Really really really small bike! For a tiny woman.

[purplecyclist]

I know you guys have been asked this before, but I have searched the forum and not found what I was looking for, so I will describe my problem to you in the hope that someone will be able to suggest something helpful!

I am a 4ft 8" woman and I am having massive trouble finding a bike to fit. I'm in my forties so I don't want to make do with a child's bike.

As if that wasn't enough, the bikes I have looked at that might be small enough do not have enough room to fit a pannier rack properly, as the saddle always has to be dropped right down to the top of the tube. I need a pannier rack as I have to carry stuff for work, and carry stuff round with me all day (I do student support and cycle to different sites and have to carry a laptop with me, as well as the obligatory flask of tea and water bottle, waterproof gear - oh you know the stuff! ) I actually carry quite a lot of heavy stuff with me, so a side pannier would be no good as it would be too difficult to carry off the bike. I did look at folding bikes, but the ones I can afford are a)heavy and b)the pannier racks are so low down I would be scared of my bag getting waterlogged when navigating puddles (as I would have to in this very wet part of the UK)!

At the moment I am riding a thirteen year old Trek 800 Mountain bike, with a 13" frame and even then the saddle is quite low, but this is really heavy, being basically just steel tubes welded together. I would love to get a lighter, hybrid-type bike, especially as I don't go off road. With a lighter bike I might be inclined to go out on leisure rides at the weekend on bike trails, but at the moment it's embarrassing as I would not be able to keep up on a group ride on the bike I've got.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I have looked at Giant bikes but they seem to be sized for 5ft and up. I'm going to have a look at Islabikes and Scott bikes and e-mail them to see if they can suggest anything. Islabikes look like the most possible (although I cringe at the thought of going out on a child's bike at my age) but I'm wondering if they would cope with the luggage thing as kids presumably do not lug half their life with them on a daily basis!

Does anyone else have any suggestions, or am I being unrealistic in my expectations of finding a bike that fits, is reasonably light, and can fit a pannier rack with a rackpack on it? If you have any suggestions, I would be very grateful. Thank you.

[Si]

Welcome to the forum.
My friend, who had similar bike finding problems, had a frame made for her by Mercian - very good she found it too. Expensive though - but it is a frame that ought to last her a life time.

[LollyKat]

I don't think you should cringe if you get a nice bike which has the correct proportions for you. Something like Islabikes Luath26 looks really nice, and with 26-inch wheels doesn't particularly look like a child's bike. However it only has a single chainring, and it might add a fair bit to the cost to change to a double or triple if you wanted. Worth asking them, though, and would still be cheaper than a custom build.

[Malaconotus]

You won't find an adult's bike to fit well unless it's custom made. There aren't enough adults of your height to make it commercially viable to produce bikes in your size. (I have the same problem but through being above the 98th percetile for height)

Islabikes don't look like kid's bikes, and they are good quality, and properly thought out and proportioned for smaller riders. Either the flat-barred Beinn 26" Small, (for 4' 3" to 4' 10") or the drop-barred Luath 26, (4' 5" to 4' 11") should work for you. I wouldn't consider them to be 'making do' at all. There is nothing to distinguish them from £400 to £500 adult hybrid and road bikes other than their small size and single chainring. And they will ride much better than an XXS adult's bike which will not have been designed from the bottom up to suit a short rider. Some adults XXS bikes have quite ridiculously compromised geometries.

Both bikes are under 10Kg and take front and rear racks. The Beinn is probably more versatile, as the Luath has skinny 23mm tyres and I doubt it would take wider with guards. It also looks lovely in the blue.

Re the single chainring, the gear range is around 25" to 72" on the Beinn and 27" to 79", which really gives you all you need unless you climb steep hills fully loaded or need to pedal downhil at well over 20mph. On the Luath, at least, you can change the chainring to give a higher or lower range if needed, and you could gear up the Beinn by fitting the Luath chainset.

If you really need a wider range I'd contact Islabikes and ask whether there is anything to stop a front double or triple crankset being fitted. The cranks on both are 155mm, so replacements might also be hard to find. Note that small adults' bikes, and many cheaper children's bikes, do not have nice features like this and the cranks are standard length of 170mm, which is really much too long for a rider of your height.

[Big T]

The Luath is actually a cyclo-cross bike and will easily take tyres up to 32mm with mudguards (I have 2 in my garage, so I know what I'm talking about!). You can fit wide or narrow road tyres on them, they have bar top brake levers, Shimano sora gearing with STI's, You can also fit a rack onto them, for load carrying. We have the Luath 700c's but my club also has a Luath 26, so i've seen one in the flesh. The 700's come with a double chainring and 16 gears, the 26 comes with a single ring and an 11-34 cassette to give a good range of gears.

My daughter rides a 700 one on the road when she comes home from Uni, though we've changed the saddle to a wider women specific model. My wife has also raced cyclo-cross on them, so they stand up to some hammer.

[horizon]

although I cringe at the thought of going out on a child's bike at my age

I accept there might be stylistic differences (boy's bike: "Killer Filth Slayer" in black, girl's bike: "My Cute Pony" in pink) but what are the actual differences except quality and size?

[jan19]

Hello Purplecyclist

I understand exactly what you mean about not having to use a child's bike - no matter how good they are! I'm 5'0" and when I asked the same question as you, I was also advised to go for an Islabike, but I really wanted an adult bike. After a recommendation from this forum I tried out, and bought a Ridgeback Velocity. Its the 45cm/extra small and although I'm a little bit taller than you, I by no means have the saddle at the lowest point it can go. It has mudguards and a carrier rack, and apart from my regular commute, I've done three cycling holidays on it. It cost me £350 plus another £50 for mudguards and carrier rack. Best £400 I've ever spent.

Your local LBS won't stock it - mine didn't - but they got it in easily enough.

Hope this helps.

Jan

[georgew]

I would have thought that an Airnimal Joey Explore would fit the bill perfectly. It's light, well designed, has a wide gear range and can be fitted with a rack and would make a fine tourer.

[cycle cat]

My sister is about 5ft tall. People often think I'm the older sister
because I'm taller.
She rides a tiny step through frame mountain bike.
It has an aluminium frame and rigid forks so it really isn't too heavy.
She has fitted a rack and mudguards, along with slick tyres.
I can't remember the make, but she bought it from Halfords a few years
ago.
Many bike manufacturers make tiny adult bikes.
The problem is finding a shop with one in stock f.or you to try.
+1 for the Isla bikes. They have taken component size into consideration.
Not all makes do this.

[Elizabethsdad]

What about a folding bike like the Birdy or Brompton?

[purplecyclist]

Thank you all for your comments, some very useful ones indeed. I have found a bike shop nearby which sells treks and I have seen a trek hybrid which has a 13" frame (7.3 fx)

http://www.trekbikes.com/uk/en/bikes/ro ... 7_3_fx_wsd

so I am going to ask them to get one in so I can try it. £500 is the maximum I can afford to spend, so the lovely airnimal joey and some of the other bikes suggested are way out of my price league. I'm not an expert cyclist by any means (my bike is used as the equivalent of a donkey, to get me to and from work and carry panniers full of shopping home) and I can't drive so it is my only 'vehicle'. I want a decent bike that is comfortable to ride but I don't need an all-singing-all-dancing version. For what I want it for, I could jump on any old bike in a bikeshop if I was a normal height and have my pick of loads of styles, weights etc. It's just infuriating being so small!!

So I think it's the trek as a first choice and probably one of the islabikes as a second choice.

(PS if I had my way, there'd be fewer cars and more bikes and all the money that goes into developing cars would go into manufacturing bikes ..... well, a girl can dream, can't she?!)

[PJ520]

You can remove the pink streamers from the ends of the bars. Your LBS will do it for < £100.

[Malaconotus]

Many bike manufacturers make tiny adult bikes.
The problem is finding a shop with one in stock f.or you to try.

I feel I have to rather bluntly disagree with this. I work in a bike shop and we hold stock of several XS women's frames (which also enables me to see how compromised some are to accommodate 700C wheels). These are suitable for women of around 5'0 to 5'3". Two posters have referred to bikes for women of 5' 0" but the OP is a full four inches shorter and that height difference matters. It's one full size, and one full size that is more important because bikes are often already seriosuly compromised in design in their XS or XL sizes. An extra small adults bike, with 700C wheels, is just too big for the OP. If the seat will go down far enough the bars will be much, much higher than the saddle and while the reach will not be an issue the handling will be awful. The levers, cranks etc. will be standard sized and not designed for smaller hands, shorter legs etc.

The designation of a bike as women's or men's, adult's or child's doesn't matter. It fits or it doesn't. An adult's bike will not fit someone of 4' 8", because 4' 8" is the height of the average 11 year old.

A 4'8" person on a 27" wheel bike is as out of proportion as a 6' 2" person on a 36" wheel bike. Here is a 36" wheel bike with a 6' 2" rider; sensible suggestion, or circus act?....

[horizon]

malaconotus: I agree, hence my earlier post. I cannot see that there is a thing called child's bike or adult bike. What is the difference? No-one should be ashamed to ride a "child's bike". I know there are differences in style and quality but that is a reflection on the collusive idiocy of parents and manufacturers, not of cycling requirements. My daughter rode end to end of the IOW carrying full YHA touring luggage at the age of nine as part of a much longer trip. A child of that age is generally considered to be able to do adult distances. In the summer I met a Dad and his 11 year old son doing incredible distances across England from YHA to YHA (the son had of course an Islabike). Can someone please tell me the difference between a "child's bike" and an "adult bike"?

[Yael]

The main difference between a "child's bike" and an "adult bike" is the fact that a child's bike is in almost all cases, by definition, a BSO - a Bicycle Shaped Object. They are not made to be ridden for any reasonable distances and if you're trying to fix them, well, it can be an effort to keep your head away from the wall. The only exception I've had the pleasure to work on are Islabikes, and the ultimate proof to my mind was the 3-and-a-half year old that managed to help me replace a bottom bracket on one (once I found a socket wrench small enough) before he learned to ride it. I would feel quite lucky to ride one, and unlike many bike manufacturers nowadays, they don't make any terribly low-end models that only sell on the reputation of the higher-end models, which seems to be an easy pit to fall into if you've not bought a bike for a good few years. Many people on this forum ask whether Trek is good or Giant bad, but unfortunately there's no definite answer, it depends on the model. This is not the case with Islabikes, at least so far, so you know you're buying a decent quality bike with plenty of thought put into important details rather than just step-over clearance.
If you're trying other bikes, I'd definitely suggest to avoid 700c wheels, check that you can turn your front wheel without hitting the pedal when it's in 3 o'clock position (toe overlap), and make sure you can operate the brake levers safely, at least as a bare minimum.
Have a little look on www.terrybicycles.com to get a few ideas of some different solutions to the toe overlap problem, too.