clengman

My wife is interested in buying a new bike. I've started looking around on CL for good deals. I am certainly not going to go and buy a bike without her trying it first, so we'll make sure it's comfortable before we buy, but I'm trying to figure out what an appropriate size would be for her so I can narrow down the number of bikes we go to look at.

We're looking at mountain bikes, flat bar road bikes, or hybrid/city bikes that lean towards a sporty rather than bolt upright geometry. She currently has an old murray mountain bike from the 90's that weighs a ton and is in pretty rough shape. The top tube measures 22" C-C, the seat tube is 17" she has the seat post extended roughly 3 inches. She is about 5'4" and has short legs for her height.

She rides infrequently (a couple times a month) on short rides, but my daughter has just learned to ride and we're planning to go on more family rides so she'd like a little bit nicer bike. According to bike fit charts I've looked at she should probably be looking at 15" or "small" bikes, but she hasn't complained of discomfort on her 17" mountain bike. Anybody have any advice for me re: what size bike we should be looking for?

Edit: We'll be riding mainly on rail trails and city bike paths, maybe a little road riding. Mostly 5-10 mile trips. I'm hoping to get the fam to go with me on a couple 2 or 3 day easy tours on the GAP eventually.

Carbonfiberboy 

You could measure her and go through this calculator: https://www.competitivecyclist.com/S...ulatorBike.jsp
It may be TMI, but it's a good place to start.

linberl

As someone else who is 5'4", maybe give a thought to a nice riding folding bike. The 20" wheels make it easier to mount for us shorties, and the lower center of gravity
enhances handling.