[Jeroentune]

Hello Girls ,

i have a question for you .

My wife is a slim girl , about 5.24 foot and less than 110 pounds ,
She is having lots of fun with het 26 inch Trek 6300 bike. we like to padle bikes together and we mainly bike on asphalt and tarmack grounds. I like to do heavy offroad and single tracks, she likes to do single tracks aswell but only if they are easy.
since januar i have a new bike, a 29 er hardtail. now our speed is up about 2 mph. i have no problems since i run bigger wheels but she has to work real hard to keep up ..
I like to suprise her and buy a 29 er for her as well . i calculated and need to buy here a 15 inch frame with 29 inch wheels.

Are there any women on that side of the pond with experience with such a small frame 29 er ? in other words , any small women on the big bikes ? what is your experiance ?

Best wishes,

Jeroen Pasman
The Netherlands.

 

[SkiMtb]

I'm 5'3 and can't stand over a 29'er, let alone ride one. I think they're great for taller folks, but 26in wheels work well for me. I've heard of some shorter girls riding 650b's without an issue, but I personally don't know of any women shorter than 5'5 riding a 29er regularly.

 

[dschwartz]

Just recently bought my wife a Trek Cali 29" in 15.5 size. she is about the same size as your description of your wife. she loves the bike. our lbs did a fitting for her, swapped out the stem, rolled the bars a bit, tweaked the angle of shifters/brakes, etc and it really fits her perfectly. It also comes in a 14 inch size, but she felt more comfortable on the 15.5
[EDIT] - to clarify, the Trek Cali is a 29" designed for women so the shorter leg length and lower bar clearance is integrated.

 

[supersedona]

Not sure how stock it is but Emily Batty, a pro XC racer uses a 29" Trek and she's 5'1" or so...

 

[sooshee]

I know a girl who is about 5'3" and rides a small (15") Specialized Epic. Upgraded to it last year, and loves it!

There are starting to be more and more women specific 29ers that are designed with lower stand over height and that come in tiny frame sizes. I think the "small people can't ride 29ers" thing will become more of a thing of the past...

 

[Niner Bikes]

Just going to leave these here.

Evelyn Dong and Chloe Woodruff are both barely 5'2 / 157.5cm tall. Chloe set a personal record lap time at the 24 Hours of Old Pueblo last month on her Jet 9 RDO in size XS. Evelyn has now finished in the top 5 of the US Cup Pro Cross Country 2 weeks in a row on her Jet 9 RDO and Air 9 RDO in size XS:

These are stock frames.

Cheers,
Carla
Niner Bikes

 

[Jeroentune]

First of all I would like to thank you for your responses.
the first women in the picture , that asian looking women is like an exact copy of my Eliza !
now that being said, i will try to arrange a test run for her and see if that will fit her nicely.

Thank you so much .


Best wishes.

 

[snowgypsy]

Definitely test it out. Everyone is different.

My close friend is 4'9, 100 and loves her 29er. I'm 5'1, 107 and prefer a 26er. I've tested 29ers, 650b - and despite my friend's love for her bike, it never felt right to me...it's not just height and weight, but how you are built and of course, how you like to ride. Even if a 29er fit me perfectly, I still wouldn't be thrilled with it because of my riding style.

What does your wife like to ride? XC, enduro? Or better yet, does she like to go fast on open, easy singletrack? Does she like steep climbs and more xc style riding? Does she measure a great ride by how fast it was? 29ers shine here. Or does she like jumping, whipping, playing, super techy, enduro? Does she measure a great ride by how techy it was, whether or not she cleared that ledge, etc.?

Also, and most importantly, what does she want to ride one day ?- that answer matters the most.

Or, instead of a new bike, would new, better components be awesome? XT shifters, better brakes, etc. to make a bike she already loves that much better?

In short, it's not the wheel; it's the rider that matters. It's skill that matters, and of course, loving where your bike takes you.

I hope you both have fun demoing and I hope you find that bike, whatever its wheel size might be, that makes you laugh with glee at every turn :thumbsup:

 

[Jeroentune]

SnowGypsy , thank you for your reply. your post is great and makes lots of sense.

My Eliza likes to ride XC . also lots of miles on asphalt and tarmac. she does like to ride easy single tracks with some minor hight diffence. No down hill, no enduro and even a technical single track is a hand full.
She is more a speeder than a technical cornering specialist. she likes to ride fast for sure.
if i link that to your comment , she would be fine with a 29 er ..
she is nog a bike park hero, no jumping ore showing off ...

she does ride a great 26 Trek 6300 now and she loves it but she cant keep up with my 29 er .. i know your eyes migth fronse about the male // female strenght etc etc .. but dont worry , i had a hard time keeping up with her when i was on my 26 .. it seems that the 29 er brought me more speed and endurance..

Jeroen

 

[snowgypsy]

Any time Jeroen!

In short, it's all about finding a bike that Eliza loves. A 29er might be the perfect fit. The only way to know is to ride a bike, fall for it, and ride it some more. No one else can tell you what works except you, yourself. Someone at my local bike shop (not naming names) tried to tell me that my current bike was "too much bike" for me. Silly, silly, silly.

Question, though, if she already has a bike that she loves...is a new bike really necessary? Only she will know and only a demo day will tell ...and demo days are awesome.

 

[Jeroentune]

Cube 29 er

Well , Eliza made up her mind .. we are going for a nice 15 inch Cube LTD CC model .. RS reba fork , XT group , easton parts. great looking bike and i am sure she will enjoy the bigger wheels.

I will make a picture as soon as it comes in ..
Thank you for all your responses.

Jeroen and Eliza

 

[BDKeg]

Well , Eliza made up her mind .. we are going for a nice 15 inch Cube LTD CC model .. RS reba fork , XT group , easton parts. great looking bike and i am sure she will enjoy the bigger wheels.

I will make a picture as soon as it comes in ..
Thank you for all your responses.

Jeroen and Eliza

View attachment 881361 View attachment 881362

good lookin hard tail! Congrats to Eliza!

 

[snowgypsy]

Well , Eliza made up her mind .. we are going for a nice 15 inch Cube LTD CC model .. RS reba fork , XT group , easton parts. great looking bike and i am sure she will enjoy the bigger wheels.

I will make a picture as soon as it comes in ..
Thank you for all your responses.

Jeroen and Eliza

View attachment 881361 View attachment 881362

Sexy! Congrats Eliza. Happy trails! She's (or he's) a beautiful steed. Let us know how she rides.

 

[CyclerDi]

Well , Eliza made up her mind .. we are going for a nice 15 inch Cube LTD CC model .. RS reba fork , XT group , easton parts. great looking bike and i am sure she will enjoy the bigger wheels.

I will make a picture as soon as it comes in ..
Thank you for all your responses.

Jeroen and Eliza

View attachment 881361 View attachment 881362

Nice bike. Hope she enjoys it! Let us know how she does with the 29 wheels.

 

[simonuk]

If you like to ride off road get her a 26" full suspension she will probably enjoy it more!

My lady is 152 cm she hates riding on the road only wants to ride single track.. she went from a Spec hard tail to a Juliana bith 26 ..a bit tight on standover but she like it and is riding better and better



A friend of mine had a similar problem bought a Tallboy but his lady who was a fit and good rider did not keep up.. he sold it and went back to his 26


riding is about having fun together not another 2km per hr .. I am sticking with 26 for same reason

 

[GGR Girl Wendy]

I am just over 5"4 and ride a Specialzied Epic 29r med frame. I have a very short upper body and long legs. I changed out the stem, and it was fine. Specialized has low stand over. I always change things on my bike though from stock. I also changed out the handle bars so they are wider and carbon, and changed the seat post and saddle. Wish I went with the carbon frame..but too much doh

 

[sooshee]

I am just over 5"4 and ride a Specialzied Epic 29r med frame. I have a very short upper body and long legs. I changed out the stem, and it was fine. Specialized has low stand over. I always change things on my bike though from stock. I also changed out the handle bars so they are wider and carbon, and changed the seat post and saddle. Wish I went with the carbon frame..but too much doh

That's crazy you ride a medium! I'm 5'9" and ride a medium Epic as well... I'm all legs and like no torso. Had to go to a 75mm stem just to reach the bars (I also went with wider carbon bars just like you, and a carbon seat post and WSD saddle.... haha, we're twinsies!).

 

[GGR Girl Wendy]

Yup, the Epic actually fits me really well. I tend to ride a wee bit stretched out because I do a ton of distance riding and it's just more comfy. Yup...most are not built like us!

 

[DennisF]

Jeroen, glad you found your wife a good 29" bike. My wife Fe is a 5'-even Oriental, riding a 26" hardtail. We are looking for a 29" hardtail. All we can find in 29" to fit her is the Trek Cali, smallest frame. We have a Caucasian friend, also 5'-even, but she needed the Cali in the next larger size frame. She is quite happy with it.

She likes the Cali fine, but it is nice to have choices. I don't think Cube is available in the USA. We tried all other major brands, all too big. The Niner rep even brought his 12-year-old daughters by for her to try, and that was too big.

Giant has gone ape over 27.5". She will try that before purchasing, but the wheel is really closer to 27.2", not that much bigger than 26.

Let us know how she likes the Cube!

 

[Jeroentune]

He Dennis , i dont know if Cube is available in the US , if you like i can try to find out . good thing about cube is that they have a lot if different frame sizes.
We had a great easter - spring ride today .. great sunny weather with lots of wind .. time to test Eliza´s 29er and see whats different with her 26.

in the straights and on Asphalt she was not just a tad faster but really faster .. instead of 22 kph , she touch 26 kph easy .. in the reurn we had the wind in our back and we were flying back towards our home .. she was shocked to reach 38 kph on here 29er .. its very easy to say she is much faster on here 29 er than on her 26..

than i choose a small single track course .. here she was more afraid of the big heavy wheels. we did the track 3 times so she could work on her trust and feeling comfortable in the woods with the big 29 wheels.
here she admitted that she could do the course more easy with her 26 er but i think she did pretty well for the first day ..

now we need to get used to the bigger wheels and learn some tricks how to steer those big wheels in the single tracks.

I also mounted a video cam so i could check out here moves on the 29 er as well. a Video from us riding fast on the dune track. the north sea is just 300 feet away on the right side ..

Jeroen and Eliza