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A bit of an odd question, but we are having a think about a FS bike for Mrs TGA. She's a shortarse, only 5'3" or 5'4" tall. She had a go on her friends Merida 120 the other day - not sure what size but a medium at most - but is saying that there's hardly any seat tube available to drop the seat down into so she didn't like it going downhill. She rode my mates large Heckler and found that OK, although he says that's more like a medium. I guess this is going to be a potential issue with smaller frames perhaps?
Plenty of full suspension bikes are available in small or extra small, whyte T130, spec camber etc
It's the amount of straight seat tube that's available for dropping the saddle, or getting a 125mm dropper in, that's the thing that she's concerned about. It's going to be inherently limited on smaller bikes.
As you won't need as much seatpost height for normal riding you could consider cutting it down for max drop. On both my bikes (Medium BFe and Covert) the post drops flat to the frame. It does depend on the design of course
As an aside the old 26 Bandit was known to come up small so a S size should be perfect, I've heard of the frames going as cheap as £100 which is a steal for a great bike.
Cheers
Best bike ive found for this is the scott voltage fr....14.5 seat tube but just enough tube for a dropper.
My son has the short version and he is 4'11".
Only downside is the weight so itll give you an excuse to go all weight weenie on it 😉
If you can find the right shock mount to run a 215x63 shock instead of the normal 222x71 that they normally come with then itll give you about 152mm rear travel...match that with some talas 36's or lyrik solo air ect and she wont worry about the dh 😀
Sounds good!
DMR Bolt? Loads of stand over clearance, and the seat tube goes straight down tithe BB, do you can drop a post really low. Heavyish frame, but with some lighter components you could easily do a 28lb or so build.
T130SX if Pink is ok! Comes in XS sizing with a dropper.
I've got a 16 inch Orange ST4 frame for sale, with wheels. It's really tiny and pretty cheap.
Only limitation is the 27.2mm seatpost size, which means you'd be limited to a small range of droppers.
Small Liteville 301 perhaps?
Kona Process seems pretty good for smaller riders, TT is super low even on my large frame.
The mystery has been solved. She didn't use her friends Merida, with its nice long seat tube and reverb. She used her friends old FSR, like this
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which had a longer than it came with seat post in to suit the friends son. So no wonder she couldn't lower it 🙂
MrsbeanZ (5'2" ) has a small T130 , came with a 100mm dropper and at her leg length thats the max drop she can run .
The friend's Merida has a 125mm reverb and they're the same height, so I think she'll find something in s small frame size that will allow a good drop.
SO 5ft 3inches... apparently...orange 29 size small.....with 140 mm front so a tad tall but manageable with reverb dropper
I'm on a small (16") Rocket. At 5'6" (but with short legs) I'm a bit taller but my 125mm Reverb (unstealthy) still has a couple of inches below the collar it could drop down a bit further into the frame.