Women’s specific and all business

We were able to test several road bikes this past fall and winter for our March 08 cycling issue. The Felt FW15 test bike was the last to arrive at headquarters and has hung around the longest, so I’ve had it out on spring training rides this month. It’s an amazing bike.

The first thing you notice about the Felt FW15 is a feeling of eagerness to accelerate. Every ounce of effort you put into your pedaling translates into forward motion courtesy of the Superlite aluminum/carbon frame. It made me think of a British sports car I used to own - even a trip to the quickie mart made you want to race. The FW15 makes mincemeat of hills, too.

My first ride had me admiring all these racy qualities, but wondering how I’d feel after a longer ride. Would all this stiffness and speed mean I’d be miserable after 25 or 30 miles? No way! It’s a perfect balance of comfort and acceleration, the comfort being aided by carbon forks and seat stays, and a very plush Felt FIT Woman saddle on top of a carbon seatpost.

The components will have you drooling: Dura-Ace front and rear derailleurs, a Shimano compact crank with a fantastic range of gearing, stop-on-a-dime Shimano SLR brakes, and an Easton Vista SL wheelset. If that’s all tech-talk to you, how about a very sexy matte black paint job with fuchsia accents here and there? It was definitely turning heads the most recent club ride.

All the right notes get hit on the women’s specific sizing, from the frame geometry to the short reach brake levers and compact drop on the handlebars. The only sad note is the size range topping out at 50cm. I’m 5′8″ and 50cm was perfect - my 5′10″ colleague felt a little cramped. This model is last year’s FW2 renamed, with a few tweaks, and the FW2 name now goes to Felt’s new full-carbon women’s specific bike.

The Felt FW15 has got you covered whether you’re riding an MS150 charity ride or you just want to be at the head of the pack on your next group ride. Get out there and test ride one. You’ll be amazed, too.

Felt FW15, $2199. Sizes: 650c x 43, 700c x 45, 47, 50cm (tested) www.feltracing.com

This is Marin’s new spin on an old favorite, their Juniper Trail mountain bike. Billed as a women’s specific model, it felt perfectly sized, right out of the box. I’ve gotten to be a huge fan of women’s bike designs (for the most part). It’s a real boon to female riders, especially very small, light people. You gals don’t need an overdesigned frame meant for a 250 lb. crusher, barreling down boulder-strewn tracks. Humans are adaptable creatures, and we get used to the feel of a bike that’s maybe a smidge too long in the reach from seat to bars or brings our knees a little higher than we like, but when you get on a bike that has those things adjusted for your proportions, it just clicks, snaps, whatever aphorism you want to use to describe that delicious “ahh, it’s right” feeling that happens between rider and bike that actually fits. Perhaps you’ve never experienced that? Keep trying bikes until you do — it’s so worth it. Okay, enough of beating the dead horse of bike fit….Marin seems to get this right for their women’s bikes every year and the Juniper Trail is another sterling example.

So, aside from an awesome fit, what’s so special about the JT? It’s light and eager to move up and down twisty single track, over gnarled roots and logs, around the immovable object, and up the inclines without any awkward hesitations. Chalk that up to Marin’s Hydro-Light frame design - strong and light because it’s hydroformed and the fact that it’s a hardtail with no rear shock weighing it down. For smooth cross country trails and shorter technical rides, the Juniper Trail was amazingly fun to ride.

If you’re new to mountain biking and a full suspension bike seems a little overwhelming or your terrain doesn’t include a lot of gigantic drops, the Juniper Trail is a great bike to start with. For under 1K you get great Shimano hydraulic disc brakes, Shimano Deore/LX shifting, narrower handlebars and smaller grips, a women’s specific saddle, and a Marzocchi front suspension fork, tuned to a woman’s lighter weight, with a lockout option. And it’s tangerine — every time I went out for a ride, that color made me smile!

Marin Juniper Trail: msrp $990 www.marinbikes.com

Women’s Adventure looks at four women’s specific design road bikes:

• Raleigh Intrigue 2.0
• Marin Treviso
• Trek Pilot 5.2 spa
• K2 T9 Alliance Road

Recently, I’ve had a few friends ask about buying a “real” road bike. They’ve been riding comfort/hybrid bikes for a year or so and they’re hooked. Now they’re ready for something a little faster or cuter or they’ve come to realize that just one bike isn’t enough!

I’m sort of in the same boat they are. I normally ride a steel touring bike and I have a hybrid for commuting to work. They both weigh in at about 28 pounds, which puts me at a slight disadvantage when trying to climb hills with my riding buddies on their under-20-pound road bikes. “Wait for me” is constantly forming on my lips.

I thought I’d give several women’s design road bikes a look. I tried out four bikes ranging from $900 to $3200. Way more expensive than that $300 comfort bike I started out with!

Why women’s design? Fit, fit, fit. It doesn’t matter what label you put on a bike, fit is the single most important factor when you pick a bike out. Just keep chanting to yourself, “It’s worth it” when you start looking, to get measured and fit to a bike by someone trained. If you go into a shop and all they want to do is have you stand over the top tube of a bike to make sure there’s adequate clearance, ask them if they do actual fittings. When you ride a bike that fits properly on a longer ride, the discomforts you’ve been putting up with on your old “one size fits many” bike become glaringly apparent.

What does women’s specific mean? In most cases, it means the range of frame sizes will start smaller, the length of the top tube will be a bit shorter in proportion to the height of the bike, the handlebars may be narrower, the brake/shifting levers may be smaller, the saddle will be a bit wider, the crank length may be shorter and sometimes, the bike color and decoration might be girly. Don’t reject women’s specific bikes if you are a taller, larger woman. Try them and see if they feel right. Remember, it’s all about fit, not labels.

Raleigh Intrigue 2.0

Aluminum frame, carbon fork msrp $950
A great “under $1000″ road bike - Click here to read more about the Intrigue!

When you switch from a hybrid or comfort bike to a road bike, you lose the shocks in the front fork and the seat post but you gain speed and maneuverability. And the Intrigue can move! Don’t worry that you’ll be uncomfortable, though. Lots of road bikes feature carbon forks, seat stays, even seat posts that help soak up the vibes without stealing your power to move. The carbon front fork on the Intrigue will help reduce the vibration that gets transmitted up through your hands and arms over rougher roads.

I was interested in trying the compact crank gearing – that means instead of the usual three rings, you have just two but they have a different range of possible gears than the usual road bike gearing, making it easier to climb hills in smaller gears just like you do with a triple. Forgoing the third ring makes the bike a little lighter and faster.

Just look at the colors on this bike! I had several people on group rides comment on how they liked the boldness. Both my fellow bike tester and I are tall so we tested the largest size (56) and found that the handlebar, crank and stem lengths had all been increased to suit that larger sized frame. The new Tiagra shifter, with the gear indicator window is fun – just glance down at your hands to see what gear you’re in rather than down and back to your crank and cog!

Not so great: at almost $1000, we wish the seat stay was also carbon. The road was a little rougher without that vibration dampening.

Marin Treviso

Aluminum frame, carbon fork and carbon seat stays msrp $1180
Click here to read more about the Treviso!

We loved this bike! We put the Treviso to the test on the Joliet Sudden Century this month and it performed beautifully over sections of wash-boarded road, into fierce headwinds, along a paved cycle path and up some serious hills (serious for Illinois, that is). You’ll notice the carbon front fork and rear seat stays on the Treviso right away. Carbon stops vibrations and having it in both places, at your hands and at your seat, means a smoother, more comfortable, less exhausting ride. Marin got the frame/component mix just right with a smaller width on the handlebar, smaller shifters, women’s design saddle, and the Women’s Fit Geometry frame. Don’t be afraid to try this bike if you’re a taller woman or don’t have the “usual” long leg/short torso build, though – both our taller testers felt right at home on the Treviso. The Treviso was very easy to control, cornered nicely, and felt intuitive in its handling. We enjoyed smooth, reliable shifting with the full Shimano 105 drive train, too. Even with a triple crank, the Treviso weighed in around 20 pounds, making us grateful on long slow hill climbs. This is a great choice for riders looking to upgrade from a hybrid bike and try longer rides or charity events without any sacrifice of comfort. We’ve probably put about 400 miles on this bike and the ride just keeps getting better!

Not so great: We sometimes wished for stronger brakes on the downhills.

Added bonus: Marin gives part of the profits on Treviso sales to Breast Cancer Research.

K2 T:Nine Alliance Road

Aluminum frame, carbon fork and carbon seat stay. msrp $1999 (Available through REI for $1799)

The Alliance Road (named the Tempest last year) was developed with the talent and advice of a group of women on the T:Nine Team. In fact, you’ll find their signatures on the top tube of the Alliance Road and you can thank them for some of the thoughtful features on this bike.

I wondered if I’d be as impressed with the Alliance as I have been with the other road bikes we’ve been testing this summer, and the answer is a resounding “yes!” The Alliance is a serious bike with high-end components, but it manages to still feel inviting and comfortable to a less experienced rider. This is a “second” road bike, the one you buy after you’ve ridden a season or two on an entry-level road bike and you’ve figured out that you want to ride faster, longer, more competitively, or you just lust for a really gorgeous bike. The Alliance Road has the carbon fork and seat stays you’d expect at this level, and some extras, too. The entire shifting system is Shimano Ultegra level, translating to smooth, reliable performance, which is especially noticeble when you shift under a load, climbing a hill. The FSA handlebars are narrower with a shallow drop and short reach for narrower shoulders and wrapped with a stitched leather-like bar tape. The stem height is adjustable, not with a heavy pivoting stem, but with a clever a sliding ring/ridge affair that doesn’t add weight but allows you to adjust the stem up or down depending on your preference for a heads down race position or neck-friendly position. Powerful FSA Energy brakes will stop you on a dime. They made me feel safe.

The icing on this jewel-blue cake is the American Classic wheelset. We know pounds count on a bike when you like to ride fast and the weight of the wheel has a big impact on how much exertion it takes to move the bike. It all adds up to a bike that likes to move. Fast. On hills, the Alliance actually made me feel like I could accelerate rather than just toil to the top. The handling felt precise and frisky but never unsteady at high speeds. I’d call the K2 a best buy - wonderful components, fantastic wheelset, a beautiful blue aluminum/carbon frame at a fair price. If you are going to upgrade from your hybrid and plan to reach a bit for a bike and keep your new road bike for a while, this may be the one for you. Put your favorite pedals on and you’ll be set for many happy miles to come.

Not so great: The Alliance Road comes in XS, S, and M sizes and we tried the medium, which is meant to fit riders from 5′6″ to 5′10″. We wish it came in a larger range of sizes that would allow a more custom fit.

K2’s T:Nine Alliance is another line that supports the Breast Cancer Fund and Breast Cancer Research Foundation with generous donations each year. The Alliance Road sports a little pink ribbon in tribute to this fact.

A very big thank you to Aaron at REI, Oakbrook Terrace, IL for building this bike for WA to test and to T.K. Malone at K2 bikes for going to extraordinary lengths to make sure we were able to include the Alliance Road in our road bike line-up this summer. Look for exciting things to happen with the 2008 Alliance Road!

Trek Pilot 5.2 s.p.a. WSD

Carbon frame and fork with elastomere rear suspension. msrp $3270.
Click here to read more about the Trek Pilot 5.2 s.p.a. WSD

The gorgeous crystal blue Pilot 5.2 s.p.a. WSD (Women’s Specific Design) just begs to be taken out for a ride. My test model even had matching blue water bottle cages!

Don’t be fooled, though. The Pilot 5.2 s.p.a WSD looks like eye candy, but you aren’t going to suffer for the sake of beauty. Once I was out on the Pilot 5.2, I fell in love with the smooth-as-silk ride. That elastomere piece in the rear is a hard rubbery cushion that keeps bumps in the road from travelling up into the seat without adding any additional weight like a traditional rear or seat post suspension would. So you have the vibration-absorbing carbon frame as well as the elastomere suspension to help you ride for miles and miles without a bit of bother. The more upright positioning helps, too, if you have any neck issues or just like being more heads-up when you ride.

The Pilot 5.2 s.p.a has high-end components you don’t always find on women’s specific bikes, so you can be speedy as well as comfy and beautiful all at the same time! Now how many of the boys can make that claim?

Not so great: Seriously pricey. If the cost is making you say “ouch,” the Pilot family also includes four other Women’s Specific Design bikes in a range of prices.

Many thanks to Trek’s Julie Kramer, who heads up the Midwest “Fit for Women” bike demo tour, for lending me the Pilot 5.2 s.p.a. WSD to try out for a few days.

Want to know more? Leave me a comment and I’ll give you the lowdown!

There was a thread over at the Team Estrogen forum asking who would consider buying a pair of these shorts. To tell you the truth, I was scratching my head over “thermal shorts.” If it’s cold, why would you want shorts? If it’s marginally warm, would you be comfy in thermal shorts after you warmed up and peeled your leg warmers off? They just seemed to be a niche product without a niche.

Boy, was I wrong! If you’ve ever ridden in the cold and gotten a chilly backside from the swirling eddies of cold wind, if you’ve wished your ultra warm tights had some wind block on the butt as well as the thighs, if you ride with thermal leg warmers on those early spring rides but found your shorts lacking in insulation, give these a try.

The chamois is PI’s 3D Pro, which is only 8mm thick, doesn’t overwhelm you with padding — a perfect thickness for commuting and moderate length rides. Silver ion technology in the pad keeps bacteria down, which is another plus when you are riding to and from work and have to stow your duds until it’s time to come home!

I liked the extra leg length, too. No leg warmer gap! And when it warmed up on a ride and I was ready for shorts to be shorts, the MicroSensor fabric had terrific moisture transfer and I didn’t get too steamy.

Pearl Izumi gets it just right with the MicroSensor Thermal Shorts. msrp: $140 www.pearlizumi.com

Okay, I can no longer keep quiet about this bike. We nicknamed it “The Precious” here at the WA testing grounds because our riders were fighting over who got it on every weekend outing and who got left behind in the cold - it’s that fast!

Let’s get the facts out of the way first. The OCR CW (Composite Women’s) is a full carbon-composite compact frame with Shimano Ultegra shifting and a compact crank. The “women’s” part of the name means a smaller handlebar and short-reach brake and shifter levers, as well as a frame build for the slightly shorter reach women usually have. You can drool over all the details at www.giantforwomen.com.

Now, I’ve never thought of myself as a small person who needs scaled down parts to make me more comfy riding. I’m five-eight and Seinfeld’s “man hands” episode comes to mind when I look at my paws. So, I was blown away at how much more confident and comfortable I was handling this bike because of the all around fit. I loved those short-reach shifters — no more rotating my hand out and over to grab the lever to brake! Maybe we don’t need “women’s” bikes but we do need bikes that fit us, so don’t be afraid to go out there and ask for what works for you!

This isn’t a competition bike. If you want to win races, you will probably want something more aggressive. But if you’re like a lot of riders out there, taking long weekend rides with groups or participating in charity rides, a blend of speed and smooth-riding comfort is the holy grail, and this bike does all that, with classy good looks to boot. It has a black/pearlized cream color with the carbon fiber artfully peeking out in spots. Makes you want to buy a new pair of shorts and jersey, so you’re not underdressed while your riding it!

Treat yourself to a test ride and ask the shop if you can take it out for a longer spin than just around the parking lot. That’s where you’ll feel how buttery the ride is and how responsively it handles. Go on, it’s spring and you deserve it!

Giant has this bike very nicely priced for a full carbon bike. Giant OCR CW $2300