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| Orbea Onix |
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| Orbea Onix Dama |
My primary gripe is that the geometry changes that are actually made to the frame are minimal, and usually very poorly thought out. Also, yes, some women have longer legs and shorter torsos -- but a lot of them do not. In fact many men have long legs and short torsos, rather than the shorter legs and longer torsos that the bike manufacturers would have you believe.
For instance, look at the Onix series of bikes from Orbea -- they have their standard version and the Dama, or women's specific version.
The Dama, size 53 is essentially just the size in between the standard Onix sizes 51 and 54 -- possibly a slightly taller scaled head tube. The Dama size 49, has an effective top tube of 51 cm. The standard Onix size 51 also has a 51 cm effective TT. The women's version has a head tube length of 110 mm, the standard version has a 122 mm one.
If women did have shorter torsos wouldn't they need to make the reach and overall cockpit of the bike more relaxed rather than more aggressive? Especially since the women's bike has a seat angle that's a full degree steeper (while still maintaining a 51 cm eff. TT), making it's weight bias more forward, upsetting the handling and making it squirrely at high speeds.
Again, I'm not saying that women shouldn't have their geometry tailored to them -- in fact they should, and just as often as the men-folk. These are not well-thought out changes, they're token, and gimmick and marketing. These changes are made because they're easy, not because they work.
Don't be fooled; more thought goes into how to "accessorize" a bike in pink and purple bits to make it "Women's Specific" than goes into the fit and the geometry.
