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From: peters@cubsvax.UUCP (Peter S. Shenkin)
Newsgroups: net.bicycle
Subject: Re: What do short people ride?
Message-ID: <447@cubsvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 10-Mar-86 12:40:18 EST
Article-I.D.: cubsvax.447
Posted: Mon Mar 10 12:40:18 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 13-Mar-86 07:45:48 EST
References: <decwrl.1539>
Reply-To: peters@cubsvax.UUCP (Peter S. Shenkin)
Organization: Columbia Univ. Bio. CG Fac., NY
Lines: 32

In article <decwrl.1539> breault@msee.DEC writes:
>
>
>  In searching for a new sport bike for my 5' 1" wife, we have found the
>number of choices severly limited in the $300 range. Univega's Nuovo Sport
>is available with an eighteen and a half inch frame and twenty-six inch
>wheels. The '85 Nuovo Sport is equipped with Suntour ARX hardware and the
>'86 version comes with Shimano L series components. Shogun's '86 line of
>bikes include seventeen inch versions with twenty-seven inch wheels but the
>top tube on the one we looked at (the 400) seemed disproportionately long.
>
>  Does anyone know of any other bikes worth looking at? She doesn't like
>a mixte style frame (and neither do I).

Don't know answer, but as usual, I have to put in a coupla cents worth.
I was amazed, while shopping for a bike with a 5'2" friend, that nothing
off the shelf, other than a Mixte, would fit her.  The shop we went to
didnt have such exotica as you mention.  Someone suggested a "teenager's
bike" with 24" wheels, and thinking about it, if a 6' person is ideal for a bike
with 27" wheels, a 5'2" person should be using 23" wheels, so 24" is close.
Of course, I don't know whether good quality is available in this size.
The problem with 27" wheels for a ~5' person is things like foot clearance
at the front wheel, and perhaps an overly high center of gravity.

Extending this line of thought, perhaps there should be several wheel sizes;
say, 24", 27" and 29";  assuming that 6' person --> 27" wheel, linear scaling
dictates the following ideal sizes:  5'4"-->24" wheel;  6'5"-->29" wheel.
(I see no reason for any kind of non-linear scaling scheme, since the main
parameter would seem to be body length, not, say, weight or surface area....)

Peter S. Shenkin	 Columbia Univ. Biology Dept., NY, NY  10027
{philabs,rna}!cubsvax!peters		cubsvax!peters@columbia.ARPA