Originally Posted by
Korina
It depends on what kind of bike she wants. For a drop bar road bike, yes, the stoopid long top tube of the '90s mtbs would be an issue. I understand '80s bikes didn't have that issue, so if she can find something old enough... For pretty much any other riding, they're perfectly fine.
Sorry but you are incorrect in your assumption. 80s top tubes weren’t that much shorter than in the 90s. Besides, your bike, and the bikes being suggested, is from the 90s or, in other words, the ones with the longer top tubes.
Mountain bikes generally have a longer top tube than road bikes. My 19” mountain bike frames…I’ve owned roughly 20 of them since 1984…have all had longer top tubes than my road bikes of the same era (or even later). That is typical. A smaller mountain bike may have a shorter top tube but they are likely to be longer than a road top tube. If you pick a bike that is larger but proportioned for a rider that is even larger, the problem is exacerbated. That goes for any era of bicycle.
With the right stem and bar, they're much more proportional for us shorties. Even with fenders, I have no toe overlap on my 18" mtb. I'm using a 160 mm stem and Velo-Orange Tourist bar. The Princess is super comfortable and takes me wherever I want to go. OP can also look out for a step through mtb so she doesn't have to worry about standover.
Been there, done that, was there when “back in the day” was “the day”. A short stem and rearward swept handlebars can mess with steering. It makes the bike less stable than a longer stem by pulling weight back from the steering axis. This make the steering quicker but less predictable. A long top tube due to have a large frame pulls more weight back from the front wheel, which makes the bike even less stable.
My wife has tried swept back bars like the Velo Orange ones and found them uncomfortable in the long run. Her wrist angle was wrong with the wrist twisted at an angle. They ended up causing pain and numbness.
I would not expect any kind of toe overlap on a mountain bike of just about any kind. The top tube may be longer but the head angle is more slack as well which pushes the front wheel out further. With proportionally smaller feet, small people should never overlap issue with that kind of geometry. Road bikes might because they use steeper head angles, especially with fenders.
My wife is 5’ tall. I have put her on some pretty horrible bikes for a few reasons. First, and foremost, was because people just didn’t make a bike that was small enough for most of 3 decades. She also learned to ride on a bike that was my size and it took a lot of arguing to convince her that a 22” frame with 27” wheels that she had to hook a leg over to get only
one foot on the ground was too large. She was used to that size and everything else felt too small.
I got her down to a 19” road frame in the 90s but was kind of stuck there for a while. In the early 2000s, I finally convinced her to try a Terry Symmetry with the 24” (520mm) wheel on the front. She liked that one but found the smaller front wheel to be a bit sketchy. About 2014, we found the aluminum Terry Symmetry with 650C (571mm) wheel and she found a bike that she could love. It fits, it’s stable, and it’s comfortable. It doesn’t require compromises.
All kinds of people will go on and on about how important frame fit is for comfort but then will ask a small person to “just deal” with what’s available. As an avid cyclist, I would
never ride a mountain bike of any kind that is close to the same size as my road bike. A 22” mountain bike is huge and no amount of sliding the seat forward or putting on a super short stem or sweeping back the bars would make it more appropriate for me to ride. I’ve ridden bikes that are the wrong size but I’ve never ridden them for much more than a ride around the block. My wife isn’t nearly as avid a cyclist as I am and it’s taken a long tome for me to understand why.