Re: Building touring bike for daughter

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i've helped fit at least a few bikes for smaller ladies; perhaps i can 
remember some of the things i've run through.

     if i can ASSuME we're talking about drop bars, then Tektro, 
Dia-Compe, and Cane Creek have all made brake levers with reduced reach 
for smaller hands. any good shop near you should be able to look into 
what might be currently available.
     also, IIRC Shimano Sora levers had an adjustment screw that would 
adjust the reach, and there might have even been a 'Short Reach' version 
of Tiagra and R600 levers, and there was a version of the R700 levers 
that was intended to be adjustable via shims...
     another possibility; i'm not sure if they're still available 
anywhere, but i think that Terry used to make a handlebar for women that 
was intended to make the reach to the brake levers somewhat shorter. 
don't forgetto consider getting bars narrow /enough/ for the young lady; 
not having to reach out to the bars will make it easier for her to get 
her hands in the right position to operate the levers correctly.

     in all cases, it might be worth considering also that any reduced 
reach lever is going to make it more likely that the brake levers will 
bottom out on the lever travel, and extra attention might also be 
necessary to make sure that the most loss-free brake cabling and cable 
housing be used to make the most of the braking effort applied at the lever.

     ignoring all that, consider that most of the time spent touring a 
rider is typically up on the hoods of the levers or on the tops, in 
which case lever reach in the drops doesn't really even come into play. 
it's commonly riders that are new to riding dropped bars and/or in the 
drops that complain most about brake lever reach, until they realize 
that ~90% of the time they're not in the drops anyway.

     another consideration might be a set of interrupter levers (a.k.a. 
'cross' levers); some of the levers i've tried actually work more 
positively than the brifters they're mounted with, and are typically 
easily adjustable for reach. (another benefit is that they easily 
provide a provision for a cable adjuster; commonly missing when 
combining 'road' levers with canti brakes as we do on touring bikes.)


cheers!
e


On 18/Feb/11 21:58, Kim Alan Waggoner (Home) wrote:
> One of my daughters (4'9") wants a touring bike so that she can join 
> my on my rides.
> My brother-in-law took her to a bicycle store in Portland. OR for some 
> test riding when she was visiting family last month. They determined 
> the best frame size for her was 40cm. Apparently the closest to this 
> without the expense of a custom build is the 42cm Surly LHT.  She 
> tried one of these and thought it would work out frame size wise, but 
> had a hard time putting her small hands around the brake levers. I've 
> decided to buy the frame then build the bike to fit her the best I 
> can. If anyone on the list has experience with fitting touring bikes 
> to smaller riders, I'd appreciate any input.
>
> Thanks,
> kw.
>
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