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WOMEN BIKE FITTING AND BIKEGEOMETRY - Reaching for comfort
In the recentyears, more women have entered the sport of cycling than anyother sport. As women become an ever-growing percentage of allcyclists on the road and trails, there has been an increasing demand onwomen-specific products to attempt addressing the challenges unique to the gender.
But while women-specific productsabound, they don't seem to always successfully offer a solution to theage-old problems of women cyclists.
There is stilla disproportionately large problem with comfortforwomen riding a bike as compared to men. Why are women struggling tofind thecorrect bike fit?
BODY GEOMETRY
Women anthropometrics (the measurements ofthe human body) are quite different from that of men. Body size, limb ratios and lengthof the legs vs. torso are some of the most obviousdifferences.
Women tend to have longer legs,shorter torsos, shorter arms and wider hips. Muscleattachment points to the bone also vary slightly - andit can make a big difference.
Women also tend to be moreflexible - in part because of hormones, in part becausewomen tend to value stretching more.
This may seem like an obviousfact. But in the world of cycling, it's something thatis still being addressed in a limited fashion.
As result, we find that one of the most common problem for womenriding a bike is the handlebar reach.
Due to thelength of the top tube, most women find themselves stretched outto reach the shifter hoods. It leaves women in theprecarious position of having to ride with the hands on the top of thehandlebar and forgo quick (and safe) access to shifters and brakes.
Alternatively, riding in the hoods produces an over-extendedposition with cascading effects on back pain, shoulder and necknumbness and also hands tingling or falling asleep.
Another common problem is thestandover clearance. Many women struggle with clearingthe top tube of their bike when straddling the bike(i.e. when stopped and feet on the ground).
Can anything be done to improve thissituation?
This female cyclist felt comfortable when on the bartop, but too stretched out when reaching for the hoods.Riding in this position, puts shifting and braking outof reach - not safe when riding in a group. This istypical for many women, who tend to have a shortertorso.
WOMEN SPECIFIC PRODUCTS
A woman's position on the bicycle is quitesignificantly different than the one of a man.
In the old days, step-throughbikes were designed for women, so they could be riddenwith long skirts and prudish behaviors could bepreserved when stepping on board the bike. However, this was a bike design that addressed the customs and clothing of the yester-years. It wasnot meant toaddress comfort or performance.
Today, modern women ride performance bicyclesover the same distance and at the same speed as many of their malecounterparts. Women ride technologically advanced bicycles withsophisticated components. Women are an active part of thecycling culture.
The large increase infemale participation in sports has invitedmany athletics industries to address the topic ofwomen-specific ergonomics. We have seen an ever growingsegment of products specifically aimed at femaleathletes.
The shelves of many bike shopabound with colorful products with catchy marketingnames and flashy designs.
Pinks, baby blues, pastels,flowers, sugar and spice...
More and more shops address the women-specific segmentwith a dedicated space.
In the cycling world, we have seen an increase inproducts addressed specifically to women shoppers. The monikerWSD (Women Specific Design, as designated by Trek) or similar acronyms appear on manyproducts. Bike shops have sections of their sales floordedicated specifically to women-driven products.
In 2014 the cycling industry publiclyacknowledged that women-driven products were not only asignificant portion of the industry's revenues, but went as faras stating that women were the main source of growth.
In an article published in "BicycleRetailer" (BicycleRetailer.com) the author warned bike shops that if theydidn't have a specific floor plan dedicated to women, they maydo so at their own peril. Shops that didn't cater to women maynot stay in business too long, the article admonished. Thosewere strong and wise words of advise.
A 2015 study published by Bicycle Retailerfurther confirmed the power of women in the market place bybreaking down the figures - with very astounding sales numbers.See ithere.
With such an avalanche of products andchoices and the recognition for being such a powerful force, you would expect that technological breakthroughswould have already solved all problems related to women comfort.
But that's not quite the case..
BIKE FITTING FOR WOMEN
See AlsoRoad Bike Size Chart & Fit Guide | Ridley’s CycleCh.3 Does Your Bike Fit You? - Jersey Safe RoadsBest Two-Wheeler for Ladies in IndiaWhy Do Women’s Bikes Have Lower Bars? All You Need To KnowMost women rely on their bike shop ofchoice for the purchase of the correct bike and their initialsizing/fitting.
But, even with all the WSD choices, womenkeep struggling in larger numbers than men in finding a comfortable position on the bike.Why?
There are a few factors at play here: tradition and design
TRADITION
Blame the struggles of women comfort on bike fittingtradition: the accumulated baggage of knowledge passed downfrom male cyclist to male cyclist.
A very overstretched female cyclist
It's steeped in easy to digest, easy torepeat, male-derived tenets of bike fitting. These nuggets ofinformation came to pass for fittingcommandments and we all know them. They are the very same ones that your moreexperienced friends in your riding group keep telling you.But they don't seem to really help.
That knowledge is actually outdated, born inthe ages of male-only performance biking. And often, it is fullof incorrect nuggets of information stemming from maleexperience. It holds back everyone from thefull potential, but none more than women.
Cycling is a sport or tradition and withwomen being the relatively newcomers to this sport, theknowledge necessary for proper bike fitting hasn't reallypermeatedin the accumulated book of knowledge of most bike shopoperators.
For that knowledge to be modern and accurate,we have to go to the specialists: the bike fitters.
BREAKING THROUGH THETRADITION BARRIERS
To properly fit a woman, wemust break off the old tenets of bike fitting and moveinto the modern era of bike fitting.
Modern bike fitting, done with 3Dmotion capture technology like Retül (Retul.com),leverages computers anddedicated, experienced bike fitters trained to take into account the true women-specific dimensionsthat make up the female's anatomy.
Modern bike fitting is steeped intothe knowledge of anatomy, ergonomics and biomechanics.And it looks at each bike fitting as a case on its ownmerits, not some mythical one-size-fits-all bikeposition. It's custom to you and yours specificsituation. Modern bike fitting has a women-specificprotocol.
Longer femurs,shorter torsos and shorter arms are usually the hallmarkof typical women anthropometrics ranging from 4'11" to5'6" - after a certain height, it seems that humananatomy converges among the sexes. Most women arebetween 5'2" and 5'5" - the 95 percentile woman.
Those significant differences in bodygeometry mean that a woman's bike fit is significantlydifferent in nature. The size of components like thewidth of the handlebar, the length of the stemand cranks and also theneed of a setback or straight (0 offset) seatpost follow fromthese significant anthropometric differences.
And it doesn't just end at bonelength and ratio driving the size of components. There are also considerabledifferences in the spinal curvature of a female ascompared to male - as well as hip rotation andwidth and position of the seat bones.
Women tend to have more concavelumbarspinal curvature, resulting in a flatter thoraciccurvature, while men's tend to have a more convexthoracic curvature to accommodate for upper body bulk.
This is mostly due to the configuration of thehips, lower back and the coccyx configuration - thelovely lady hump means a lot of difference in a bike fit.
This means that the relationship withthe handlebar is not only different in reach (the lengthof the stem) due to the length of the torso, but also in stack (the height of thehandlebar) due to the thoracic curvature. And, finally,the width will also be smaller.
An additional layer separatingwomen from men is flexibility.
Women tend to spend more time workingon their flexibility and are, generally by nature, morecompliant in the range of motion - it's a hormonal thing.
When we add up all those factors,from the obvious to the more subtle ones, we see that thedifference in the bike fit is quite large -and sets apart the protocol for fitting a femalerider, significantly.
The old tenets of bike fitting areforever shattered and a women-specific protocol must beobserved to achieve good results.
The bike fit position of a female compared tothat of a male
The second factor causing havoc onwomen comfort has to do with the actual product designand the resulting sizing process for the purchase of a newbike.
Let's see what it's causing this.
THE DESIGN CAUSE
Even with proper bike fitting tools,there is still a disproportionate necessity forcompromise in achieving a good result for women.
In our practice, we find that veryoften we are forced to select undersized components toachieve a proper result. This is because the bike, alltoo often, is too large.
In general, there is a typical rangeof components size that is applicable to the correctbike size. To reach the correct upper body position, forexample, the stem length ranges from 80mm to 110mm for most people (male or female).
Very often we find that during a bikefit we have to install veryshort stems (50-70mm) and very short reach handlebars toposition a female rider properly.
The reason is improper sizing.Meaning that the bike is the wrong size and we areforced to push the limits of bike fitting to achieve abiomechanically neutral result.
Why does improper sizing happen moreto females than males?
Sizing happens during the initialpurchase of a bike. A bike shop employee willrecommend a size based in his/her knowledge.
With so many products claiming WSDand a large baggage of male-based sizing tradition, manyshop employees fall trap of recommending a typicalsize, which is often the wrongsize - frequently, too large of a bike.
It's an easy trap to fall into. Don'tblame the bike shop. There is too much marketing, hypeand hidden truths for most people to keep up with. Andmany individuals make honest mistakes while in theirearnest desire to help you find a new bicycle.
SIZING, THE OCCULT ENEMYOF WOMEN SPECIFIC DESIGN
We have to look back at 100 years ofbicycle design and tradition to understand the source ofthe problem of women sizing.
Bicycles are designed with the 95percentile man in mind. Man, not woman. 5 foot, 8 inches and about160 lb.
It quite doesn't sound like most women out there, does it?
How does a female cyclist know ifthey are buying the right size?
Purchasing abike can be a very daunting task for everyone. So many options,brands, colors, accessories ...
And it getseven more complicated. What's the real differencebetween a women-specific bike and a unisex model? Why arewomen-specific bikes often equipped with lower-end components?
In the pastdecade we saw bicycle manufacturers rushing to fill the marketgap between available cycling equipment and products aimed atwomen. Unfortunately, most of the rush to production was just aband-aid fix: pretty pastels, pink colors and flower designsslathered on top of equipment that was clearly still designedfor men.
Add lower specscomponents and you have found your typicalmarketing-hyped WSD bike.
Nomatter how knowledgeable your favorite shop is aboutwomen, if the product is not designed specificallyfor women, you are right back where you started:struggling for a proper fit and with comfort.
TrueWomen Specific Design (WSD) are still lagging in themarket. Some bicycle manufacturers are positivelyengaged in WSD from conception to inception of a bikemodel - and offering a full range of options and pricepoints.
Butmany others are still lurking in the dark ages. Theymake a big fanfare about their WSD design. But a quick lookat their geometry charts reveals the truth: prettycolors on otherwise male-driven bicycles.
Lookat the examples to the right.
Wecompare two popular bicycle manufacturers whoaggressively market women-specific products.
Themanufacturers names and bike models have been omitted toprotect the innocent.
The geometry differences between the WSD and unisex are subtle in the manufacturer example above (seehighlighted areas), but clearly an improvementwith a lower standover height for the same size.
Thecomparison is between the same model offered by themanufacturer in WSD and in Unisex geometries.
Bicyclegeometry charts can be hard to read and require a bit ofknowledge to grasp fully.
Tosimplify things, we just need to look at 2 or 3 keyparameters that are vital to women bike fitting: standover height, top tube length and stack.
Mostwomen need a lower standover height, a shorter top tubeand a higher stack.
A quickglance at those parameters and it becomes apparent if aproduct is a true WSD or not.
Withthis knowledge, nowyou can tell which is which. That's important.
Butdoes it apply to you or can you fit on a unisex frame?
Which WSD design is for you? Whichis your true size?
The geometry difference between WSD and unisex are lessappreciable with the manufacturer above(see highlighted areas), with all measurements beingessentially the same.
These questions are paramount toyour success in choosing the right bicycle for you. Howcan you find out?
That's the job of a bike sizing session. And womenneed this more than anyone else in cycling.
BIKE SIZING FOR WOMEN
Bike sizing isthe best cost saving investment you can make into your new bike.It will help you make sure that not only you get the rightsize bike, but the right geometry and components size.
Bike Sizing will make your initial purchasean informed decision process: you can eliminate brands/modelsthat don't match your body geometry. It makes you an informedshopper.
As an informedshopper, you canapproach a bike shop with a specific set of parameters and canspot a good deal (the bike that fits) over another (the bikethat's on sale).
It helps you inasking the following questions:
Do I needa WSD?
What brand or model of a WSD is more suited tome?
Can I buy that bike that's really nice and on sale, but it'snot a WSD? Or that really good deal on a used bike my friend isselling?
Those are thekey questions that get answered with a proper bike sizingsession and make you a shopper with a knowledge to be reckonedwith.
It also leaves youwith making the decisions that are more approachable by thetypical cyclist: ride quality, looks, color, pricing and even brandpreference. And it can save you a lot of your hard-earnedmoney.
How does bikesizing work?
Here you canread the full article about bike sizing. But in a nutshell, bikesizing allows a professional bike fitter to simulate any bike geometry, size andcomponent size to determine what's best for you:
Geometry
Size
Cranklength
Handlebarwidth, reach and drop
Componentssize (stem, seat post setback Vs. straight, etc.)
A sizing bicycle is used to find your ideal bike sizeand geometry
Armed with thisinformation, a female cyclist can approach her favorite shop anddiscuss her purchase with competence. Or can even go a stepfurther, by doing research online, ahead of the entering a bikeshop.
After the rightbike purchase, a bike fitting session is in order. This willmake sure you are riding your bike at your best, comfortable andergonomically aligned. With bike fitting you get matched to yourbike. In our practice, when you purchase a bike sizing, the bikefitting session is included in the price. It's a two-sessionprocess. We feel that's the most comprehensive and properapproach to the purchase of a new bike.
And on the new, properly sizedbike, the bike fit becomes a cake-walk. A professional fitterwill be able toachieve the best position and the most performance/comfort you and yournew bike are capable of.
Bike sizing isan advanced shopping tool. And what woman doesn't like to be aconfident shopper?
CONCLUSIONS
Womenbike fitting is plagued by tradition and incompleteknowledge. But the tide is changing.
Womendon't have to ride male-sized bicycles.
Women don't haveto believe that pain is part of the cycling experience.
Comfortand performance are within reach of all women.
Womencan understand if a bike is a true Women Specific Designor just pretty colors.
Professionals in bike fitting and bike sizing arechanging the way women interact with their bikes and howthey approach their bike purchase.
Womenin cycling are a force to be reckoned with.
OUR BELIEF:
"You don't have to be a Pro to get a bike fit. Everyone whoclimbs into a bike deserves to have a great experience,regardless of their fitness, expertise or equipment level."A Perfect Bike Fit Pro Studio
Love your ride. Get a bike fit.AUTHOR: Steffi Bici
A Perfect BikeFit Pro Studio owner, founder, senior fitter
