{"id":4378,"date":"2012-05-09T06:30:17","date_gmt":"2012-05-09T12:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.brickhouseracing.com\/?p=4378"},"modified":"2013-04-13T06:57:00","modified_gmt":"2013-04-13T12:57:00","slug":"womens-bikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.brickhouseracing.com\/?p=4378","title":{"rendered":"Women&#8217;s Bikes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Watch this:<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"700\" height=\"394\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AQrYpiAxpe8?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>No, really. Watch it. Especially about halfway through when they start talking about the need for a &#8220;women&#8217;s specific&#8221; geometry on bikes.<\/p>\n<p>Since I&#8217;ve started looking into various bike fits and helping people find proper bike fits, I&#8217;ve had an inkling that the women&#8217;s specific bike is a marketing gimmick&#8230; especially in the case of Scott, who just makes the women&#8217;s bike a different color with no other appreciable changes to the frame.<\/p>\n<p>Other manufacturers make their women&#8217;s frames somewhat differently- usually shortening the reach and increasing the stack. This is similar to the type of geometry that they&#8217;ll use for their more &#8220;comfort&#8221; oriented frames (examples- Scott CR1, Cannondale Synapse). Last I checked, about 90% of my road bike customers were men&#8230; and last I checked, the more &#8220;comfort&#8221; oriented geometry was what was appropriate for 90% of the men who walk through the shop door.<\/p>\n<p>So, what about a guy who wants a full-on race bike, but can barely touch his hands to his knees. Do we do this?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.brickhouseracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/IMG_20110518_194951-Copy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone\" title=\"shorty\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.brickhouseracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/IMG_20110518_194951-Copy.jpg\" width=\"420\" height=\"560\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;d love to suggest, &#8220;hey, Cannondale&#8217;s ladies geometry will give you a shorter reach and taller headtube,&#8221; or &#8220;you know, you&#8217;d be more comfortable on a Synapse,&#8221; but, if I did that, it would be a direct attack on his manhood and his desire to ride a full-on race bike, and he&#8217;d go to another shop.<\/p>\n<p>My point? Like the ladies in the video told you&#8230; find a frame that fits you.Make final fit adjustments with bar, stem, and seat. Whether you&#8217;re male or female, be realistic. Be open-minded enough to realize that the traditional race geometry may not be what you&#8217;re most comfortable riding. Be open-minded enough to realize that if you&#8217;re female, the women&#8217;s bike may NOT be what&#8217;s most comfortable for you.<\/p>\n<p>My next road frame will likely be a Cannondale Women&#8217;s Supersix&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>But wait&#8230; I thought you said that women&#8217;s frames were bunk?<\/p>\n<p>Well, The geometry almost exactly matches my NON-WOMEN&#8217;S BH Connect&#8230; which I&#8217;m very cozy on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Watch this: No, really. Watch it. Especially about halfway through when they start talking about the need for a &#8220;women&#8217;s specific&#8221; geometry on bikes. Since I&#8217;ve started looking into various bike fits and helping people find proper bike fits, I&#8217;ve had an inkling that the women&#8217;s specific bike is a marketing gimmick&#8230; especially in the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":151,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8Uq-18C","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brickhouseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4378"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brickhouseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brickhouseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brickhouseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/151"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brickhouseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4378"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.brickhouseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5270,"href":"http:\/\/www.brickhouseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4378\/revisions\/5270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brickhouseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brickhouseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brickhouseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}