Originally Posted by cyccommute

The 110 BCD is a dumb chainring to use in either a double or single, especially for a short armed crank. Short cranks are meant small people who have less muscle mass than larger people. The 110 BCD is limited to 34 tooth size. That’s kind of a high gear for a small person.

The other problem for me, personally, is the lack of triples. I’m large and strong and won’t ride without a 22 tooth inner mated to a 34 or 36 (or even 40) tooth cog on the back. I’m not going to ask my 5’ tall wife to ride something that is geared far higher than my bikes. And before the suggestion is made to get a modern bike with something like a 11-52, small bikes that are capable of using that technology are difficult to find in small enough frames. For example the Specialized Diverge Expert E5 EVO comes with a 11-50 cassette and a 38 tooth chainring. That makes for a 21” gear, which is almost respectable. That’s for $2600.

The Specialized Sirrus 2.0 comes with a 11-32 cassette with a 46/30 crank and an 11-32 cassette. That’s a bit taller low of 26” which isn’t all that great but the Sirrus sells for $650 which makes it a better platform for making changes.

The other problem is that the smallest size th Diverge comes in has a standover of 732mm. The Sirrus comes in an XXS with a standover of 692mm. That an extra 40mm (1.5”) of clearance for someone who is short. The Diverge is just too big for an extremely small rider. The standover height of Sirrus can be reduced further by changing the wheels to 26” which isn’t a problem if shorter cranks are used.

The $1800 difference in the bikes means that you can spend money on making the Sirrus into a better bike for a short rider…including having someone like Wheel Smith make short triple cranks for it.