Canyon Yellowstone 4.0 suitable for women?

Question

About a year ago I bought a Canyon Yellowstone 4.0, just after moving to Germany. I found it was a relatively good bike for the money, I've had a great time on it and I use it mainly for getting around.

Here's a link to it (no longer available on the Canyon website). http://controlbike.com/bike/2013-canyon-yellowstone-al-4-0

My girlfriend now wants to get herself a bike, and my bike fits her pretty well. Is it suitable as a bike for females? She's pretty comfortable on it although I will have to change the seat for her to a female seat.

Given this, would it be suitable for her to try to use or are there any glaringly obvious factors I have not considered?

Answer 1

The distinction between women's specific and regular bikes isn't a hard rule, and you don't need a women's specific bike for a woman. Many women use standard bicycles without any problems, though just like men, they may need to tweak stem length, handlebar height, saddle width and height and position (usually, women's geometry bikes have a combination of this, along with a shorter top tube (and more sloping) and different head tube angle+length and seat tube angle+length - theres also a healthy dose of marketing). The idea is that women have longer legs, shorter torsos and arms for a given height and wider sit bones in general. There are also some men who use women's geometry bicycles, but this is rarer (primarily cause men's bicycles are more common, and better looking). Men using "women's seats" is decently common though.

If it fits her well, there aren't any problems. If it doesn't fit her well, look at other bikes (not necessarily women specific).