the bottom of the slots in 47-57mm reach brakes, and 571mm wheels with the brake pads 4mm from the top of the slots. She'll generally be riding a set of 650c Chris King Classics/Mavic Open Pros/DT 14/15, but will have a set of touring wheels in 559mm.

Cheers,
- Christian