Foldable Bikes Party: Best women's road bike: a guide to help you get the right bike for you

Wednesday, 25 May 2016

Best women's road bike: a guide to help you get the right bike for you

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There's nothing like road cycling for the sheer speed you can travel at and distances you can go. Once you've eliminated the other possible women's bike types from your list, it's time to get down to enjoying some high-speed, skinny-rubbered fun. We're here to help you find the best women's road bike for you.

Road cycling is the discipline of choice for those who like going fast. Whether you want to fly along country lanes, explore the landscape, or pit your racing skills against others or the clock, road cycling has something to offer everyone. It's also amazing exercise, burning calories, improving cardiovascular health, and getting those legs toned up and strong.

There are more women's bikes available on the market than ever before

Do I need a women's road bike?

Once upon a time, buying a women's road bike meant buying a scaled-down version of a unisex or men's bike with a 'feminine' (read pink and/or floral) paint scheme. This was the infamous shrink-it-and-pink-it approach to designing products for women, which is thankfully, in the bike industry at least, on its way out.

Do I need a women's bike?

It wasn't the choice of paint so much as the ethos behind the design that was the issue; the assumption that women were just scaled down versions of men. Thankfully, with the growth in women's cycling, increasing numbers of women working in the bike industry, and better data available on women's body dimensions and power output, few brands approach women's-specific bike design in that way any more. In fact, there are three main approaches brands can take.

The first is based on the assumption that women have, on average, longer legs and shorter bodies than men. This is still a prevalent view in bike design, and influences how a number of women's-specific bikes are designed. This usually translates into bikes that have a shorter reach and give a more upright riding position. This can work very well for some women, particular those with shorter torsos, or those who prefer that upright position. It can work less well for taller women and those who want a more aggressive, racy position on the bike.
A second approach is to develop women's bikes with different geometry to unisex bikes, but to base these designs on data collected from a large number of women, and to take into account the purpose of that bike, the type of body position the rider will be in on that bike, and how much any morphological differences are likely to make for that design. This is an approach Specialized takes, for example.
Finally, some brands feel that the differences between genders aren't great enough to warrant a completely different frame design, but that getting the correct size of frame and ensuring the overall bike fit is correct is more important. Hoy bikes in the UK takes this approach, producing more sizes with smaller incremental differences between them, and providing a bike fit included in the price that will swap out elements like the handlebar and stem to get the best fit possible.

How much should I spend?

You may want to keep some money in your budget aside for some key maintenance items. Road bike tyres run at high pressures, and keeping them topped up with air will prevent punctures and the bike rolling slowly. A track pump is the most efficient way to do this, so if you don't have one, get one.
Most road bikes will be supplied with either basic flat pedals or no pedals at all, so again leave some money aside for a decent pair. Most riders use a clip system to clip cycling shoes into place on the pedal, as this gives a much more efficient ride.

Under £500 – Alloy frame and fork, a seven-speed double crankset (giving you 14 gears), with alloy bars and stem.
£500 to £700 – Alloy frame with carbon or alloy forks, and eight- or nine-speed gears (often Shimano Sora or Claris) with a double or triple crankset.
£700 to £1000 – Alloy frame with carbon or alloy forks, 10-speed Shimano Tiagra (or similar) with a double crankset, and in some cases with mechanical disc brakes.
£1000 to £1500 – Alloy frame with carbon fork, Shimano Tiagra or similar 10-speed gearing, rising to Shimano 105 11-speed (so 22 gears) at the higher end of the price scale. Hydraulic disc brake options and lighter components are likely to feature around this price point.
£1500 to £2000 – Carbon frame and carbon forks, lightweight and high-end Shimano Ultegra or similar 11-speed gearing, carbon bars.
£2000 and upwards – This is getting towards the level of kit used by professional racers. Expect carbon frames and forks, carbon parts, hydraulic disc brakes or quality rim brakes, lightweight wheels, plus Shimano Di2 electronic gear shifting.