You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
just wondering if there are any ladies on the forum that go touring.
looking to buy my wife a new touring bike, her bikes have so far been slick tyred mountainbikes and a couple of hybrid's.
always a bit of a compramise i suppose, so i am going to buy her a new bike.
it needs to be suitable for a bit of steady offroad touring, needs to take guards and a rear rack.
and she is 5ft2''.
so what would be a good bike to buy
any ladies handy with some advice.
My experience of touring was a baptisim of fire with a month long trip in Spain and Portugal, including camping for the 1st time since i was about 10! Loved it though. 🙂 We toured on road so i can't offer much advice on the bike, but i am the same height as your wife and i struggle to find bikes that fit me and meet the tick list of requirements.
Worth looking at women-specific frames. My wife is quite tall, but finds the reach of standard frames uncomfortable because of the different upper body/leg ratio for women.
Would a hybrid not be OK if your wife has used them before? Shouldn't be a significant performance penalty unless you are planning on doing heavy duty, big mileage touring.
What is your budget? I recently bought a Ridgeback Voyage 2012, which I find perfectly comfortable. Not done anything long distance on it yet, but what I do like is the two sets of brake levers so that you can have a more upright position if you prefer. Think I paid about £850 for it, and it came with rear rack and mudguards.
If you have more of a budget, and want something thats a bit more suitable for off-road, then how about the Surly Troll?
Or, a ladies specific cyclocross bike?
Hols.
looked at all the obvious makes, but nobody makes a tourer in a 16''.
Hols, how tall are you?
Does she really need drop bars?
no mate. she is comfy with risers on her current bike.
Surly Troll is a good call for offroad touring and that definitely does come in 16" flavour (even 14").*
http://www.tritoncycles.co.uk/m1b103s2p9181/SURLY_Troll_Complete_Bike/RS_GB/24854
Or what about the 26" wheeled version of the Long Haul Trucker?
*Not a lady but have been looking for something similar for my wife.
this was my problem too, even for road stuff but with touring add-ons (ie discs, mudguards, rack etc) I opted for a kinesis tripster for touring (the TT is too big for me with drops on it but it works for me with risers and mtb wheels). Might be worth a look into as its good on and off road?looked at all the obvious makes, but nobody makes a tourer in a 16''.
[quote=ton ]no mate. she is comfy with risers on her current bike.
Then have a look at the Ladies "Trekking" bikes offered by the Euros - e.g. Cube.
My wife is quite tall, but finds the reach of standard frames uncomfortable because of the different upper body/leg ratio for women.
Bollocks. This is individually based and has nothing to do with gender.
Bollocks definitely have something to do with gender.
What about something like this Tony?
[url= http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/thorn-sherpa-mk2-460xl-gloss-red-touring-bike-ex-display-prod18966/ ]Thorn Sherpa @ SJS Cycles[/url]
i will let her have a look at all the recommendations.
cheers all.
My OH is 5'3", bought her a Surly Pacer from Spa in Harrogate in the summer that she's chuffed to bits with. Mounts for rack and guards, she has 28s and guards on, there's a bit of space so you might get 32s in there.
Got it as a frameset as I had the bits to build it up but it's a 42cm frame.
Doing her 1st tour this year on it.
Check out the Spa Cycles site - sure I saw an ad in CTC/audax mag that mentioned a new smaller size tourer/audax bike in their range
Ayup Ton - have a look at a Kona Sutra - they go down to a C49 size frame (which is near enough same as 16"), sloping top tube gives plenty of standover height,comes with full guards and full set of racks,bottle mounts etc.
Love mine - and I ride like a woman 😉
Here we go:
[url= http://www.spacycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m1b0s21p2554 ]Spa Ti Tourer[/url]
Smallest size comes with 26" wheels
the spa tourer is a bit pricey, thanks tho mate.
Stan......ideal that mate, might be better with flats/risers tho.
Ton, make sure she has Egrons and/or bar ends on there as well. Multiple hand positions are pretty much essential for touring, I'd say.