A little advise please...My girlfriend has been doing some mtbn lately on an old bike of mine.
However she is now thinking of buying herself a bike of her own...whats the skinny with ladies bikes??are they different or should she just get a small mens bike...Then would hardtail or full sus be best?? Im all for hardtail however you ladies might recommend different..
Apparently the geometry is different, however, I reckon getting a normal bike and tweaking the stem/saddle etc is more than enough.
I know John Barass' missus was selling a spesh fsr womens last year. I have his number, if you want me to find out.
well heres the skinny from where I stand on this..all the girls have been deadly on hardtails..Leeza and Carol both have come on a lot on their xtcs..they can ride them uphill and they don't get killed on them..Silvia flies on hers..need I say more. Same goes for Shona..
I know Nat rides her full suss Cannondale now...but when she started she used to have a deadly hardtail cannondale and she used to fly along on that.
Go quality ,Skip..as long as she can get up the hills handy at first, when she gets more confidence the downhills will get easier..
get her a good sub 25lb hardtail with 100mm forks..don't worry about it being ladies specific..
I think thats a con..or marketing whichevers the biggest gibberish
Go for a hardtail all the way. Much more fun and great to learn all the skills on. There is no need for ladies specific ones really. They can be good for women with short arms etc but to be honest I never used one, just got a small mens and messed around with the stem. Both my Kona and the Van Nicholas are 'mens' bikes but just in extra small sizes. If she is small >5'2" you can sometimes find good deals on 14" frames. Oh I think both Leeza and Shona are selling their old bikes for much cheapness if you wanted to have a look at them in the Buy and Sell forum.
Cathals partner..!!
God be with the days when they were our "Mots" or our " Birds"..
who wants to be anybodies partner ?
now I admit, i am a misogynistic, sexist *******..but I would never refer to Carol as my Partner, she doesn't wear a suit or smoke cigars !!
I always hold doors open for the ladies and undress them in my head..but so do the rest of you metrosexuals and if you don't , well your either gay or dead !!
Cathals girlfriends name is Trish..I know for a fact she exists in the real world, not in Dons squeaky clean formica covered fookin utopia analania...
yeah I'm drunk again
I stand by my phraseology, you have girl friends when they are girls, when they are women they become partners. If you call a woman a girl or a lady you'll get a slap from them, back me up here chicks.
i've never been slapped by a girl or a lady, my 75 year old mother is a woman, you've been a man since you were a boy , Don..i've been 17 for as long as I can remember, so has Alfie, Rogan,Nivek, Smithers and Eamo as far as I can tell, theres probably more, Skippy definitely.and Bon and Roo and Greg..Carol knocked me out with a wine bottle once..and planted me with a Coke water bottle full of Coke at a race once..but hey shes endured 30 years of madness with me !!
just get a fine hardtail and off she goes... I don't have any ladies specific schmooo apart from my gloves & a pink aldi jersey :-) i think noone has... hardtail & flat pedals will be grand.... good luck with it, bet you she'll be fasterthan you soon :)
I like the ladies specific, they are designed for longer legs and shorter bodies, so really depends on her height. i had a small specialized Hard rock and I always felt a bit stretched, i had to reach too far for the handlebars! so when I got my specialized rockhopper a few years ago I got the ladies and much preferred it. So if she is short like me I would recommend the ladies Specialized rockhopper. I think it just makes things a little more comfortable.
i've never been slapped by a girl or a lady, my 75 year old mother is a woman, you've been a man since you were a boy , Don..i've been 17 for as long as I can remember, so has Alfie, Rogan,Nivek, Smithers and Eamo as far as I can tell, theres probably more, Skippy definitely.and Bon and Roo and Greg..Carol knocked me out with a wine bottle once..and planted me with a Coke water bottle full of Coke at a race once..but hey shes endured 30 years of madness with me !!
I beg to differ, Nivek has yet to reach 17, he's still hovering around the 14/15 mark.
Skippy; HT all the way, I am now thinking of getting one for toonies and social spins, after riding me dualie for 2 summers, dualies take your manners away.
Even more so then for mens bikes the size thing with bike for ladies turned out to be quite tricky.
Discriptions like 'medium', 'small', 'extra small' were no use at all. Sizes like 17", 16" and 15" weren't much better.
Apparently it's all about the length of the top tube now. Carol showed us a good way to guage a bike. Close your fist, put your elbow just touching the front the saddle, your knuckles should just reach the headset.
Ultimately the only way to know with any bike is to ride it around for a bit.
In the end Trish went for a very nice 15" Specialized Rockhopper. Not sure if it's ladies sepecific.
I'd strongly recommend giving Shona's Terrago a shot, it's a very nice bike.