Women's bikes

[PeaGreene]

I'm planning to buy a bike. Went to Halfords today and it's very confusing. The bikes described as "women's" have the same frames (or so it seemed) as some of the "men's" bikes - ie the cross bar just wasn't as low as I thought it would be. I only saw one bike with a proper low "raise your knee forwards not foot out backwards" type frame.

There were two in particular, which looked identical which had "women's specification features" written on the label.

What the heck does that mean????

I too am confused. We have just bought dd a bike from halfords and the mens and womens do look similar; in fact the one dd really wanted was a gents! However we eventually settled on a 'womens' one because it was lighter (aluminium) but dh has been happily riding it as well. Do you think it really matters?

Lighter aluminium sounds good. I wonder if there are any other differences. I now understand there can be different seats too, which are more forgiving to fanjos, can you believe.

I really do want a low cross bar though, I hired one on holiday and it was lovely being able to skip off it rather than having to stop and put my leg over the back.

DH seems rather keen on the idea of a wicker basket too...