Small bikes for smaller riders?

Our daughter is wanting to step up and race this year, and we've been looking for bikes xc and dh that will fit smaller women. Standover seems to be the biggest issue, with a workaround being 24" wheels… We've got our eyes set on a Juliana for XC and have looked at a Bullit for dh/fr.

What have any of you women found for bikes that fit the smaller / younger rider?

BTW any bike companies checking these threads - get your designers in order and come up with bikes for the smaller crowd!

Small Bottlerocket has tons of standover height, and could be good for DH. On 26"s it measures at less than 70cm. How big/tall is she?

Rocky also has some lady-specific frames, not sure if they have a lady-specific RMX though. Worth looking into nevertheless.

looking for a bike to fit someone 5' even

I know Kona makes women specific bikes. also they make kids bikes like the stinky 24. according to the website its 13" with 24" wheels.

I'm 5 3 and I ride a small 2006 stinky. I can stand over it good. The problem with big travel bikes for smaller riders is they are not that feasable. If you have a bike with 7" of travel, that means that the bike has to be able to travel that far.

Kona does make the Lisa series, they are all xc oriented bikes though.

So hot… but might not be dh-able enough.

My wife is 5'2" and she rides a small Brodie Thumper. Very good solution for the standover issue. With a few small upgrades, the bike rides very well. We added a Boxxer Team, new bars and stem, and Dangerboy Straightblade levers (she has really small hands too) and it works really well. Only other thing we may have to add is a chain retention system of some sort and maybe getting the Fox rear shock Pushed. She loves how the bike handles. With the new fork this year it should be even better.

edit I just looked at the Brodie site and it looks like they no longer make the Thumpers…wierd.

My daughter is around 5', and she's riding a 16" Kona Cindercone. A neighbour who's about 5' rides a 14" version of the bike.

Seat height shouldn't be much of an issue as you can slam the seat right down. Top tube length should be OK and you should be able to make adjustments via the stem length.

There really isn't a DH bike designed for someone 5' tall. with long travel suspension, is just isn't feasible.

however, your daughter is 5' and i'm guessing about 100lbs. (yes?) so she doesn't need 7+ inches of travel and the burly overbuilt frames are only going to weigh her down. i would suggest a good all mountain rig (giant reign comes in XS) with a 6" all mountain fork, marzocchi all mountain 1 for example, as a starting point. add a 24" rear wheel to lower the BB and slacken the HA to more DH standards. avoid the 24" front, they fall into pot holes and just plain suck to ride. have a pro tune the suspension to give her proper sag and make the bike run DH style. a super short, 0-50mm, stem and a flat XC bar will make the bike handle better on the steeps and again improve the fit.

build the bike with a full XC groupo. she will NEVER break any of it and a light bike will be much easier to handle

she will have a 6X6 bike THAT FITS and will be more than enough bike for her

if you do this and she still doesn't like it, let me know, my wife is the same size and would kill for that rig.

That's our thought with a bullit or some other smaller mid travel 5 or 6 inch frame…

doing some searching a few other bikes now look interesting.

Knolly - higher pricing but probably one of the best standovers of any of the bikes I looked up.

Devinci - Frantic models seem to have some good standover, and the moonracers look to be also quite small

Specialized - have to find one of their small womens models but they should be ok.

Santa Cruz - Juliana is definately a small rider oriented bike…

would be nice for bike manufacturers to give more details on their frame sizes in regards to standover clearance - specs seem to suggest measured at 12 inches in front of the seat post. But I guess this might vary from company to company… maybe a measurement of minimum standover and average standover?

The Banshee Chaparral comes in an XS frame but I think you can only put an air shock on it because the frame is too small for a coil shock (although that was a few years ago so maybe the newer ones are different).

I've tried the Knolly in an XS frame and it was a nice ride! And the Santa Cruz Bullit too (I'm not sure what frame size, definitely nice and small). A friend of mine who is a bit shorter than me got the Specialized XS Trail and loves it. And I know she had problems finding a bike that was small enough so she could stand over with lots of clearance.

^ The Chaparral in XS is a good, small bike. Albeit heavy and the short wheelbase is no good for DH. My fix was to run the shock with minimal air pressure but still enough not to blow up so it's plenty plush and I threw a Chromag Fubar up front to lower the front end and also give it more stability since it's quite a wide bar. The Float RL can be locked out as well. Overall impression is I'm stoked. Except for the crack.

Julianas are a great bike. Sooooo small, I am 5'3" and the small was too small for me!
As for a true dh bike, it's going to be tough to get any real long travel and maintain standover. Smaller travel bikes are going to work better, some have been suggesting a Stinky 2-4 which may work for someone so small but isn't a big travel bike.