Bike set-up for Mrs Reki

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Mrs Reki has re-discovered riding her bike again. Luckily for me it's my 1998 minty Spec Rockhopper which very conveniently we both can ride ;)

Having managed to get her riding with the saddle at the correct height she is now complaining of sore wrists. Her arms and wrists are stretched out to reach the bars.

The stem is currently the OEM Spec 110mm cold forged silver one it came with. How short a stem can I fit without upsetting the ride of the bike?
 
80mm will make a big difference - it also depends on the bars. Is the seatpost set back? can you whack a few spacers under the stem to sit her up more?
 
Raising the bars an inch or so will help, even with the same length stem. If she isn't using a riser bar, then try one. Fine tuning is a doddle!
 
You make it sound as though the bike is fundamentally too big for her. Females have a different posture on the bike, so they really need a shorter top tube relative to their height than men do.

You could go for a shorter stem as an expedient, but that will also reduce the bar height a fraction, taking away some of the gain. A riser bar might help more, and although the increased sweep will make the steering quicker, that would be counteracted if the bar was a bit wider.

Although you've struggled to get her to the 'correct' saddle height (we've all been there!), it must be said that dropping it back by half an inch would ease her problem with her hands.
 
I guess this might be a weight distribution thing. If your wife had the saddle very low then not much of her weight would have been on her hands. Put the saddle up and more weight rests on the wrists and hands.

If the bar is wide then this may not help either particularly if she has narrow shoulders. My husband had his bars cut back a bit when I nagged him into riding with a correct height saddle and it made all the difference to his comfort.

It's not always true that women need a shorter top tube relative to their height although many do - it depends on the hip to knee measurement - if a woman has a long hip to knee measurement she may find a man's bike a better fit.
 
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