Other than the lower bar, how are ladies' bikes different from men's?

Question

I'm buying a used bike for my GF, and it's a men's bike with the horizontal crossbar. The buying it from a lady who rode it. Would this create much of a problem? What changes do they make to ladies' bikes to make them more suitable for females?

Answer 1

Hey Bret,

Modern women's bikes have a different geometry than Men's bikes. The women's bike have a shorter top tube and narrow handlebars. Also a women's bike is designed to be more compact to fit a women's body geometry. A few bicycle companies like TREK have WSD or "Women's Specefic Design" bikes made just for women. Check out this link for more info. of a WSD bike:
http://www2.trekbikes.com/us/en/WSD/WSD_Difference.php

-My girlfriend prefers a Men's bike frame, because she has a long torso and long legs. The best way to decide is to go out to your Local Bike Shop and test ride a few different bikes.

-Now the old type women's bikes had a deep drop in the top tube. So the old girls bikes essentially had a top tube and a bottom tube running parallel to each other. The top tube had a deep bend so, women with skirts and dresses could straddle and ride the bikes easier. Hope this helps. = )

Answer 2

The difference is much more than the lower top tube. If you look at today's women's road bikes, they don't even have lowered top tubes anymore, the only reason women's bikes had them in the first place is because women wore skirts back in the day when bicycles were transportation and not just a pastime. Women's bikes have narrower handle bars, due to women's narrower shoulders. They have shorter top tubes to bring the handlebars closer to the seat, because women have shorter arms. Women with shorter legs should also have shorter cranks. It is all about what will work best for the woman, and especially about her comfort. A men's bike might not be the perfect fit for your girlfriend, but there are certain things you can do to help correct a poor fit.

Here is a webpage on Bicycling and Pain http://sheldonbrown.com/pain.html
It will explain the pains you will suffer when your bike doesn't fit right, and what you can do to remedy it. Sheldon Brown has ton's of good info on everything bicycle related and then some.

Hope that answers a lot for you.

Answer 3

Firstly, the top tub is lower on traditional girls bikes to allow for flowy skirts. If you are wearing one, you would have to hike it up to go over the top tube of a blokes bike. However, if you are cycling as a sport/exercise the chances are you are going to wear lycra, rather than a flowy Laura Ashley number.

Many mountain bikes, although having a horizontal bar, are now make to cater for femail geomentry. This is because, typically, women will have shorter bodies and longer legs than a man. This will mean that you need to consider altering the saddle height and the length of top tube. Overall though, for general riding, a male bike should not make that much difference as long as the frame size was OK.

Luck

Answer 4

enable's bypass over this one greater time. motorcycles with a decrease real tube are actually not unavoidably ladies motorcycles. MTB, highway, a lot of motorcycles are equipped with angled real tube. this provides a geometry a shorter, swifter, tighter handing. those "drop tube" type could be swifter coping with. Then there is WSD. Womens particular layout. women human beings are equipped diverse and by potential of that we propose shorter torso, longer legs, narrower shoulders, smaller palms. in case you're a woman 5'5'' or shorter a WSD motorbike could be for you. those motorcycles look same to correctly-known mens motorcycles until you notice the somewhat narrow bars, shorter attain brifters, shorter real tube .... in fact i comprehend some adult men racers the two professional and semi professional who've proportionally longer than properly-known legs than maximum adult men. They journey WSD motorcycles so as that the real tube will in effective condition. you will never comprehend the version.

Answer 5

serious womens bikes never have that "girls bike" top tube that's really low - i've got a feeling that's a throw back to when it was improper for a lady wearing a dress/skirt to swing her leg over the back of the bike. perfect for biking in the early 1900's... silly now.

the main difference in serious bikes (road & mtn) for women are its relative sizing. overall, women tend to be shorter than men. also, overall, women tend to have longer torso's relative to their leg length than men. so women's bikes often have longer top tubes relative to the standover height of the frame.

but sizing is very body-specific, regardless of gender. a guy can have short legs/long torso and benefit from a women's frame (though he'd never buy a pink or purple frame). And many taller women fit standard frames just fine.

if your GF is proportioned similarly to the "lady" you bought it from, she should be fine, maybe a little tweaking required.

Answer 6

Other than size on some, there really is no difference. That bar is weird because: For a woman, if she slides off the seat and she cracks her ****, it really hurts, but at the same time, If a guy slides off and cracks his jewels, i know thats gonna hurt just as bad.