WOMEN’S BIKES
WE INVESTIGATE THE WORLD OF WOMEN’S SPECIFIC BIKES, AND FIND THAT THE ‘SHRINK IT AND PINK IT’ STEREOTYPE IS NO LONGER TRUE
As bike brands develop the way they approach women’s riding, we find out what’s changed and what you should consider when buying –
Go back a few years, and it was easy to tell which bikes were ‘women’s specific’. They were short, tall, usually under-specced for the price and often sported a flash of a suitably ‘girly’ colour. The design philosophy was simply to take a men’s – sorry,‘unisex’ – bike and ‘shrink it and pink it’. That’s what every woman wants, right? We’ll totally overlook the bike’s shortcomings if you add a few roses, swirls and butterflies.
Then things started to change. The number of women competing in the national downhill series grew by 60 per cent between 2010 and 2014, according to British Cycling. That was mirrored by a huge rise in female riders out on the trails, training, racing and riding just for kicks. These days, you’ll find us on the uplift at BikePark Wales, exploring the remotest corners of the Scottish Highlands and heading off to the Alps. And bike brands are investing more heavily than ever to satisfy the growing women's market.
But what changes has that meant for women’s-specific bikes? And are they actually worth buying, or is a ‘unisex’ model a better bet for anyone above beginner level?
DIFFERENT STROKES FOR DIFFERENT FOLKS
Most brands now have women’s bikes in their ranges, whether they’re listed as a separate line (like Scott’s Contessa bikes) or just labelled as being for women (Trek, Specialized, Cube,Yeti, Canyon and more all offer these). There are also a couple of dedicated women’s brands – Juliana Bicycles, sister company to Santa Cruz, and Liv Cycling, which was split off from Giant in 2014. But there’s no agreed definition of what a women’s bike should be.
There are a few unifying factors. Almost all will have a wider saddle and, in the case of full-suspension bikes, a lighter shock tune, because female riders, on average, weigh less than men of the same height.They may also have narrower bars and shorter crank arms. What really sets the brands apart is their approach to frame design. Some take the easy route of kitting out a ‘unisex’ frame with female-specific contact points, while others will create an entirely new chassis with bespoke geometry. Juliana, Scott and Yeti all adhere to the former approach. Liv are staunch advocates of the latter, offering “products designed specifically for women, from the ground up”. And some brands have shifted position, with Specialized moving from women’sspecific to unisex design on the new Stumpjumper (see page 58) and Canyon going in the opposite direction.
DATA ANALYSIS
The elephant in the room here is the question of whether female riders actually need a women’s bike. Proponents point to the fact that there are physical differences between the sexes and argue that these need to be catered to in order to give the best performance and riding experience. Some are fairly self-evident – female riders are, on average, smaller and have a lower weight-to-height ratio. Others are more contentious, such as suggestions that women are likely to ride less aggressively and with less weight over the front of the bike.
Both Canyon and Specialized have collected data through their fit systems that suggests some statistically significant differences between the average man and woman, including a slightly shorter reach and narrower shoulders. What’s different is how the companies have interpreted and implemented that data.
Specialized have adapted their ‘unisex’ frame design on certain key models to cater to both the male and female data sets, with gender-specific finishing kit used to fine-tune the fit. Canyon’s approach is based around giving women the same on-bike body position as men, which is something they’ve achieved by making the new Spectral WMN shorter than the standard bike and extending the
size range down to XS (and in some cases 2XS), among other changes.
But what of the previous bikes from these and other brands? Were they ever truly ‘unisex’? No, says Stephanie Kaplan, product manager at Specialized .“Unisex bikes have historically been designed around data and input from male riders, and women were expected to adapt themselves to that,” she says.“When we looked at the data of all the riders together, we felt we’d better serve all riders on one shared platform.”
Luisa Plasczymonka, junior product manager at Canyon agrees.“Bikes were always developed around average male body proportions. The bike industry is quite male dominated and the engineers, designers, product managers and testers have almost always been men. This, of course, makes us question how a bike like that can be unisex.”
ON THE RIGHT PATH
Is a women’s bike always the best choice for female riders? It’s a frequently asked question, and the answer is, of course, no.Women don’t have to ride women’s-specific bikes, but many choose to and feel the benefit of it.“The bike has to fit the rider,” says Plasczymonka. “There’ll always be women who are better suited to a men’s/unisex bike, just as some men will find women’s geometry a better fit.”
At the very least, buying a women’s model means you won’t have to immediately swap the saddle and bar.And it may mean having a bike that fits you properly, with suspension set up for your weight and geometry that puts you in a position that boosts control and confidence.
While it’s frustrating that there’s no agreement across the industry about what makes a good women’s bike, the fact that brands are continuously researching and refining their approach is good news.The more girls and women riding, the more data there is to work from, and it’s unlikely we’ve seen the final state of play with female-specific bike design just yet.
“We’ll continue to gather data, talk to riders, and evolve… wherever that might take us,” says Kaplan.“We don’t want to make a product just to slap a ‘women’s’ label on it, we want to make the right product for the rider.”
For Canyon, the new Spectral WMN and Grand Canyon WMN may be just the beginning. “The demand for women’sspecific geometry is definitely there and growing ,” says P la sczy monk a ,“And it shows us that we’re on the right path.”
Ultimately, the best women’s bike is the one she feels the most comfortable and capable on.To paraphrase a comment overheard at the Trek Bicycles Women’s Summit, a women’s bike is any bike being ridden by a woman.
“THERE’LL BE WOMEN WHO ARE BETTER SUITED TO A MEN’S BIKE, JUST AS SOME MEN WILL FIND WOMEN’S GEOMETRY BETTER”