# Hardtail frame in X-SMALL?



## austinTRON (Mar 31, 2013)

Hello, Ladies I need some advice. My wife just recovered from having a heart ablation and is stoked on getting a mountain bike so we can do a husband & wife team in next years 24hrs in the canyon race. I recently finished building a Spot Rocker 27.5+ and I have been loving it and she wants me to help her build a bike from the frame up.

So far she is most excited about a Soma Riff. Which won’t be available til early june. She is super bummed that we are gunna have to pre-order since BTI won’t have them in stock for a while and we’d have to pay full retail.

Any other reasonably priced XS frames around? Ive looked far and wide but never realized how few frames were available in X-small. 

I need your input ladies!


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## mtbxplorer (Dec 25, 2009)

It would help to know what you are considering reasonably priced. I checked the Orbea hardtails, which look great at my local bike shop; they don't have XS but the standover and reach on their S are comparable to the Soma XS. So I would consider checking the geometry on any bikes she is interested in, as the "size" doesn't always tell the whole story. A coworker just built up a Soma Wolverine, and it does look nice!


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## austinTRON (Mar 31, 2013)

Im looking for a frame around $500 and under preferably. She doesnt want carbon or anything full suspension. I’m trying to stay away from any “major” brands because the shop I work for sells giant, transition and pivot. A giant bike would be great but they don’t seem to want to sell framesets and encourage purchasing complete bikes. Plus, Giant doesnt have mich to offer in women’s specific hardtails. It goes from the $750 Tempt 2 to the $2,700 Obsess. Kind of lacking.

If I found a frame that she got really stoked on over $500 I wouldnt mind going to $750ish. 

I’m looking for an X-Small because my wife is 5’2 and her legs are short even for her height. I have had her test ride and demo multiple small frames (14.5-15.5) and she always had to ride with the seat post slammed to the frame on the 15.5. I’ve had her on XS Liv bikes (13.5) and they are just about perfect for her.


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## cyclelicious (Oct 7, 2008)

Norco makes x-small. I'm just not sure if they sell frame only.

https://www.norco.com/womens/


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## mahgnillig (Mar 12, 2004)

Have you looked into the Chinese carbon frames? There are loads of threads on here about the various frames you can buy cheaply direct from China which seem to be decent quality. Finding XS frame only options is going to be difficult as, like you said, the big manufacturers are all about selling complete bikes rather than frames. 

Sent from my SM-T800 using Tapatalk


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## Lucy Juice (Dec 29, 2010)

Trek X-Cal frameset new is $535. Comes in 13.5 and 15.5. FWIW, I'm 5'3" and ride a 15.5 Trek. 

But I'd go to your Trek dealer and see what they can get you on closeout. There might be a Procaliber frame from last year they can cut you a deal on. They do make the "women's" in 13.5.


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## iowamtb (May 17, 2014)

Look into a bside in fire engine red. It is like my orange v3 in the geometry. The riff lengthened the reach and stack in equivalent sizes and since you say your wife is 5’2” the geometry on the bside might fit her better. FWIW the sizes are staggered between the bside and the riff. A xs riff is similar to small bside I think. I know my large bside has similar stand over to a xlarge riff.


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## austinTRON (Mar 31, 2013)

I actually emailed soma about that a while back when they posted pics of the new Riff on their blog. I mentioned my wife is 5’2 and that I noticed their smallest B-Side’s seat tube length was 14.5 inches which converts to about 368mm and their “XS” Riff’s seat tube claims to be 380mm and I asked which one they thought would fit her best. They responded by saying “Looks like she’s out of our fit range sorry.” So that pissed my wife off pretty good and long story short, no more Soma in our future.


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## iowamtb (May 17, 2014)

austinTRON said:


> I actually emailed soma about that a while back when they posted pics of the new Riff on their blog. I mentioned my wife is 5'2 and that I noticed their smallest B-Side's seat tube length was 14.5 inches which converts to about 368mm and their "XS" Riff's seat tube claims to be 380mm and I asked which one they thought would fit her best. They responded by saying "Looks like she's out of our fit range sorry." So that pissed my wife off pretty good and long story short, no more Soma in our future.


I have had excellent customer service with soma but like most companies there can be that one or two persons that aren't as helpful. IDK.


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## austinTRON (Mar 31, 2013)

We may have had a run of bad luck or something. One of the guys I work with at the shop ordered a Sandworm frame + fork and they shipped the fork with a thru-axle that didnt work properly. He sent them 6 emails over 2 weeks and never got a response and had to go through BTI just to get an RA to ship the thing back. Then after how they answered my emails about the Riff I was pretty over it.


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## iowamtb (May 17, 2014)

austinTRON said:


> We may have had a run of bad luck or something. One of the guys I work with at the shop ordered a Sandworm frame + fork and they shipped the fork with a thru-axle that didnt work properly. He sent them 6 emails over 2 weeks and never got a response and had to go through BTI just to get an RA to ship the thing back. Then after how they answered my emails about the Riff I was pretty over it.


Yeah I have not had much luck emailing them myself. I always called them on the phone


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## Muirenn (Jun 17, 2013)

austinTRON said:


> Hello, Ladies I need some advice. My wife just recovered from having a heart ablation and is stoked on getting a mountain bike so we can do a husband & wife team in next years 24hrs in the canyon race. I recently finished building a Spot Rocker 27.5+ and I have been loving it and she wants me to help her build a bike from the frame up.
> 
> So far she is most excited about a Soma Riff. Which won't be available til early june. She is super bummed that we are gunna have to pre-order since BTI won't have them in stock for a while and we'd have to pay full retail.
> 
> ...


I don't know whether you found a frameset, yet, but I love my Karate Monkey, and it is suspension corrected for a 120 mm fork and comes in XS. I just compared geometry to the XS Liv Temp. Looks good. And the seat tube is 20 mm shorter, though that may or may not help, depending. Sounds promising, though. Otherwise, Trek has very good women specific bikes.

The purple SS KM is listed separately, but it does have a derailleur hanger. Their listing is a little misleading. The Surly ECR in the 27+ is a bit more stable, but I didn't check geometry etc. so not sure of the details, but I do know of a Surly shop owner who swears by hers, she and her husband are on sabbatical bike touring off-road. And have been for some time. That bike may be more comfortable for a day long race because it's a touring bike. But the XS Monkey has a high stack. So i'm Really talking about stability and possible fatigue reducing results.

https://surlybikes.com/bikes/karate_monkey/geometry


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