Looking for brands/models of ladies bikes with 26"

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Titiritero":5xsw47uv said:

Nevertheless, thanks to your links I see that Kuwahara had quite a few models in their range, and I love their lugged frames, so I will include them on my search!

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I assume the Lion was the top of the range, since it was XC 9000 equipped. Rollercams too, very cool ladies framed bike:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/291571308456

Good compilation of step-through models. Not retro, but with a retro flavor (touring bikes, so most with steel frame, rigid forks, and no non-sense)

http://www.cyclingabout.com/a-complete- ... ugh-mixte/

I'm still unsure what you're after.

In the original post, you said many "women's" bikes have 700c wheels and tubes that are 'too sloping' yet you're defending them vociferously throughout.

But for what you've then gone on to describe intended usage, I'm struggling to see why that's such a bad idea.

I originally thought you wanted an old school MTB with female friendly geo. I know that many MTB manufacturers have included women's specific geometry in the their ranges for some time now, but only the big ones, I'm guessing due to economies of scale.

Specialized comes to mind as one such bike manufacturer, and I think Trek used the initials WSD (Women Specific Design) to denote their 'girl's bikes' (here's a German ebay search with that as the term (http://www.ebay.de/sch/i.html?_from=R40 ... D&_sacat=0) but I wouldn't know which models in particular to look out for.

Plus, you say your wife is tall, I'm at a loss to understand why you'd need a female specific bike, as they tended to be aimed at women like my wife, who's a right short arse.

For reference, her bike is a GT (no idea of model now) and fits her well enough.

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I found it!! Two weeks ago I was checking the local online classifieds to see if my crap was selling, when I saw an add for a Trek 380 in a village nearby. That model number was not familiar so I checked it out.

As expected, the seller had it wrong. It was a '93 Trek 820, ladies frame, and best of all, in the hard to find size 20", ideal for my wife. The bike was so mildly used it even has the original tires, and in decent usable condition! So for 45 EUR I couldn't say no. The guy even delivered the bike to me.

Bike is Tange tubing in the main tubes, cromoly on stays and fork, with an unremarkable but still working flawlesssly after 24 years Altus C20 group.

The plan now is to convert it into her commuter bike (replacing her also '93 but heavily used bike, which has a bonded aluminium frame I don't trust to pull our baby's trailer). It will also work for the occasional offroad ride, and we might use it also as tourer in one of our frequent trips. This is how it looks when I got it:


Trek still makes the Trek 820 nowadays, also available as ladies frame and with steel frame (and crappy fork).
https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/bike ... 8601-2017/

As interesting facts, the bike costs now 10 USD less than in 1993 (379$ vs 389$ back then according to Bikepedia, which in today's money is probably around 700$), and if the catalogue doesn't lie, the retro version is a full 2.1kg lighter than the modern version (13.1 vs 15.2kg)
http://www.bikepedia.com/QuickBike/Bike ... &Type=bike

Also, for the guys here saying a step-through frame is not worth the hassle, if you check the specs the ladies version (20" size) has a nearly 3cm shorter reach, 5cm wider handlebar, and a full 4 cm longer head tube (meaning the stem sits higher vs saddle) than the equivalent diamond frame. All very welcome features for my wife.

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As a wife, I can ride all bikes.

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Hmm - ya - I was wondering about that (^ girl-specific bikes ^) ... as aren't people supposed to be totally either unisex or gender neutral in these times?

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k-rod":2pwzolbc said:

Hmm - ya - I was wondering about that (^ girl-specific bikes ^) ... as aren't people supposed to be totally either unisex or gender neutral in these times?

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nah. I think you're specifically looking for a step through or mixte though. saw a few custom ones go on sale this year. a Fat and a Retrotec.