No bike with adequate standover, options?

[parityclaws]

I have been looking into getting an emtb (full sus) for my partner and have been unable to find any models where she can standover it. She has a rather small standover height at around 720mm (with shoes) for her height (approximately 5'2). All other measurements are fine and she usually falls into an XS or S (brand depending). We have looked at all the major brands (including both shop and online bought, as well as all women specific models like Liv etc) and there is just nothing available.

Standover height while not the most important measurement to everyone, is somewhat important to her due to off-road mtb riding being fairly new to her, she is however, willing to just give it a go. We will still minimise the gap as much as possible for her by such thing as using 27.5" (at least on the rear) and lower profile tyres, using shoes with thicker soles etc.

So I guess my question is, has anyone here dealt with this and if so do you have any suggestions in terms strategies/techniques to assist in helping her cope with this limitation? I have suggested trying to dismount and keep one foot on a pedal and when she moves forward stand on the pedal and put the free foot on the ground by leaning to that side. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.

 

[mark.ai]

These ones seem to have a low standover height (in the online specs anyway) if it helps:

• Orbea Rise, small, 710
• Orbea Wild, S/M, 725
• Santa Cruz Heckler, S, 720
• Mondraker Crafty RR - looks low but can't find a value

 

[Gary]

Buy small 29er
fit 26" wheels

 

[Varaxis]

Marin Alpine Trail E2 is small rider friendly, IMO. 681mm standover

It's the one I'm planning on getting.

 

[parityclaws]

These ones seem to have a low standover height (in the online specs anyway) if it helps:

• Orbea Rise, small, 710
• Orbea Wild, S/M, 725
• Santa Cruz Heckler, S, 720
• Mondraker Crafty RR - looks low but can't find a value

Thanks, the Orbea Rise looks like an amazing bike and something that we will consider, just seems a bit expensive for the components (Australia), but I guess it's also new tech so maybe not a fair judgement.

Buy small 29er
fit 26" wheels

Thanks for this idea. Is this generally as simple as swapping the wheels out or would it be required to change forks/shock etc? Also would this be possible on a mullet setup, say the YT Decoy for example?

Marin Alpine Trail E2 is small rider friendly, IMO. 681mm standover

It's the one I'm planning on getting.

That is a really low standover, thanks so much, we will check it out.

 

[Dirtnvert]

Yt decoy has tons of SO
Commencal
Kona
Norco should be decent?
Devinci

 

[urastus]

Smaller people really need smaller wheels. Standover height is just one problem; the other is ending up with handlebars way up high. Small people must be a minority - not enough incentive for manufacturers to change wheel sizes. They'll try to tell you they have a bike that will work for someone who is 5'2", or less, but it still has 27.5 or 29" wheels. It has only been in the last 5 years or so that you could get good 24" full suspension bikes, not many but they're around. Primarily aimed at children but pretty good quality - norco fs 24 for example. Although norco have increased the suspension even though the bikes are aimed at kids < 90lbs (41kg); 140mm suspension! This has lifted the stand over height . My partner has an older one with 100mm travel and it's perfect for her (4'11"). I imagine the emtb industry will start making bikes for small people too when scale of economy kicks in at some point.

 

[Gary]

Thanks for this idea. Is this generally as simple as swapping the wheels out or would it be required to change forks/shock etc? Also would this be possible on a mullet setup, say the YT Decoy for example?

With a pure 29er switching both wheels from 29" to 26" you'd effectively just be lowering the axle height (and standover) by around 30mm All other geometry dimensions will remain the same.
Switching a 29/27.5 mullet to 26" will lower the front axle by around 30mm but the rear by only 12mm. steepening the bikes angles. increasing the fork travel by 10mm could compensate for this and is as simple as fitting a new longer air spring. But it'll raise the bb 3mm or so

As for the Decoy
Changing a 29/27.5 mullet to 27.5/26" would have far less effect on steepening the angles but you'd also only be increasing stand over by around 15mm.
Is there good reason for thinking of buying a beginner with little off road experience at all such a super capable 170/160mm travel Enduro/gravity bike?
And are we talking about a young or older inexperienced rider here? and has she experience to cross over from any other gravity, wheeled or snow sports etc. at all? This will make a massive difference with her confidence/progression.

 

[Nicho]

I have been looking into getting an emtb (full sus) for my partner and have been unable to find any models where she can standover it. She has a rather small standover height at around 720mm (with shoes) for her height (approximately 5'2). All other measurements are fine and she usually falls into an XS or S (brand depending). We have looked at all the major brands (including both shop and online bought, as well as all women specific models like Liv etc) and there is just nothing available.

Standover height while not the most important measurement to everyone, is somewhat important to her due to off-road mtb riding being fairly new to her, she is however, willing to just give it a go. We will still minimise the gap as much as possible for her by such thing as using 27.5" (at least on the rear) and lower profile tyres, using shoes with thicker soles etc.

So I guess my question is, has anyone here dealt with this and if so do you have any suggestions in terms strategies/techniques to assist in helping her cope with this limitation? I have suggested trying to dismount and keep one foot on a pedal and when she moves forward stand on the pedal and put the free foot on the ground by leaning to that side. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.

When I got my Giant Trance the Giant fitting chart said I was firrmly in the small size range, but when I tried it I found that when I stood over the crossbar I was squashed against the handlebar due to the distance between the handlebar and the saddle being too short, meaning that I was forced to stand over the highest point of the crossbar and had zero clearance.

I then tried a medium and found that although this was listed as having a higher standover height, in practice because it was longer between the saddle and the handlebar, I was able to stand over the lower part of the crossbar where there was more standover clearance than I had on the small bike.

The moral of this story is that if your partner was able to actually sit on some bikes she might be lucky and find a bigger size that actually fitted her better.

 

[parityclaws]

With a pure 29er switching both wheels from 29" to 26" you'd effectively just be lowering the axle height (and standover) by around 30mm All other geometry dimensions will remain the same.
Switching a 29/27.5 mullet to 26" will lower the front axle by around 30mm but the rear by only 12mm. steepening the bikes angles. increasing the fork travel by 10mm could compensate for this and is as simple as fitting a new longer air spring. But it'll raise the bb 3mm or so

As for the Decoy
Changing a 29/27.5 mullet to 27.5/26" would have far less effect on steepening the angles but you'd also only be increasing stand over by around 15mm.
Is there good reason for thinking of buying a beginner with little off road experience at all such a super capable 170/160mm travel Enduro/gravity bike?
And are we talking about a young or older inexperienced rider here? and has she experience to cross over from any other gravity, wheeled or snow sports etc. at all? This will make a massive difference with her confidence/progression.

Thanks for the reply. I think at this stage we are looking mainly at the Orbea Rise rather than swapping wheels. The rider is my partner, she has experience with on-road cycling and off-road on motorbikes (we used to go adventure riding), off-road mountain biking is somewhat new to her so she just needs to gain the initial confidence, they will be used for a mix of single track, adventure riding (mix of single track and forestry roads and potentially some touring (with extra batteries and well planned routes to places we can charge). Most likely anything we order will have a a pretty long lead time and she will get more experience from the hard tails before then but currently when she has to stop suddenly she jumps off forward and would prefer something she can still stand over as a lot of these bikes are unable to be tried before ordering.

 

[parityclaws]

When I got my Giant Trance the Giant fitting chart said I was firrmly in the small size range, but when I tried it I found that when I stood over the crossbar I was squashed against the handlebar due to the distance between the handlebar and the saddle being too short, meaning that I was forced to stand over the highest point of the crossbar and had zero clearance.

I then tried a medium and found that although this was listed as having a higher standover height, in practice because it was longer between the saddle and the handlebar, I was able to stand over the lower part of the crossbar where there was more standover clearance than I had on the small bike.

The moral of this story is that if your partner was able to actually sit on some bikes she might be lucky and find a bigger size that actually fitted her better.

Thanks and very good point, unfortunately most of the bikes we have looked at have no in store stock and it's just a case of going by manufacturer's measurements and the bike shops recommendations.

 

[parityclaws]

Yt decoy has tons of SO
Commencal
Kona
Norco should be decent?
Devinci

We really liked the YT but the standover is listed as 751mm for the small, whereas the XL is 701mm. The Norco list a low standover but they appear to measure it at the seat tube. Thanks for the other suggestions we will check them out.

 

[Dirtnvert]

We really liked the YT but the standover is listed as 751mm for the small, whereas the XL is 701mm. The Norco list a low standover but they appear to measure it at the seat tube. Thanks for the other suggestions we will check them out.

No prob. I wonder if thats a misprint. I just measured my medium decoy from the ground to the top of the top tube below where the front tip of my seat is and its 705cm with a 180 fork and chip in the low position. At the seatube/toptube junction its less than 700 . Lots of room under the toptube to clear the shock so a 651 small wouldnt be out of possibility, if it was a misprint and they measure at the seatube/tt junction

 

[Gary]

in manufacturer's geometry specs standover height is normally measured as the height from ground to the CENTRE of the top tube. so this rarely gives a true indication of the stand over at the lowest point of the toptube

Out of curiosity I just measured my own Emtb's standover at the lowest point as the frame slopes down (directly below the nose of the saddle and infront of the seatube) to be slightly less than 690mm. Whereas measuring it to the centre of the top tube gives 750mm

 

[parityclaws]

No prob. I wonder if thats a misprint. I just measured my medium decoy from the ground to the top of the top tube below where the front tip of my seat is and its 705cm with a 180 fork and chip in the low position. At the seatube/toptube junction its less than 700 . Lots of room under the toptube to clear the shock so a 651 small wouldnt be out of possibility, if it was a misprint and they measure at the seatube/tt junction

Thanks for checking that, that seems promising. I have posted in the YT forum and asked if someone has a small they could measure.

in manufacturer's geometry specs standover height is normally measured as the height from ground to the CENTRE of the top tube. so this rarely gives a true indication of the stand over at the lowest point of the toptube

Out of curiosity I just measured my own Emtb's standover at the lowest point as the frame slopes down (directly below the nose of the saddle and infront of the seatube) to be slightly less than 690mm. Whereas measuring it to the centre of the top tube gives 750mm

This is also very promising, seems like as you suggest it's from the centre, so at around the 1/3 point it might be adequate for her, thanks for your reply, much appreciated.

In normal times we could just turn up to the LBS and test all these bikes

 

[Gary]

651 small wouldnt be out of possibility

Due to the frame design (straight toptube and upper seat tube linkage) a small decoy won't actually have much lower top tube than the medium. it just has a 20mm shorter seat tube so I reckon it'll still be closer to 700mm than anywhere near 650mm at the point you're measuring yours to 705mm. Still way better than 750mm though

 

[Gary]

In normal times we could just turn up to the LBS and test all these bikes

Not a YT you couldn't ?

 

[parityclaws]

Good point . In Australia there is one company that sells on behalf of YT but their showroom is half way across the country unfortunately.

 

[Dirtnvert]

Try the yt thread maybe? Someone might have a small they could measure for you. The piggyback on my rear shock has atleast 40mm to the toptube. But like Gary said, the small could just have the same or similar SO with less reach. They are a tad short on reach though. My med commencal has prob 20+ mm extra reach. My non emtb mulletized meta 29 is great at speed or in the park but the decoy is better as a trail bike. Decoy is a great do it all. Commie hates slow speed.
Long stroked the commie 180/167/62degreeHA
Tweaked decoy
180/165%62.3degreeHA
Decoy is fun on the tight xc/dh and most speeds. Great all rounder

 

[urastus]

What about the trek powerfly fs 4? 27.5 wheels, 120mm suspension. They have an xs but don't give the measurements for that. Despite their recommendations, I'd look at the xs (they recommend s).

Powerfly FS 4 Gen 2 - Trek Bikes (AU)

Discover your next great ride with Powerfly FS 4. See the bike and visit your local Trek retailer. Shop now!

www.trekbikes.com

 

[Nicho]

Option 2 - Special EMTB boots, also useful for scaring off bike thieves:

 

[Giox]

I have been looking into getting an emtb (full sus) for my partner and have been unable to find any models where she can standover it. She has a rather small standover height at around 720mm (with shoes) for her height (approximately 5'2).

My wife is 158 cm which should be about the same as 5'2"
She's also an advanced beginner therefore she's worried about standover. Her normal bike is an MDE Damper SX 26", the last frame I could find and she loves it. She also loves her Whyte E-160RS size S. We initially went for it because they advertise even an XS but got the S as the XS never became available. It's slightly too big, she doesn't tough the ground with her whole foot, but nearly 3/4 so it's not to bad.
I wanted to get a 26" rear wheel built for her, but after a few rides she loves the handling so much that I don't dare to change anything.

But keep in mind at their size it's not only the standover that makes a difference but also how nimble the bike is. We tested a lot of bikes before we bought the whyte (yes there were still some available last year, though we mostly had to rent them), 29" are simply to unwildly for her.
She loved the Orbea Wild FS on mellow trails but on harder ones it was simply to big.
Beware of Giant/Liv. The insertion lenght of the seatpost is too limited.

 

[Utah Rider]

Finally an easy question. I got a 2021 Kenevo for my wife and put a big fat seat on it. The bike is made for bombing down hill but who cares. It fits her and was way cheaper than the new prices. The stock set up was a little too low for trail riding and it had many pedal strikes. Luckily you can do the flip chip on the rear shock and get the pedals off the ground a little more. She is already trying more trails than she would have on her old Levo. The plus side is that I can also steal it for a "wrench ride" .