A very small bike case study

XX Small

Being under 5 ft 4 is a frustrating place to be when your wanting a decent fitting bike. Over the years of fitting as i’ve began to get more experienced and more aware of the issue I began to wonder if this was a problem that would ever be solved.

Smaller people just bought the smallest bike available but generally this is far from what they needed. Smaller Frames would come with smaller stacks (height of the headtube) but often the length of the frame would be far too long and stand over heights not low enough. Off the shelf bikes essential component choices like cranks, stem, bar, gearing ratios are often fixed and come the same size as the middle size bike therefore potentially all being completely unsuitable. Annoyingly this is usually price driven by the manufacturer due to them gets a great deal on buying a shedload of cranksets stems and gears that are the same size. buying them all the same size slightly reduces manufacturing and build cost and means for a bike at the same price they can make slightly more money. Consumers would go in to shops to buy (or buy online) without the implications of the potential knock on issues spelled out at time of purchase and buy blind.

Frustratingly with the exception of a few items such as super short reaching brake levers and cost effective super short crank length options pretty much all of the components that would be transformational in comfort for smaller riders have been available in the industry for years, its just not been advertised or highlighted to customers and thus acted upon by informed consumers. Stem lengths, cassette ratios, crank length down to 165 (shorter than this is available but starts getting very expensive), narrower bars down to 36 c-c, even on a frame far from perfect the correct components can make a huge difference to rider comfort and can often make an ill fitting frame more than ridable.

From a fitting point of view the restrictions of component sizes all being wrong are disastrous. Ive been in several situations where the pursuit of ideal fit has lead to the recommendation of almost everything being changed. Not just the frame size. Obviously, this can often lead to very expensive changes being made where if a customer had been better informed at the time of purchase they could have saved time, effort, expense, a huge amount of comfort, control, confidence and also trust in the bike industry as a whole. All by simply selecting componentry options that were freely available at the time of purchase had the customer simply been educated on the implications. Because customers never knew about an alternative the bike industry never responded because sales never dropped off due to that reason.

Frustratingly these wrong size components can occasionally cause injury to the rider. Cranks too long force a hip and knee angle too tight and can cause IT band issues, Piriformus syndrome, not to mention the feeling of having your knees constantly banging your chest while on the drops being off putting to the handling. (On that previous point, lie down on your back and pull your knees up to your chest, is that comfortable?) Thats just the start of it, neck issues with bars too far away, shoulder issues with them being too wide, knee problems from smashing gears that are far too big.

Often when i would phone up shops checking what size crank or bar width would be available on smaller bike sizes i would be answered by the statement of it makes no difference anyway… However its strictly not the retailers sole issue as it would be far easier for everyone if these changes were made at the top of the supply chain by bike brand purchasers selecting proportional components, and by placing component dimension selection in their product training. For me pre 2017/18 It seemed like the entire industry was set up to service the median population without regard for anyone else’s dimensions.

Now, in fairness bigger manufacturers (Giant, Trek, Specialized, BMC, Orbea) are starting to offer better, or more options to customers at the time of purchase but no big brand has started offering or making a big effort to highlight to the consumer that component selection on the bikes they sell makes a big difference to rider experience. (That i can find anyway, time of writing Oct 2019).

To finish up, as I’ve moved the business into selling bike builds off the back of the fit service I’ve put a real focus on trying to nail component selection for every customer that walks through the door. This way the final fit is much easier and not stopped out of frustration due to component selection being a limiting factor. For now I can take a hit on the margin of the final product, often because I’m charging for a fit service I can take that income into consideration if i choose to fund the changing of a crank length from standard spec for example. My main point is however, ill continue to raise the issue and relevance of component selection with all customers that come my way as best as I can.

Check out a few examples of the components I have been banging on about in the images below.

Dougie

XXS Argon 18 Krypton CS Frame built up with Shimano 105 and DT Swiss E1800. Note the smaller reach brake levers and super short reach handlebar.

Proportional Gearing at the front, 48-32 with a 11-34 at the back means no issues on the hills!

Argon features a headset stack adaptor system that ensures headset stiffness is maintained when additional height at the front is required.

A proportional stem and bar combo maintain the bikes handling dynamic.

Crank length is an essential element of maintaining an open hip angle. This means rider comfort and power generation is generally far improved for every level of rider at every part of the pedal stroke. They also greatly reduce toe overlap issues on smaller bikes.

Selle Italia’s Diva saddle isn’t for everyone but in this case it allowed a supported position for the rider to feel comfortable on the hoods and drops.

My favourite Shimano innovation is a flared reduced reach brake lever. in combination with the reach adjustment on the hood itself means that even the smallest hands can reach the shifting and braking on the hoods or drops.