The Evolution of Women’s Bikes

Maria E. Ward (left) and Daisy Elliott stand next to their bicycles in front of the Ward family home in Grymes Hill, Staten Island, New York.

A woman’s bike is simply a bike that a woman rides, and through the centuries the bikes women are riding have evolved with their riders.

The women’s bikes of yesteryear don’t look a whole lot like the women’s bikes on the market today. with A lot of brands are pivoting to a unisex approach to design, you may be wondering what benefits, if any, there are to gender specific bike geometry. Let’s look at the pros & cons of building bikes for different genders and how people of any gender can benefit from including women in the design & manufacturing process of building bikes.

How it All Started

Let’s begin at the beginning: the year is 1887 and despite the bicycle having existed in some form for decades at this point, the sport is mostly seen as a boys’ club. There were certainly some women riding bikes at the time (one of the first competitive female cyclists, Elsa Von Blumen, comes to mind), but many women were left on the sidelines as it wasn’t seen as an appropriate activity for a Victorian Lady to participate in. Fashion was no friend to the sporty Victorian era woman, either; the long layers of skirts worn could easily get caught in the spokes and gears. This didn’t mean that women weren’t interested in taking up the pastime, but there was certainly a need for a bike that would be appropriate for a lady to ride.

A lot of women were already riding the Rover Safety bicycle at this time – introduced by John Kemp Starley as a safer alternative to the ubiquitous Penny Farthing that was the popular choice of the era – but in order for more to join them, many women wanted a bike that would allow room for all of their layers of skirts and that wouldn’t be seen as unladylike.

So a couple years after the Rover Safety brought cycling to the mostly male masses with its comfortable and revolutionary diamond shaped frame (that is still the baseline for bikes today), Starley released the Psycho Ladies Safety so that even more women could join the fun. Thankfully, “psycho” didn’t have the same connotations that we associate with the word today – it seems likely that in the 1800s it would be more closely related to the Latin “psyche” which referred to the human spirit. This bike was marketed towards the free-spirited women of the time who wanted to remain ladylike while enjoying the fashionable cycling pastime. The main deviation in design from its predecessor is its downward sloping top tube, creating the first step-through frame. Now a lady wouldn’t have to besmirch herself by hiking up her skirts (or worse – by wearing bloomers!) and straddling the crossbar, she could simply step through the bike. And because those very skirts would often get caught in the bike’s moving parts, this Ladies version also sported a chain guard.

As the 19th century progressed into the 20th, so too did rights for women along with the design of their bikes. We have come a long way from the days of Starley’s Psycho in many ways; despite this progress, I still often hear people saying that Ladies Bikes are the ones that have step-through frames. While that geometry has certainly stood the test of time, it’s not just ladies who benefit from that style of frame – anybody who has difficulty raising their leg over a straight crossbar will appreciate not having it in the way. This includes people with physical impairments or those not as flexible. Plus, bikes with step-through frames also put the rider in an upright position and that posture is far more comfortable & natural for many.

In many places around Europe, these step-through frames are much more frequently used by folks of all genders and in some places, like the Netherlands, they are even more popular than sporty hybrids or road bikes, which is why this frame style is often referred to as Dutch Bikes. Step-through bikes might also be called cruisers since they’re built for cruising around. Whatever you call them though, it doesn’t really make sense to label them as exclusive to women anymore because there’s lots of benefits for lots of kinds of people.

Women’s Bikes Now

However, the same changes that made cycling accessible to people of any gender and all ability levels also make the bike worse for going fast. The upright riding position isn’t as efficient for transferring the power from your legs into the forward momentum of the bike, in addition to the downward-sloped top bar not being as aerodynamic. So where does this leave women who want to race at the top levels? For some time, bike manufacturers might simply shrink their popular road bikes and paint them pink, however, now there are a plethora of options designed specifically with women’s proportions in mind, which translates into a bike’s geometry & components in a couple different ways.

Starting with the frame, a big difference on many women’s bikes is that they have a shorter reach than their male counterparts. This is due to the fact that many women have shorter arms and torsos than a man of the same height, therefore many women often feel like they have to lean too far forward to reach the handlebars if they’re riding a men’s bike. Speaking of handlebars, women’s bikes will usually be stocked with narrower ones since we tend to have narrower shoulders. In contrast, our saddles often need to be wider because of our wider hips. In addition, women’s bikes will also be built in smaller frame sizes because on the whole, the average woman is shorter than the average man. These are just a few examples of some key differences to look for in a women’s specific bike, but there’s a lot of research and test riding that goes into building the best bike for women to get the most out of.

Liv Avail 3:

Giant COntend 3

These bikes are similarly specced to each other with both featuring an entry-level road groupset from Shimano. The discerning eye will notice the shorter stack & reach on the Liv frame as well as the Avail’s brake levers being set for a smaller hand size. And while both bikes are offered in an XS , the Giant XS is only recommended for riders as short as 5’2” where the Liv XS will comfortably fit 5’0” riders (some liv bikes will go even smaller).

Having said all of that, it’s necessary to acknowledge that this is all only generalities & trends in data; the science of making the perfect women’s bike is really more of an art since there is no such thing as the perfect woman. On my own bike, I actually prefer an extra wide handlebar! I’ve got broad swimmer shoulders and my handlebars will prove it. In fact, if there was a bike out there built for every kind of proportions then there would be 8 billion kinds of bikes out there. The reality is that every human body is different from the next; many bike brands are quick to point out the fact that the differences between two particular men could be as drastic as the differences between a man and a woman. People are just built differently.

But does this just mean we should just stop making bikes for women? Well no. Because just as the innovations introduced with the Psycho Ladies made cycling accessible to a wider range of individuals regardless of ability level & attire, modern women’s bikes make cycling accessible to a wider range of body types. It’s been proven that there is no ideal cycling body type, so why would it make sense to restrict the variety of bicycles that are available? If it’s true that a woman might feel more comfortable on a men’s specific bike because maybe she has broad shoulders and a long torso, there are certainly some short kings out there who might be more comfortable on a smaller frame with 650b wheels; as it stands now, the bikes that fit that description are marketed to female cyclists.