Does womens specific mean much?
- Thread starter ducky1988
- Start date
The Duckmeister
Has a juicy midrange
Depends on the woman. Some find the subtle geometric tweaks beneficial, others prefer the standard men's geometry.
Broadly speaking, women have longer legs & shorter arms & torsos than men for a given height, so frames are typically shorter to suit.
Try both & see what she prefers.
Broadly speaking, women have longer legs & shorter arms & torsos than men for a given height, so frames are typically shorter to suit.
Try both & see what she prefers.
As a woman, to me womens specific means shrinked, pinked and running lower end gear for the same or higher price... This is changing though and I am glad to see it. (still a bit miffed with the naming scheme on Giants womens MTB range... lust? obsess? tempt? its a bike, not frikkin mills and boon!:doh
women are all built differently, and for some of us the womens specific formula doesn't work. Ive got a longer torso and shorter legs and womens specific bikes just don't work for me at all.
Same deal for helmets and padding/protection - womens specific is a bit of a gimmick. Clothing is a different story, and its pretty obvious why womens specific clothing is ideal.
Your partner needs to get out and try out both womens specific and standard geo bikes and see what she likes better...
we don't prefer one or the other, we prefer a bike that fits and is enjoyable to ride! :dance:
women are all built differently, and for some of us the womens specific formula doesn't work. Ive got a longer torso and shorter legs and womens specific bikes just don't work for me at all.
Same deal for helmets and padding/protection - womens specific is a bit of a gimmick. Clothing is a different story, and its pretty obvious why womens specific clothing is ideal.
Your partner needs to get out and try out both womens specific and standard geo bikes and see what she likes better...
we don't prefer one or the other, we prefer a bike that fits and is enjoyable to ride! :dance:
Pebble
Likes Bikes and Dirt
What price are you looking at?
I've always thought that mens bikes were just as good, if not better because for the $$ you generally get better value for money. I'm a woman. 169cm tall (translates to 5ft7 I think), but I think I have short legs / long torso, have always owned a mens model myself but I've never been a real girly girl anyway.
Recently brought kids new bikes, Daughter got Giant Tempt 4 and Son got Giant Talon 4 (both 2015 models...details not on Giant website yet actually). Both bikes are pretty much the same spec, the Daughters bike feels heavier by comparison. I only briefly test rode each, and in comparison the daughters bike felt like it had snappier handling in tight turns etc, even compared to my 26" HT, which kind of surprised me (but then again I do run a short stem).
Here are links... obviously they come at higher price points with better specs on the upper models, even so may be in the lower calibre compared to what you're looking at, just thought I'd link as it serves an apples for apples comparison between a his and hers model from one manufacturer.
http://www.fortheriders.com.au/Giant-Talon-27-5-4-2015-bike
http://www.fortheriders.com.au/Giant-Tempt-4-2015-Bike
I would say that it's worth considering both mens and womens models, it really depends on what she likes and fits best.
I've always thought that mens bikes were just as good, if not better because for the $$ you generally get better value for money. I'm a woman. 169cm tall (translates to 5ft7 I think), but I think I have short legs / long torso, have always owned a mens model myself but I've never been a real girly girl anyway.
Recently brought kids new bikes, Daughter got Giant Tempt 4 and Son got Giant Talon 4 (both 2015 models...details not on Giant website yet actually). Both bikes are pretty much the same spec, the Daughters bike feels heavier by comparison. I only briefly test rode each, and in comparison the daughters bike felt like it had snappier handling in tight turns etc, even compared to my 26" HT, which kind of surprised me (but then again I do run a short stem).
Here are links... obviously they come at higher price points with better specs on the upper models, even so may be in the lower calibre compared to what you're looking at, just thought I'd link as it serves an apples for apples comparison between a his and hers model from one manufacturer.
http://www.fortheriders.com.au/Giant-Talon-27-5-4-2015-bike
http://www.fortheriders.com.au/Giant-Tempt-4-2015-Bike
I would say that it's worth considering both mens and womens models, it really depends on what she likes and fits best.
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pharmaboy
Eats Squid
Common misconception in bike industry - probably because bikes are invented in a marketing dept not by a medical dept.
Looking through how to identify a female skeleton versus a male ( which pathologists get wrong more than you'd expect), women have a longer humorous and a shorter femur compared to men.
Loosely then, women have longer reach and shorter legs relative to height than males of the same height.
Which seems exactly the opposite of what the bike industry does - why? I have no idea . Incidentally the shorter humorous of males is why they can throw better and lift heavier loads .
Edit - these are averages and differences between individuals are greater than the differences between the sexes.
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smoothwakey
Likes Bikes
I think it depends on the size of the person, My GF is short, (5'3" ish) and hence bought a xs Giant Lust because the standover clearance was a fair amount larger than any of the xs mens frames. If she was taller she probably would have bought an anthem or trance and got a lot better spec for the money. Another thing is, bar width and seat, most male bikes have 710mm bar width now,which may be an issues for someone with narrower shoulders, but I guess a good store would be happy to swap those components over for little/no extra charge.
Also she is not really into girly thing (pandora, weddings etc sorry for the stereotype) so the pretty colour scheme was not a major contributing factor.
She didn't really enjoy riding that much before buying the bike, she would ride with me maybe once or twice a year (previously rode a giant stp setup well for her) and now she pesters me to go riding.
TL;DR ( I think women's specific bikes are THE SHIT)
Also she is not really into girly thing (pandora, weddings etc sorry for the stereotype) so the pretty colour scheme was not a major contributing factor.
She didn't really enjoy riding that much before buying the bike, she would ride with me maybe once or twice a year (previously rode a giant stp setup well for her) and now she pesters me to go riding.
TL;DR ( I think women's specific bikes are THE SHIT)
I don't think the bike industry takes female riders seriously. make it pink/purple give it a weird name [lust/obsess]. make it lower spec for the same money.
if brought my partner something like that, I would be told to stick it up my arse. couldn't blame her either. she is 5.3 and rides a small anthem with a 70 mil stem and we cut the bars down to suit her. she loves it.
if brought my partner something like that, I would be told to stick it up my arse. couldn't blame her either. she is 5.3 and rides a small anthem with a 70 mil stem and we cut the bars down to suit her. she loves it.
stinky1138
Likes Dirt
The only answer to your question is does your partner like and feel comfortable on the bike, no matter which gender it's supposedly catered towards.
I'm 5'2" and my normal trail bike is a mens S but i've also comfortably ridden the husbands M. I notice the biggest difference is going down hills as his bike is heavier and therefore harder for me to control.
Everything is personal preference.
Buy a womens specific seat tho, it's made more of a difference to my comfort while riding than any other change i've made to any of my bikes. Sit bones are wider and all that.
I buy Race Face riding clothes, their womens line is same quality as the mens just a different cut. And it's not pink.
I'm 5'2" and my normal trail bike is a mens S but i've also comfortably ridden the husbands M. I notice the biggest difference is going down hills as his bike is heavier and therefore harder for me to control.
Everything is personal preference.
Buy a womens specific seat tho, it's made more of a difference to my comfort while riding than any other change i've made to any of my bikes. Sit bones are wider and all that.
I buy Race Face riding clothes, their womens line is same quality as the mens just a different cut. And it's not pink.
agentninety3
Likes Dirt
As opposed to the rave culture names on the standard range - Anthem, Trance, XtC...
My missus rides a 2013 Talon 1 W (pre-Liv naming scheme), same spec and price as the "men's" version. She prefers the colour scheme (light blue and white, not pink) and the difference in standover and reach. Also rides in RF kit, which is probably more due to my rabid fanboyism of RF.
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brutasauras
Likes Dirt
I don't think the slight variations in top tube geometry mean much, except for lower stand over height is great for shorter women. I think it is fairly obvious to all, the main physical difference is height between the sex's and not torso, leg ratio marketing rubbish. This brings me to a mostly ignored part of a bike geometry that would benefit smaller humans, the front center to rear center ratio. Only a small amount of bike company's actually scale there chain stay lengths to frame size and none of the big players with the so called women specific bikes do. This means that if a shorter person wants to unweight or lift the front end of the bike, their mass is not only more forward they have less leverage and also most likely less strength than a taller person on a bigger frame with the same chainstay. My Mrs is a touch over 5 foot and i have watched her skills advance in all areas except any thing that requires lifting the front end and is no doubt the reason she never feels confident doing drops and jumps of any size. Where your mass sits in reference to both wheels, i feel is fundamental to a bikes behavior and a difference such as this has implications in considering bikes of the same model in different sizes have different dynamics.I know every thing is a compromise and i think this is a manufacturing one and it is a lot easier just to have a different paint scheme. Bigger wheels have only made this worse, as well as the expense of carbon molds will mean in the future a reluctance to scale chain stays for a small percentage of the market.
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SummitFever
Eats Squid
Excellent point.
Better " 90's rave" culture than the "(he grabbed her heaving shoulders) thats Fabio? 10 for $2 at the book exchange" culture
foxpuppet
Eats Squid
My wife had an 09 trance x2 medium. The top tube design meant the stand over was good but the geo of the bike was off somehow. I had a medium stumpy to compare it too, but there was just something wrong about the trance, really twitchy steering and didn't like the climb position but it handled well in the air and could wheelie way better than my stumpy.
She demoed a specialized Safire 26 at a demo day along with a stumpy fsr 29, my stumpy fsr 26 and a fate HT. There was something about the Safire that just sat right with her, all were similar spec, but she felt way more confident in the Safire so that's what we ended up with.
For reference it's a comp model but nothing is really much different in spec level to the equivalent stumpjumper. Safire uses GXP bb vs stumpy pf30
Safire has dtswiss wheels vs stumpy with roval otherwise part for part.
I'm just annoyed it's basically been dropped from the Australian distribution. They made it again for 2014 but the 2013 was the last model available here.
The new Rumor Evo looks the business though....hopefully they make a carbon model soon, or a 650b safire!
She demoed a specialized Safire 26 at a demo day along with a stumpy fsr 29, my stumpy fsr 26 and a fate HT. There was something about the Safire that just sat right with her, all were similar spec, but she felt way more confident in the Safire so that's what we ended up with.
For reference it's a comp model but nothing is really much different in spec level to the equivalent stumpjumper. Safire uses GXP bb vs stumpy pf30
Safire has dtswiss wheels vs stumpy with roval otherwise part for part.
I'm just annoyed it's basically been dropped from the Australian distribution. They made it again for 2014 but the 2013 was the last model available here.
The new Rumor Evo looks the business though....hopefully they make a carbon model soon, or a 650b safire!
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Slightly off-topic, but I actually asked a Giant Rep if it was possible to get the Lust colour scheme on an Anthem, cos it's a tossup between that and the 2014 Nomad for my favourite paint schemes.
He said no
The Duckmeister
Has a juicy midrange
Regardless of what wheelsize you're dealing with, you're never really going to be able to shorten the rear end from what it already is on any given model, only make it longer to suit bigger frames. Then you more than likely stuff the handling of the entire range. Then you factor in rear suspension design, which is all built in conjunction with the rear end, so if you change one aspect to start with, you then find everything else has to get changed. So instead of designing one rear platform, the R&D time & cost suddenly multiplies fivefold as they then have to design a whole unique platform for each frame size.
Matching wheel size to frame size would work to some extent (eg 26" for XS & S frames, 27.5" for M & L frames, & 29" for XL), but there would still be more development work in optimising three rear ends.
SummitFever
Eats Squid
Syntace do this on the Liteville 301. Don't know any other frame manufacturers that do this.
acads
Likes Dirt
Interesting points , my wife was keen to get back into cycling so I got her to ride a few different bikes which included my anthem , an xtc and a talon before she decided on a Giant tempt 2 ( she hates the name but the bike looks pretty good ) . She was getting numb fingers on the xtc and talon which went away on the tempt , she has over 1500k's on it as mainly a commuter and some light duty YT rides .
The lower stand over height was a big plus along with a short stem and tall front end which shifted her weight rearward , the bike rolls very well and a remote lockout for the front fork makes it easy to tackle the paths .
I've been upgrading parts as I change them on my bike , the std wheelset was rubbish and a smidge over 1kg was saved and along with 1/2kg lost from going to 1x10 it has transformed the bike .