looking at bike sizes today

[WoTmania]

and noticed this not sure quite what to make of it. Maybe women's bikes need to be differentiated from 'real' bikes?

[caroldecker]

at the top level, men are faster and stronger than women - this means that current mainstream sport favours men.
Sports such as gymnastics, which favour balance and flexibility would favour women.

[Keepithidden]

But its not all about power and speed, skill is more important IMO.

[Lovecat]

I've watched mixed football in America. They have a no-tackle rule, which is ostensibly there to 'protect' the women who play.

It was great! Really interesting and skillful and very fast play. I don't know why it isn't more widely played in the UK.

[onceuponatimeintheeast]

Re. football, I've played a lot of mixed 5-a-side football which is a fantastic game - because the court is too small for top speed to matter, and it's all about short, accurate passes, movement off the ball and positional play (and tactical nous) it's a fabulous mixed game.

For 11-a-side (used to play women's Sunday League), absolute speed over, say, 40m, and the distance you can kick the ball (specially in the amateur game which is very much crappy, long-ball-over-the-top) really matter, and that means at an amateur level, relatively few women can hold their own in a mixed game (NB, there is a big nurture/nature question here - I'd think that if more women started to play as children and had the huge number of hours of practise in childhood that most men who keep playing into adulthood have clocked up, things would be a lot more even. One of my closest friends, who played enormous amounts as a child, certainly can - but then, she used to play Sunday league at a level about 4 leagues above me).

Totally agree though that it gives me the rage to see "bikes" and "women's bikes" on websites. Not the fact that one might want to differentiate frame size and proportion by sex (I am 5'3"), but why not have "men's bikes" and "women's bikes"?

[wol1968]

I once had a bike that was apparently the right frame size for my height but wasn't a women's bike. Big mistake. The saddle and handlebars were too far apart and at the wrong angle so I had to crouch forward all the time when I was trying to ride it. I couldn't lift a hand to signal because I couldn't steer the bike at all with one hand and kept veering off and falling over. I'm not a particularly good rider but I haven't had any problems with my current women's bike.

[Takver]

I do take your point, OP, but I think that maybe it is a bit of an odd one, in that you probably do genuinely get unisex bikes (which most people will choose) and women's bikes (which shortarses like me will choose).

I think younger women just come out taller & with a longer reach these days, so don't need a specifically sized frame. Similarly, not many men cycle in skirts, so step through frames are probably a women only zone, whereas plenty of women cycle in trousers/shorts . . .