What do short people ride?
Peter S. Shenkin
>
>
> In searching for a new sport bike for my 5' 1" wife, we have found the
>number of choices severly limited in the $300 range. Univega's Nuovo Sport
>is available with an eighteen and a half inch frame and twenty-six inch
>wheels. The '85 Nuovo Sport is equipped with Suntour ARX hardware and the
>'86 version comes with Shimano L series components. Shogun's '86 line of
>bikes include seventeen inch versions with twenty-seven inch wheels but the
>top tube on the one we looked at (the 400) seemed disproportionately long.
>
> Does anyone know of any other bikes worth looking at? She doesn't like
>a mixte style frame (and neither do I).
Don't know answer, but as usual, I have to put in a coupla cents worth.
I was amazed, while shopping for a bike with a 5'2" friend, that nothing
off the shelf, other than a Mixte, would fit her. The shop we went to
didnt have such exotica as you mention. Someone suggested a "teenager's
bike" with 24" wheels, and thinking about it, if a 6' person is ideal for a bike
with 27" wheels, a 5'2" person should be using 23" wheels, so 24" is close.
Of course, I don't know whether good quality is available in this size.
The problem with 27" wheels for a ~5' person is things like foot clearance
at the front wheel, and perhaps an overly high center of gravity.
Extending this line of thought, perhaps there should be several wheel sizes;
say, 24", 27" and 29"; assuming that 6' person --> 27" wheel, linear scaling
dictates the following ideal sizes: 5'4"-->24" wheel; 6'5"-->29" wheel.
(I see no reason for any kind of non-linear scaling scheme, since the main
parameter would seem to be body length, not, say, weight or surface area....)
Peter S. Shenkin Columbia Univ. Biology Dept., NY, NY 10027
{philabs,rna}!cubsvax!peters cubsvax!pet...@columbia.ARPA
Ling Ku
>
>
> In searching for a new sport bike for my 5' 1" wife, we have found the
>number of choices severly limited in the $300 range. Univega's Nuovo Sport
>is available with an eighteen and a half inch frame and twenty-six inch
>wheels. The '85 Nuovo Sport is equipped with Suntour ARX hardware and the
>'86 version comes with Shimano L series components. Shogun's '86 line of
>bikes include seventeen inch versions with twenty-seven inch wheels but the
>top tube on the one we looked at (the 400) seemed disproportionately long.
>
> Does anyone know of any other bikes worth looking at? She doesn't like
>a mixte style frame (and neither do I).
I am 5'1 and I had the same problem. Most (big) bike shops are unwilling
to sell me even the smallest (19") 27" wheel bike because I don't have an
inch clearence from the top tube. I had to settle for a mixte. Since I
commute in heavy traffic, I am glad to have the "added security".
Siu-Ling Ku
{decvax, harvard}!mitvax!slk
slk%v...@mit-mc.ARPA
--
Siu-Ling Ku
{decvax, harvard}!mitvax!slk
slk%v...@mit-mc.ARPA