Women's vs. Men's bikes

[sojudave]

I got my hands on a pink Hungarian Schwinn lady's cruiser. Anyway, I was taking it for a test ride and it feels different than my old men's cruiser. It feels like I am sitting above the pedals more and that the bottom bracket is lower to the ground. I'm not mad at it. It's pretty comfy. Anyway, has anyone else noticed this or is it just me? My previous bike was an 80.00 Academy cruiser. So the frame geometry is much different.

I've previously rode a 26" Huffy Cranbrook and from what I remember, the seat and pedals weren't lined up like this Schwinn either. Is the seat post on a men's cruiser angled farther back than that of a woman's cruiser? It's legit comfortable though. Think I'll give it a military paint job.

 

[Wildcat]

There are many different configurations on men's and women's frames. The first bike I built was a 56 X-53 from a junkyard. It was a women's bike but had the same angles as the men's, so it rode the same. When we were kids my sister's bike rode much different than my brother's and my bikes. The head tube was more vertical than the seat tube. It's the angles of the seat tube and the head tube. The best cruising bikes I like are the 50's CWC and AMF bikes of the 60's have identical angles and slant backwards. So, it depends on the specific bike instead of all the women's frames. These two AMF Roadmasters have the same angles so they should ride the same.

 

[Duchess]

Always depends. A lot of step through frames I've seen have the head tube taller in relation to the seat tube than on the equivalent diamond frame, I suspect largely due to strength—with the lack of a top tube, the double down tubes need to be able to support all the same forces while being geometrically disadvantaged. Using a taller head tube allows the two down tubes to be placed farther apart for greater strength and because the intended use of a loop frame would be as an upright cruiser, forcing the bars higher isn't a problem. Of course, this isn't always the case and there may be differences in geometry in other ways, too. It's possible that a steering angle might be changed to make up for the strength disadvantage, too, though smaller frame sizes like most loop frames would be, might also require slightly different geometries than larger ones to keep the same ride and handling qualities as I would imagine the difference in frame size with the same size wheels would need slight changes in geometry to maintain a similar feel. All and all, a more flexible frame should ride more comfortably as long as it stops short of shaking enough to be disconcerting (a different kind of uncomfortable, I suppose).

Fairly recently, some manufacturers have started offering performance frames for women just like the men's versions, but with slightly different geometries better suited to the average female body than traditional performance oriented bikes (Like, Liv—Giant's woman's optimized bike line). I don't recall all the general differences, but I believe a couple of them are shorter top tubes to reduce reach for their shorter proportional arm length and a more slack seat tube angle to better work with the more turned out hips of a woman's pelvis. IIRC, the latter is also what they tend to do when reducing the size of any frame, as well. I read way too much about too much to trust my memory, but you get the idea. Of course, some women might prefer the "men's" frame and vise versa as everyone's a little different.

 

[us56456712]

These woman's frames could easily bend going over curbs etc, and also people are a lot bigger now. The bending will stretch the frame and lower the bottom bracket. Sometimes it's hard to tell it's been bent a little. I guess you could compare it to another Schwinn. The fork could be a little farther away from the downtime if it's bent. If its stretched it could be brought back pretty easily, others on this forum have bent them back. Just a thought to rule out.

 

[sojudave]

Thanks for the info y'all. I tooled around on the bike again, and it's ridiculously comfy. Gonna paint it OD green and use black components. On past bikes, I've bedlined the rims and they come out looking pretty gnarly. I'll post it in the build forum once I get started.

 

[horsefarmer]

Back in the 70's, my brother wore several bikes out delivering papers, and we were always fixing them. He was given a cousin's girls ballooner Schwinn of 40's vintage.
Not a show piece, but we found some paint, and spray bombed it light tan and pressed the bike into service. One evening he pushed it home, frame hopelessly kinked and chainring dragging on the ground. What happened? I asked, he replied, "jumped a curb".