Woman's geometry road bike suggestions - small hands - budget £2k-ish

[Trull]

Hello
My 5ft 2" wife is interested in upgrading from her 1990s era Super Galaxy to a carbon or compliant 725 with carbon fork female specific geometry road bike, disc brakes, perhaps gravel if its drop handlebar. The main problem she has with the SG are the brake levers are too far away from the bars to comfortably use. She's aiming at 60-100mile rides with me in the future.
So, small handed people, what do you find works for you?
I do have a loyal LBS able to build up a frame etc too. But need to tell them what to use.
Any thoughts or guidance would be very welcome
Thank you
T
PS: I only have myself to blame after telling her how fantastic Ride the North was this year on the "Tour of Angus", she's wanting a slice of that pie!

 

[YMFB]

My daughter is not tall and rides a Liv, it has what we used to call GT brakes on the top of the bars. I can’t remember if the LBS fitted them or if they were original.

 

[Reynard]

A petite lady rider here, a little shorter than your missus. Can't help you with a bike choice as I ride junior frames, but if you're building up a drop bar bike from a bare frame, then have a look at Microshift brifters, as they're specifically designed for smaller hands.

The downside is you're limited in the number of cogs front and rear (especially rear), but my road bike set-up is 2 x 8. I think if you choose the gearing wisely, that should still work well enough. That said, I bought my road bike ten years ago, so likely there will have been some more up-to-date options added in the mean time.

 

[Webbo2]

Hello
My 5ft 2" wife is interested in upgrading from her 1990s era Super Galaxy to a carbon or compliant 725 with carbon fork female specific geometry road bike, disc brakes, perhaps gravel if its drop handlebar. The main problem she has with the SG are the brake levers are too far away from the bars to comfortably use. She's aiming at 60-100mile rides with me in the future.
So, small handed people, what do you find works for you?
I do have a loyal LBS able to build up a frame etc too. But need to tell them what to use.
Any thoughts or guidance would be very welcome
Thank you
T
PS: I only have myself to blame after telling her how fantastic Ride the North was this year on the "Tour of Angus", she's wanting a slice of that pie!

Can you not adjust the levers so that they are not so far from the bars. Theres a screw under the hoods that brings the lever nearer the bars.

 

[YMFB]

Can you not adjust the levers so that they are not so far from the bars. Theres a screw under the hoods that brings the lever nearer the bars.

That’s not enough for my daughter

 

[Trull]

Can you not adjust the levers so that they are not so far from the bars. Theres a screw under the hoods that brings the lever nearer the bars.

The levers (Shimano 105 HyperGlide iirc) still don't come all that close sadly. There's also handlebar curve, which I think is better in modern bars compared to 90s.

 

[Trull]

A petite lady rider here, a little shorter than your missus. Can't help you with a bike choice as I ride junior frames, but if you're building up a drop bar bike from a bare frame, then have a look at Microshift brifters, as they're specifically designed for smaller hands.

The downside is you're limited in the number of cogs front and rear (especially rear), but my road bike set-up is 2 x 8. I think if you choose the gearing wisely, that should still work well enough. That said, I bought my road bike ten years ago, so likely there will have been some more up-to-date options added in the mean time.

That's a good shout, thank you.
They now do a 1x11 etc. so quite tempting.

 

[Webbo2]

That's a good shout, thank you.
They now do a 1x11 etc. so quite tempting.

I have Frog bike cyclocross bike bought for my grandson aged about 10 when we got it. It has got microshift levers. They don’t not look like they are nearer the bars than my 105’s, Dura ace mechanical or my Ultegra Di2 levers.

 

[Reynard]

I have Frog bike cyclocross bike bought for my grandson aged about 10 when we got it. It has got microshift levers. They don’t not look like they are nearer the bars than my 105’s, Dura ace mechanical or my Ultegra Di2 levers.

Might not look it, but they do make a difference. Well, at least in my experience anyways.

 

[Webbo2]

Might not look it, but they do make a difference. Well, at least in my experience anyways.

I will have a measure tomorrow if I remember.

 

[Reynard]

I will have a measure tomorrow if I remember.

I'm an engineer by training, so I can't argue with that!

Although I rather suspect that we're skirting the same territory as saddles and shorts here, that what works for one person is torture instigated by Torquemada for another...

 

[vickster]

I'm not petite but I have smaller hands and shorter fingers than 5'10 blokes!
SRAM Rival 11 speed mechanical shifters, TRP Spyre mechanical disc brakes and cross levers for me. Not the easiest kit to find nowadays as it's mostly hydraulic discs/shifters but those are big and chunky and you can't add the cross levers for easier braking (for me).
You can get 1x left levers

Velovixen on Facebook is a great women only cycling group, there'll be plenty with ideas there (she'll have to sign up 😉)

 

[wafter]

For bikes I'd suggest you measure the reach and stack of the Galaxy and look for similar / appropriately tweaked numbers in the new bike. Off the top of my head Liv made much fanfare about proper female-specific geometry a while ago; these will all by trendy mass-market placcy jobs though so you won't get a nice steel frame from them.

Be aware that a lot of brands' offerings for female rides are just smaller frames in different colours (with no attention paid to different geometry) and often the geo on small frames gets really squirly with stack reduced while reach hardly diminishes (necessary with 700c wheels to avoid toe overlap); making the geo proportionally more aggressive. Another thing worth considering is that some better brands now offer smaller wheels (650b) on smaller frame sizes; which helps keep things in proportion.

If going with discs I'd strongly suggest you get hydraulic; and if taking this route IIRC both Shimano 105 and Tiagra shifters are offered in short-reach variants (I think the model numbers have a 5 at the end - so ST-R7025 is the short-reach version of the ST-R7020).

From the narrow range of bikes that interest me personally, the Fairlight Faran looks really nice, or if you want a placcy fork the more road-oriented Strael always gets glowing reviews. From a technical / design perspective Fairlight appear really on the ball and are also notable in their approach to sizing - which offers a good range as well as two variants of each frame size to cater for differing leg/torso ratios (which it seems is typically where women differ most notably from men). They also have a sizing calculator which you might find of use and seems pretty close for me based on my measurements and preferred fit.

Finally there's the gorgeous Singular Peregrine - all steel, more traditionally styled and apparently pretty well proportioned in the smaller sizes (again due to using smaller wheels); although these all seem to be quite long of reach / short of stack so less intrinsically suited to those of us with long legs, whilst also generally more aggressive.

HTH

 

[MichaelW2]

Check that the rest of the bike is 5'2" compliant, ie 26" wheels, 160mm cranks, low BB height, narrow, small radius drop bars.

See Shimano ST-4725

 

[Webbo2]

So I’ve been out to measure all my bikes and grandsons. They are roughly 7 cm from bar to leaver, this is on the drops. When I put my hands on the drops on all bikes I have the same amount of finger on them just past the first joint.
With the grandsons bike I got him to try the reach and he said it was fine and has no problems with it when riding.
However he is a bit of a giant currently about 5’9” at the age of 12, he was a fair bit smaller when he last rode the frog. It would be way too small for him now.