Hi everyone,

Looking for a first 'real' bike for my partner, and struggling to find some good options at a reasonable spec and price. At the moment the best option I've managed to find is a Canyon women's grand canyon. It feels like there are very few options out there, and a lot of companies have lower spec for women's bikes as the equivalent priced men's.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Do most ladies that shred just buy a men's/unisex bike, and maybe swap out some parts?

Any help appreciated!

[sticks head above parapet]

Women's bikes are bullshit marketing.
Humans come in many shapes, find a bike that suits the riders requirements (a whole other question) and feels like it fits.
Contact points are the only usual parts difference on "women's" bikes, and lots of people swap those out for preference anyway.

The only other common change is a lighter suspension tune, but that's about rider weight, not genitals.
Lighter or heavier riders may need a custom tune. The closer the rider is to ~75-80kg (what I'm guessing is the average a shock is tuned for) the less hassle this will be.

Velocipedestrian wrote:[sticks head above parapet]

Women's bikes are bullshit marketing.
Humans come in many shapes, find a bike that suits the riders requirements (a whole other question) and feels like it fits.
Contact points are the only usual parts difference on "women's" bikes, and lots of people swap those out for preference anyway.

The only other common change is a lighter suspension tune, but that's about rider weight, not genitals.
Lighter or heavier riders may need a custom tune. The closer the rider is to ~75-80kg (what I'm guessing is the average a shock is tuned for) the less hassle this will be.

I thought women tended to have different ratio of leg to body than men (but i could just be believing the marketing hype) but the variance within genders is much bigger than the difference between. and tend to be a bit shorter so extra smalls are available in woman. air shocks should be relatively easy to adjust to weight, so i would not worry about that for a first real bike (just tune it to her and it will be fine).

but 2nd, finding a bike that fits is the goal.

philstar wrote:

Velocipedestrian wrote:[sticks head above parapet]

Women's bikes are bullshit marketing.
Humans come in many shapes, find a bike that suits the riders requirements (a whole other question) and feels like it fits.
Contact points are the only usual parts difference on "women's" bikes, and lots of people swap those out for preference anyway.

The only other common change is a lighter suspension tune, but that's about rider weight, not genitals.
Lighter or heavier riders may need a custom tune. The closer the rider is to ~75-80kg (what I'm guessing is the average a shock is tuned for) the less hassle this will be.

I thought women tended to have different ratio of leg to body than men (but i could just be believing the marketing hype) but the variance within genders is much bigger than the difference between. and tend to be a bit shorter so extra smalls are available in woman. air shocks should be relatively easy to adjust to weight, so i would not worry about that for a first real bike (just tune it to her and it will be fine).

but 2nd, finding a bike that fits is the goal.

Yeah I wasn't sure for a long time if it was all BS or not. We were struggling to find a shop that had any size small/15 inch womens bikes in stock, or just any hardtail bike with low enough standover for her. Funnily enough the 2 bikes that fit best were 'mens' Meridas and Cannondale. So I'm going with marketing BS. Also, despite looking up standover heights of dozens of bikes, in real life they were often different. Really wish bike companies could get consistent in their measurements!

Cheers for the advice, and cheers to Capital Cycles for hooking us up with a good deal on a small Cannondale Trail with a sweet Fabric women's saddle. Would've been nice to have tried an equivalent Canyon, but didn't want the risk of having it shipped to Stewart Island and it not fitting..