Originally Posted by
mel2012
This is fair point. I don't have any experience with taller frames, since they're very hard to find in the US (I had a hard time finding a stepthrough that was large enough for me at 5'7").
I had a small size step through once, with 26 inch wheels and it wasn't flexing very much despite having 2 diagonal tubes which is probably the least rigid design of that day, but of course there were other issues with riding at a decent pace.
Your point about the bike leasing raised an interesting thought. Bike share programs are becoming much more popular here in the U.S. and every program I'm familiar with uses stepthrough frames for a "one size fits all" approach and because the bikes tend to be heavy. I'm wondering if that will help de-gender stepthrough bikes here in the U.S.
I can't think of any other reason to want stepthroughs to be de-gendered than the success of bike share programs. Difficulty to find a tall step through to buy is a different issue. It's a shame a lot of share bikes aren't very appealing to men. Not because of the step through but because of the general geometry. The great thing about the oma geometry is that it lets you find you own riding posture and allows for a very wide range of people and their body sizes. If you can chose you're own posture you can make it as masculin as you want. Or feminin, the oma definetely allows for the most elegant riding posture. It's not about how the share bike looks, it's about how the rider looks and feels on it.
The bike swap business here is not a bike share though, it's your own bike until it fails for some reason and they swap it for the same type of bike within 12 hours at a location of your choice, so you have an operational bike every day. It has become very popular within a year, they are using all kinds of different colours in frames, fenders and racks otherwise people wouldn't be able to find their own swap bike among all the others.