Entries from April 2009 ↓

The women’s average seat is that with wider rear sections, and shorter and well-padded noses. The reason is that they have wider and shallower pelvises that tend to tilt forward, putting weight on their pudenda.

The places where seat contact occurs are:
-your site bones, where your ischial tuberosities support most of your weight;
-your pudendum, where occurs the contact with the saddle’s nose.

The saddle must be positioned with the top horizontal or tilted nose-down just a degree or two, not more, because a greater tilt may cause you to lean too far forward, putting uncomfortable pressure on your hands and arms. For the right position set your bike against a wall
and lay a yardstick lengthwise along the center of the seat. Stand back to see if the yardstick is horizontal with the ground or tilted in either direction.

Consider that the same saddle may be right for you, but completely uncomfortable other riders. This is because each of us has backsides in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. You will want to find a saddle just wide enough to support your weight on your sit bones. A narrow seat bike will cause an extra pressure just where you don’t want it. If it’s too wide, you are much more likely to suffer from chafing and saddle sores.

The drawbacks of an incorrect seat are the saddle sores, that are a crotch infections that typically start as a small pimple formed from irritation or chafing of the hair follicles. In some cases the sores can spread to adjacent tissue and create larger sores, boils or cysts.

Choosing the right size means having a comfortable riding condition and the best control of your bike.
Many of you can fit with every women’s bike, and sometimes also with a men’s bike, but not for most women.

To know what’s the right bike size for you start to measure you body:

For the right stand-over height
-measure your inseam
-measure the distance between your crotch and the top tube of the bike

For the right top tube length
-measure arm length: extend your arms and measure the distance between the center of your fist to your collarbone.
-measure your torso length: put a book against your crotch, the spine facing up, now measure from the lower part of your throat (near collarbones) to the spine. Add the value of arm lenght to the torso lenght. Divide the result in half. Subtract six inches. The final result is the measure of your right top tube lenght.

You can decide to buy a bike for a cruise along a beach to enjoy the scenery, or maybe you have in mind to be a great race biker, or you need a bike to make some excursion. Here you’ll find a simple guide about how bikes are classified:

Cruiser Bikes: these are comfort thanks to their padded seats that allow you a relaxed riding position. The best bike for light trails, paths or for cruising a quiet beach-side lane. Take it with you for holiday!

Photo by Bitchbuzz

Mountain Bikes: these kind of bikes have larger tires, hill-friendly gearing and upright position.
They are designed specifically for rocky and steep trail, the best for dirt road riding. Mtb use typically feature a suspension fork. Some may have rear suspension.

Photo by Eye of Einstein

Road Bikes: these are also called racing bikes and they are built for speed and longer distances on paved surfaces. Their thinner tires, lightweight 29-inch (700c) wheels and drop bars allow a more aerodynamic position. Most road bikes offer many gears for facing both hilly and flat terrain.

Photo by Eleaf

Photo by Hans Vink

The first thing before start to ride is choosing the right bike for you: not every bike fit for women’s anatomy, and this because all bikes are designed by men using the male anatomy as the yardstick to create a frame’s geometry for women.

There are precise physical differences. When there are women and men of the same height, men have longer torsos and arms, but women tend to have longer legs. Because of this, men need more cockpit space on a bike, and many bikes feel too stretched out for most women. But this doesn’t mean that every woman need to buy a bike with women’s geometry, infact some women fit also with a men’s bike.
As a rule, the average size of a women is smaller. Furthermore, they usually have smaller hands and feet, and this means that average women’s bikes should have shorter stems, smaller brake levers, narrower handlebars and shorter cranks for a more comfortable riding.

One of the more important thing is the choise of the right saddle. In comparison to men, women’s pelvises tend to tilt forward, putting weight on their pudenda. This means that a comfortable saddle should be with a shorter, well-padded nose.