[kept man]

Yesss, I know this kinda question has been asked a million times, but Mrs. Kept is not having any fun on her C'Dale hardtail anymore, and I was looking for some help in finding her a fully. 'Cause right now my favourite riding partner only wants to do road ... I've only been on trails with her once this month ...

1) She's 5'5"

2) She won't ride a boutique frame (aka Ventana, Titus, etc) for cost/fear of posing reasons.

3) She is an XC girl to the core ... wants to go fast on an efficient pedalling bike. Over rocks and stuff yes, but nothing big or 'extreme.'

4) Women's-specific geometry doesn't suit her short legs and looong torso. She has an extra rib. I'm not kidding.

The reason I've asking for help in making a short list, instead of just taking her to shops right away and test-riding, is that she is a bit of a cheapskate and claims to "not need it" ... well of course, it's a frickin' bike, not food and shelter. But she does love mountain biking ... our Ontario trails were just a little smoother than the root and rock strewn New England stuff we're riding now.

Anyway, all suggestions would be great.

 

[SSINGA]

Yesss, I know this kinda question has been asked a million times, but Mrs. Kept is not having any fun on her C'Dale hardtail anymore, and I was looking for some help in finding her a fully. 'Cause right now my favourite riding partner only wants to do road ... I've only been on trails with her once this month ...

1) She's 5'5"

2) She won't ride a boutique frame (aka Ventana, Titus, etc) for cost/fear of posing reasons.

3) She is an XC girl to the core ... wants to go fast on an efficient pedalling bike. Over rocks and stuff yes, but nothing big or 'extreme.'

4) Women's-specific geometry doesn't suit her short legs and looong torso. She has an extra rib. I'm not kidding.

The reason I've asking for help in making a short list, instead of just taking her to shops right away and test-riding, is that she is a bit of a cheapskate and claims to "not need it" ... well of course, it's a frickin' bike, not food and shelter. But she does love mountain biking ... our Ontario trails were just a little smoother than the root and rock strewn New England stuff we're riding now.

Anyway, all suggestions would be great.

Short legs & long torso = Fisher geometry - low standover and a long top tube. Have her try a Sugar 4+. MSRP is $1100

 

[AZtortoise]

i am sold on Jamis. they have several XC Dakars at different price points. they come with about 3.5" rear travel, and 3-4" front travel. although i live in the SW USA the Jamis is supposedly best suited for eastern USA terrain. check 'em out.

Rita
p.s. good parts spec for the $$$.

 

[divs]

I second the Jamis. I've just had my Dakar XC comp for a little over a month, but I'm quite happy with it. It was definitely the best full supsension value I could find!

-D.

 

[kept man]

Thanks for the suggestions.

The Fisher spec looks a little weak ... I know that I was worried about too much $, and now I'm saying too little ... call me Goldilocks.

Jamis looks good - they don't really have much of a presence in Canada, and there doesn't appear to be any local dealers. But I'll keep looking.

Merci again,

 

[VT Mtbkr]

I'm 5'4" and ride a small Giant NRS 1 and I really love it. Basically spec except for carbon bars and a Marzocchi bomber front fork. Great for XC riding and racing.

 

[kept man]

Thanks VT - good to know, because on paper the NRS small doesn't look, well, all that small.

I don't suppose anyone around here has ridden an Epic? I don't usually like Specialized, but my local shop guy has an '03 womens in small and medium for a great deal ... I'm thinking of intiating a test-ride to see how it does ...

 

[divs]

Thanks for the suggestions.

The Fisher spec looks a little weak ... I know that I was worried about too much $, and now I'm saying too little ... call me Goldilocks.

Jamis looks good - they don't really have much of a presence in Canada, and there doesn't appear to be any local dealers. But I'll keep looking.

Merci again,

In case you haven't tried this yet, go to: http://www.jamisbikes.com/dealer_search/dealerFrames.html

and scroll down past the USA map to where it lists other countries. There seems to be a good number of dealers scattered around Canada.

 

[tcp]

bikes

A bit of info for you. My wife(girlfriend when i met her) is 5'6"was riding a 14.5" rocky mountain thin air (hardtail) when we started goin out and did very well with that. Because I wanted new stuff(frames and fun bits) I started buying her a few things as well. The first was a small(16or 16.5") NRS frame i built up for her and she enjoyed that a lot. The second is a 2003 i-drive frame(small) that she's been using for about a year now. Both were built up with custom parts and approx XT level drivetrains, marz forks. She seemed to have a harder time coming to terms with the i-drive due to it being plusher than the NRS and she often said she felt a bit out of control by its ability to roll over obstacles so easily. That being said, on a recent 24 hour race she did a couple of laps on the NRS and then bent the derailleur hanger in a crash(i brought a spare hanger for the GT and my specialized, not the giant) and had to do the rest on the i-drive. She's recently let me know she has a buyer for the NRS and wants to keep the i-drive. strange turn of events. I think if your wife is the agressive XC type and she's coming from a hardtail, the NRS is hard to beat. The top tube on the NRS is a bit longer than most small frames and should help with her stature as well. Since early on when she got the NRS she's always said that disk brakes made the biggest difference to her, even more than the full suspension. Just a suggestion for the new bike....

 

[kept man]

Thanks again to folks,

Divs - lamentably (and as is often the case) many of the local Canadian dealers who claim to carry Jamis don't really ... but can order them in. I've hit a couple of the big shops in Ontario to no avail; pretty lame, really. Once I'm back from vacationing I'll check around the Boston area again.

Tcp - if I could find a small NRS to put her on, I would. I too thought it looked like a good option, but can't find one at the moment.

Often in Canada (I've found, at leats) the pickings can be pretty slim ... it's also clear that the big 'boom' of high-end biking is on the decline, as a lot of the high end shops are really cutting back on nicer mtb's - but road riding seems to have made a complete comeback. At the allegedly big Jamis dealer they had no mtb's with nicer than a Deore rear and some EXR forks ... but plenty of high end, carbon adorned Argon 18 roadies. Crazy stuff.

Hopefully I'll be able to get her on the Epic, a NRS, and maybe a Scalpel to try out (I'm a bit of C'Dale affectionado). Or I'll just be content to ride by myself more often, and go for that hard-plate snowboard she's been dreaming of as an early Christmas present ...

 

[downhilldoll]

have you tried the santa cruz super lite?
i have the same body type, just a little shorter. i love my santa cruz!
i did have a jamis dakar, but it just didn't fit right. but my husband loved his.
try to see if you could demo one, either a friend or bike shop.
if you buy frame only and build it up with her current components, that will keep the $ down.
lis