DH/FRish bike for a short girl.

[Gronk]

Sorry for infiltrating this forum, being a guy and all :) But the question if for my flatmate. She has gotten into riding, nothing too nuts just yet, but she is progressing nicely. However I'm wondering what bike she can get when it's time to upgrade. At the moment she is riding a 13 or 13.5" women's specific specialized hardrock hartail. Do DH/FRish bikes that small exist?? I think it's safe to assume she will never be jumping big a$$ road gaps or hucking buildings etc, but I think she will get more into DH, especially with the right bike.

Thanks.

[udi]

Look into finding a small size specialized bighit frame. They have a fairly low standover, and nice short chainstays which make them very manoeuvreable especially for smaller people. It might be a brand she is comfortable with too, but aside from that they make damn good bikes in my experience. Some people will recommend something like an XS giant dh comp, but IMO they are pretty well still a big (and heavy) frame with a shortened frontend, not really ideal.

How tall is your flatmate?

Edit -
The build will make a pretty big difference too, make sure there's a helping of light parts, and work on keeping the frontend low so that hand-to-foot distance is minimized. Lowrise bars, short and low stem, and even a short/er travel fork to aid in getting weight over the front wheel more easily. A 7" boxxer or even something like a pike may be good depending on her riding level and how far she wants to take herself in terms of DH.

[cam-o]

You used to be able to get small Iron Horse SGS DH. Don't know if IH still do a small but a friend of mine had a small SGS and she isn't particularly tall. It was a great bike, only wierd thing was it came with shivers, which are a V. heavy fork for a small frame. :rolleyes:

[yakinAway]

Ive got a specialised big hit in a small as my DH frame and feel its quite big ( i ride a small santa cruz bullet (all mountain) and the bighit feels a lot bigger and heaver than that......

[Venciferus]

IronHorse Yakuza Kumicho, seem like a pretty good bike apart from some snappage'es, smallish I guess?

[roxy12]

Look into finding a small size specialized bighit frame. They have a fairly low standover, and nice short chainstays which make them very manoeuvreable especially for smaller people. It might be a brand she is comfortable with too, but aside from that they make damn good bikes in my experience. Some people will recommend something like an XS giant dh comp, but IMO they are pretty well still a big (and heavy) frame with a shortened frontend, not really ideal.

How tall is your flatmate?

Edit -
The build will make a pretty big difference too, make sure there's a helping of light parts, and work on keeping the frontend low so that hand-to-foot distance is minimized. Lowrise bars, short and low stem, and even a short/er travel fork to aid in getting weight over the front wheel more easily. A 7" boxxer or even something like a pike may be good depending on her riding level and how far she wants to take herself in terms of DH.



Udi is on the money here, with a first dh bike weight is a ig thing for a girl, even after a year of weigts i still struggle to lift my full 17kg dh race bike, shit me!
and the dh comp is very large even in an xs. I suggest you may want to look at something with a low stanbdoever height, have a look around ignore the size and check out what the stand over is, once shes on the bike standover isnt an issue but when standing and falling:p it is, shel feel more comfortable if she knows she wont slip onto a bar!

mayeb even look at something like the sx bikes from specialised.......they come in small sizes ( a friend specialy ordered an xs which is tiny!, you can geta good 5 " fork on the front and itl be nice and light to.

[toodles]

damn... saw the thread title and thought it was a trade... oh well

[Rik]

I'm thinking of something along the lines of a Reign X, pretty light, DH/FR friendly, and one of the bigger factors in my suggestion: bucketloads of standover height.

[Gronk]

Thanks folks,

Between her height and budget, finding something is gonna be interesting. Rik had a good idea with the Reign/X, I don't think she will ever need a full on DH machine... just a pity they are so expensive.

I don't think she will be making the step any time real soon, but I was just curious if anyone happened to know for sure of any brands that came in real small :)

Thanks again for the help.

[demo man]

Specialized SX Trail or SX SuperCross

the small is pretty damn small, especially the superCross model (which is basically a MTNX bike - air shock and shorter travel - sturdy as fuck though).

SX Trail would be the pick - look how short that Berecloth guy is, he seems to manage. 6.6" rear wheel I think, forks vary.

[Dougy]

My wife, whose Japanese so not on the high side of 5ft something, rides an old FSR Pro with 6" Sherman Sliders on it. The frame is a medium and while a little big she can still handle it and feels quite comfortable on it. I've got a 40mm stem, flipped upside down to get a 7 degree drop, on it and have cut the bars down to suit her, this made the most difference as it allowed her to get back a little easier.

For girls, especially beginners, you won't need more than about 6" of travel. The Spec Enduro frames come in an XS and with a 6" rear and a 6" fork your flatmate would have a great little bike to get out there on.

[Big_Al]

I thought a specalized big hit would be good. You can find some pretty small ones around.. There is also the big hit grop and spec. I know a girl that is around 5'5 and rides a medium.. I think it would be good becasue of the 24" wheel and you can adjust the bb height and head angle and travel by the different shock mountings on the big hit.. From the ground to the seat it is approx 87cm and from the ground to stem it is 120cm... My frame is a medium as well. My big hit is also around 18kg because of the spec on it.
Its for sale if you want to have a look at it..

Cheers Al

[yakinAway]

Im about that height and ride a big hit but a small one (still feels big though) heaps bigger than my santa cruz s frame

remember the smaller the frame the more manoveable it will be in the air and on the ground....

apparently Im 168cm which is about 5`6" or just over

[mattover]

Im about that height and ride a big hit but a small one (still feels big though) heaps bigger than my santa cruz s frame

remember the smaller the frame the more manoveable it will be in the air and on the ground....

apparently Im 168cm which is about 5`6" or just over

I have done a bit of research into this as my girlfriend is very small. Girls around 5'5" (165cm) and taller can usually get away with a small men's frame.

Unfortunately, in the case of smaller girls (my girlfriend is bang on 5'0"), they'll often find that almost all XS duallies on the market are too big (including women's specific Giants, Specializeds and so forth).

Too long a top tube and inadequate standover are the two issues that most plague smaller riders.

We've - through years of research and trial and error - managed to find a couple of frames that fit her. Santa Cruz makes a Juliana, which sports 100mm of rear travel, in sizes down to a small (around 13"), with a very short top tube (a shade over 500mm). This, mated to a 40-50mm stem is perfect for her for XC, and she's got plenty of standover if she needs to put a foot down quickly. You can find the Juliana at http://www.santacruzmtb.com

DH/FR is another problem entirely because frame builders are trying to fit more suspension travel into the frame and make it suitable for taller forks - both of which conspire to reduce standover height. Titus offers the Moto-lite in a women's specific design in some tiny sizes. It's massively expensive, though. http://www.titusti.com/07/fit.html

Banshee used to offer Chaparral frames down to 13", but these are hard to find these days as the smallest the company now offers is 15". If you ask Ken at XXIV imports (http://www.xxiv.com.au) nicely, he may be able to help out, but it'll have to be shipped in specially.

Kona has a Stinky 2-4 (AKA Stinky JR) available, but it's limited in that it runs 24" wheels, which don't tend to roll as well on rough terrain. I'm not sure if they're available in Australia, though I saw lots of 12-year olds riding them at Whistler in Canada a few years ago. (http://www.konaworld.com/bikes/2k7/STINKY24/index.html)

Hope that helps a little.

Cheers,
Matt O

[Gronk]

Thanks Matt,

That Kona looks alright.... and is probably the cheapest of the options there. Pity they aren't available here though :( Ah well, when the time/money is right we might have to do some serious net surfing to find one second hand.

Thanks agian.