Kona's have real funny frame geometry, short top tube and high handlebars. maybe that fits you, maybe that doesn't, but I sure didn't like it. The Stumpjumper Comp meets your spec, hard tail, Fox RL 90mm fork, Avid juicy disks, DT spokes and rims, etc etc.... kinda pricy for a hardtail but its an up-spec bike...
We started the bike shopping for Erin yesterday. Bike prices have jumped in the last two years! The equivalent to my not quite two year old bike is now selling for a couple hundred more! Jeebus. The bigger challenge is going to be finding a fit for my very inseam challenged wife. Lots of bikes aren't available for someone of her proportions at her size.
bike prices haven't jumped, the dollar has dropped but, yeah. re: wimmens fitting, Specialized at least has womens versions of most of their frames which are not only lower, they have different top tube ratios, bar widths, and crank lengths more suited to them. for instance, the 07 Rockhopper Comp Disc Women's comes as small as a size 13, which has a 25" standover, the Dolce Comp women's road bike in size 44 has a 26" standover. these aren't yesterday's 'girls bikes' by any stretch.
Looks like the Rockhopper ProDisc might also meet my needs, and it's a bit more reasonable in price. It's tough to compare though, I'm not exactly sure what I want in drive train components other than no grip shifters under any circumstance.
Yeah, we're looking at all the options right now. I'm still not a fan of Specialized. bike portland blog entry on the subject The typical bike designed for a woman is designed around the idea that a woman has different proportions (longer leg, shorter torso and arm). Erin doesn't fit that mold, but many of the men's bikes aren't offered in a small enough size for her. We'll make the run down from Trek to Terry to some local shops that could build something up for her.
Custom? If she's that far outta the norm, maybe get her a custom frame? Teesdale, Denny, Spicer are all on the lower end of custom $$-wise Just a thought. M
We might be doing just that. I am a bit wary of going down this path as she is a n00b when it comes to road bikes. She doesn't yet know what she wants or needs - beyond knowing that she hates the paint schemes on most of the 'girl' bikes (pinks, bright blues, etc). I'm going down to my favorite LBS, where they build up bikes more than they sell off the rack setups.
Last time I got a Russ Denny built frame/fork, it was about $700. Teesdale's site is pretty good too. Builds in steel if that's what yer lookin for. If y'all are riding for funsies, a nice frame'll last her eons. Pays for itself 'cause you can hang so-so components on it now, then upgrade everything but the frame later. Another thought... M
you can adapt a small frame to a longer torsoed rider somewhat by a combination of riding the seat as far back as possible (and possibly using a bent seatpost) and, a longer stem for the handlebars. one thing I think a lot of people ignore, someone with short thighs really should have shorter cranks to reduce the distance their knee travels and the range of angle of their hip joint. this, naturally, means they have less leverage (they do anyways), so they should also use slightly smaller chainrings, which, yes, means they will be riding somewhat slower. re: Specialized, I dunno, from that blog, it sounds like Mountain Cycle's Taiwan parent Kinesis was as much the problem as Specialized. Rename the one model bike, get a bunch of free publicity, move on. Such is business. Specialized has grown from being a local (to me) parts and bike designer and importer (one of the first US branded bike importers to sell quality japanese bikes) to one of the biggest in the business (I think Specialized and Trek are probably the two largest such). They were the first to sell a mass produced decent quality mountain bike (the original Stumpjumper in 1983, I still have mine). What I'm seeing from here in high tech land, everyone has rushed to Asia for manufacturing, the Asians have gotten very good at it, the dollars are flowing one way, their standard of living is going up, their costs are going up, the dollar is going down, now Asian stuff is getting expensive, and we've lost the skills and willpower to compete. Way to go. Another local uber-high-end speciality bike maker moved all production to asia a few years ago and laid off most of their staff except for a few engineers, and sales+marketing. A certain advrider I know was a design engineer working for a small engineering firm that did the mechanical frame designs for this maker... used to be they'd contract all 3-4 sizes of a new frame.... ooops, now they are only contracting out ONE frame to this local engineering firm, then sending the designs overseas to be redrawn in the other sizes. now said rider is out of work and looking to move out of state. :huh
Anbody else from the SE riding the Assault on The Carolinas 24 March. I'm looking for someone to pull me up the climbs I got talked in to the metric century, I hope I make it. http://www.assaultonthecarolinas.com/registration.html
I used to have this girlfriend that loved to ride centuries, sometimes every weekend for a month or more, and i ended up towing her for about 50% or more of each ride, this can slowly drive you crazy. here i was getting faster on each ride and somehow getting suckered into towing her at some grindingly slow speed for hours at a time! what the hell was i thinking.She was pretty darn fun when she was naked, that was probably what the hell i was thinking. (new orange blur is almost here)
those nomads are pretty damn cool, i looked at em but bought a blur, im taking it out this morning,play with the suspension a bit and get used to it in the rocks on the local trails. these bikes look really bombproof, not the lightest thing in the world but real strong looking.
Erin took a few bikes out for spins last night. We may have found a bike for her. It's nothing exotic, nothing that will have any street cred with the hipsters or the racers, but a nice bike at a decent price. AND, most important, it fit her pretty well. She's going to try a few more tonight. This one is an '06 model deeply discounted. A blend of mostly 105 with a dash of Ultegra. Yes, it's a better bike than mine. $1100, but a chance of picking it up for a $1000 (sale coming up with price match promise). They've got a 30 day return policy on bikes. Seeing her head out on a test ride had my heart going pitter patter. I love that woman. Having something else we can share would be a good thing.
LeMond is a fine old name in bikes. I have no idea what they are like now, but they made quite good roadbikes in the 60s/70s edit: oops, confusing them with someone else :) Greg LeMond started LeMond cycles in the late 80s when he was a world champion road racer.
Lemond is owned by Trek, but builds bikes with a more classic stretched out geometry. It's far from a chic boutique brand, but neither of us cares enough to pay the premium for a boutique bike.
ah, I suspected such a connection, due to the use of Bontrager components (another company acquired by Trek).