Whats the difference between mens and womens mountain bikes?

Question

the bar in front of ur legs seems to do downwards a lot more for women while for men, its almost horizontal. how does this assist women?

i find it strange because i always ride mens bike and never found a problem with it and i when i went to go buy a bike today, he said i should probably have a look at the womens

Answer 1

i guess the difference is the one steering the bike.

dont really know.

regards

Answer 2

I'll bring up a different point of view. One of the "bling" brands known for its engineering claims that a woman specific frame design is nothing but a marketing ploy. The proportions between leg length and trunk length are not significantly different between men and women of the same height. The problem is that most frame makers know how to build frames for riders 5' 10" or taller but don't know how to build frames for riders 5' 5" or under. They present a cogent argument. What does make sense to me is woman specific saddles, like those from Terry, and adjustable brake/shift levers for smaller hands.

HTH

Answer 3

Is it made to make the riding more comfortable by being designed with a woman's wider set hips in mind.



Try a woman's bike and see if you like it better.

Answer 4

it's because women used to wear skirts more and that curving downwards is for the skirt to not be lifted up by the air that goes on the horizontal tube, if u understood anithing tell me if not, sorry! just woke up cant think straight!

Answer 5

on high end bikes the only difference between women's and men's frames is the proportions.  the women's specific frame (WSF) has a shorter top tube than a man's.  only low end bikes like department stores cling to a woman's frame with a lowered top tube.  that design is flexible and doesnt perform well, and any serious woman rider doesnt use anything like it.

Answer 6

Don't really know but I know from me riding men's bikes that I now own a men's mountain bike given to me by my father who is about 3 inches taller than me, it fits me just fine.  All I had to do was adjust the seat to the right height for me and it was just fine.  It may be that it is a higher end bike and why there may be not much of a difference to it though.  Now days, womans bikes really are made much different than they were before.  I have seen womans bikes look very similar to mens bikes with the bar almost going straight across. So, who really knows.

Answer 7

The woman's bike will have a shorter top tube equivalent as compared to the same size men's bike.  The seat will be different also.

Answer 8

Womens bicycles are designed for the geometry of the womens bodies in mind.  Men and women are built differently thus you got mens shoes and womens shoes.  Mens clothes and womens clothes.  And so we have mens bicycles and womens bicycles.  All bicycles should be fit to the rider before purchased but most bike shops will try to sell whatever closely fits the customer.  If the bike is properly fit then it will not cause lower back pains or make your arms get numb after longer rides.  Womens bicycles are designed specifically for the womens bodies.  

Women typically have longer legs than men and shorter arms compared to the men of same height.

Trek has WSD models for women.  Scott has the Contessa for the CR1 Road bike models.  If a woman rider would ride a bike for her size that is built for men, she would notice her arms would have to reach out more and her seat would have to be slightly higher than when a man would ride that same bike.