Every single bike brand will tell you that more women on bikes is an important goal. Then many of those same brands will offer smaller bikes with build kits, specifically handlebars, that aren’t appropriate for smaller riders. The practice is even more common in the world of gravel cycling.

The details that set the stage

That’s the gist of the article but before we get rolling, I need to go a little deeper. That first paragraph rests on a number of assumptions and needs some explanation.

The first thing I want to address is how this intersects with women and cycling. I’m obviously not a woman and it’s not my place to say what women need. How this issue affects women is only half the point though.

The truth is I entered this conversation with my own needs centered  because the things that affect us personally tend to catch our attention. I ride a size 54, or medium, and over the years I’ve covered a number of gravel bikes with handlebars that aren’t right for me.

In the past I might have requested the correct size or simply dealt with it. It’s no big deal when a bar costs under $50 and takes maybe 30 minutes to swap including new tape. Now bikes are getting more integrated and things are getting more complicated.

When I reviewed the and the recently, I made a point to call out the sizing issues. As a refresher, Pivot makes things extra confusing by using odd names for the frame sizes. Despite that bike being a small, I tested both of those bikes in essentially the same size and what would typically be called either a medium or a 54. In that size, Pivot uses a 42cm bar while Mondraker specs a size 44cm. There’s also the Revel Rover that uses a 44, the Trek Checkpoint with a 42, the Salsa Warbird with a 42… I’m sure I could go on.

As I wrote up those reviews, I asked the brands about the chosen sizes. The answer was, and is almost always, that it’s an adventure bike and the wide bar is there for stability.

Personally, the whole thing didn’t feel right to me. I know my shoulders measure 38 cm and if I ride wider bars my shoulders ache as the hours start to drag on. It never seemed to make sense that something was supposed to change on an adventure focused bike.

Let’s swing that back to women though. At 5’ 9” I happen to be exactly average height for US men. Average height for US women is only 5’ 3.5” and the situation for bar size vs frame size doesn’t get better as you go to smaller sizes. That means women are going to feel this inappropriate match up more often than men.

Maybe I’m totally wrong though? There’s certain reviewers that spend time calling for larger bars on every bike. I wonder though, are they mostly men riding larger bikes? With all this swirling in my head, I went searching for an expert.

Missy Schwab is an elite cyclist and fit expert

I knew that I didn’t want to sit and discuss what women need with another man. I also knew I wanted someone who was an experienced bike fitter and an elite level cyclist. The woman I found was Missy Schwab.

Schwab is a “6x national champion in track cycling, holds 2 US track records, and won a bronze medal at the 2015 UCI Track World Cup in Cali Colombia.” In 2016 when she wrote her bio she was “ranked #1 in the United States in the sprint disciplines” though she narrowly missed actually competing in the 2016 Olympics due to a training crash.

At this point, most people would call Schwab retired. She runs and she’s got ten years experience as a bike fitter for athletes of all levels. Still,  in case you thought retirement made her slow,she recently grabbed a second place in the 2024 USA Cycling Elite National Championship for Women’s elite team sprint.

I did also reach out to Trek, Mondraker, Pivot, and Enve to get a sense of the strategy involved in picking the stock bars for each size. Specifically I wanted to know if any of the brands in question used the kind of data that Colnago used in sizing the new . Only Enve responded and I’ve got that info down below.

Now I understand that this was a lot of setup but it’s important to place the problem and explain how it affects me as well as other small riders.

Yes, different bikes call for different bar widths

As I said, the basic premise of the response I typically get from brands is that the bars chosen for a size have to do with the use of a bike. When it’s an adventure bike, you will see wider bars for added stability. This was also the gist of how Enve responded.

To be fair to Enve, as the only brand that responded, it’s important to note that the brand sidesteps the issue by allowing riders to choose the bar width at time of purchase. If you are looking at a size 49 Enve MOG, you can select the stem length, handlebar width, and handlebar model “depending on your riding style and preferences.” However, the G-series bar only goes down to 42 cm so I wanted to know why.

Enve responded with a short bit of info pointing to the focus of the G-series bar. Saying, “the Gravel Bar prioritizes handling and control, rather than chasing any aerodynamic benefits.” While pointing riders to other flared options in smaller sizes saying “for those seeking a fit and feel more in line with a road bike, that’s where our SES AR and SES Aero handlebar options come into play.”

Schwab agreed with this premise. Although she competed in track, she also told me she regularly rides a mountain bike and was clear “you’re not going to have the same width handlebar on a track bike that you have on a road bike and that will also come across to gravel.” She explained that she rides a size 54 frame also and runs 36 cm on the road but 30 cm on the track. Just as many brands have stated, different disciplines have different requirements.

The starting point is too wide

According to Schwab the problem is more about the starting point. Even bikes that offer a bar on the smaller side of the trend line are calling for a 42 cm bar on a 54. She’s quite clear that individual athletes will have different needs but is it likely that someone on a 54 needs to move up 4 cm for riding gravel? Schwab seemed skeptical of that idea. Instead she mentioned considering “maybe a 38-40 bar to have a little bit more width” in case there’s a need to “stand up or really pull through.”

Although Schwab was emphatic that different riders will have different needs, I pushed her on that point. For one thing I happen to ride the same frame size as her and seem to have the same shoulder width. More importantly though, a brand has to make a decision for everyone buying a bike in a particular size. I asked Schwab about this and she told me “as a general rule of thumb every gravel position that I have set up as a fitter I 100% can say that I have recommended a narrower handlebar for every athlete who comes in with a gravel bike. They’re too wide.”

The need for wide bars might point to other issues

Although our conversation was about bike fit and handlebar size, Schwab pointed out how interconnected bike fit and ride performance can be. Specifically she mentioned briefly how the need, or desire, to use wider bars might be a sign of other issues.

The first time this came up was as Schwab referenced her own experience with the precise nature of track cycling. Within that context she pointed out “in the Velodrome, when we have athletes that aren’t able to handle a narrow handlebar, there’s an imbalance in the shift of power driven through the leg. So if you need a wider handlebar to keep yourself going forward in a straight direction, that to me resembles some sort of instability.”

Then, later in the conversation, this concept came up again. This time I had asked Schwab why some cyclists might choose wider bars despite recommendations. In response, she told me her own experience as she explained “before I knew any better, I preferred the feel of wide handlebars” and “I thought I looked so cool sprinting because I could throw my bike side to side.” Then, almost as an aside, she told me that at that time “I didn’t understand how to generate power without yanking on my bars.”

How can individual riders solve this problem?

Although my hypothesis is that gravel brands are failing women and small riders, I also asked Schwab how she deals with the fallout of that.

She told me the path to finding the right bar size isn’t generally an exact science. At the highest levels of competition you’d want to treat it as a scientific problem and “you’d have to do testing on an athlete, power testing, speed testing, whatever data point you want to pull from” until you found the right solution. Unfortunately not many will have that path available. Ideally bike brands would do that for us but I wasn’t able to find a brand claiming to do that in the gravel space.

That leaves most riders to find a bike fitter and solve it for themselves. Schwab explained that in her studio, she has “every size of handlebar” and that “we install different size handlebars.” If that sounds simple, it is. She told me “a lot of times it comes down to feel for the athlete but it also comes down to visually how the bar centers under them. The relaxation of the angles of their wrist, the ability of them to open their chest and the distance between their scapulas, also like a lot of athletes come in complaining of upper back pain, neck pain, wrist pain, things like that, pressure on their hands. You can root a lot of it back to handlebar size.”

In other words, it comes down to the experience of a bike fitter and Schwab says “my general rule of thumb when I fit two handlebars is when you’re on the bike looking at an athlete from head on, what is their natural wrist position? Is the wrist straight up and down? Are they rotated out? Is the pressure on their hands distributed evenly? Are their shoulders relaxed? Do I see an equal distribution of the spread between their shoulder blades across their chest?”

That experience then combines with the feedback of the athlete. “How does the athlete feel and how does the athlete look and are they able to actually sustain that position? Obviously on the track we look for something that is just strictly performance-based. Other athletes you want to look for overall comfort and some athletes just have personal preferences.”

Personally I was also interested to see if shoulder width measurement was a factor. When asked about that, Schwab said “it can be” but mostly cautioned that it’s important to consider it on the bike, not standing. She told me that “I have people who are like when I stand up straight and hold my shoulders back, this is how wide my shoulders are.” then went on to remind riders to consider “when you get on the bike how is your position different?”

Conclusion

Although I asked for a number of brands to add a voice, only one did. In the end I spoke to one bike fitter who has one perspective. Missy Scwhab has ten years of experience making athletes faster and more comfortable and she’s also competed at the highest level. She is still only one person. She is also very clear that every person is different and that at least part of bike fit is feel vs science.

That all means you may disagree. Schwab has “never put a pair of 44s on a single bike in 10 years” but you and your bike fitter might find that a 44 cm bar works for you and your needs.

Beyond that, all I can tell is my own point of view. I’m 5’9” and I need a 40 cm, or smaller, bar no matter the use case of a bike. I believe gravel brands are failing women and small riders by not offering bars in reasonable sizes for the frames they pair with. A new rider who gets a bike that doesn’t fit is a clear barrier to entry and should be an easy fix. This is low hanging fruit for inclusion.

Thanks to Missy Schwab who helped make this article happen. You can benefit from her expertise at .

The post Gravel Brands Are Failing Women Riders appeared first on şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Online.

It’s that time of year when cyclists in many parts of the world are putting the summer bikes away. Depending on where you live it’s cold, it’s wet, it’s frozen, or it’s some combination of all three.

If you feel like venturing out into the elements, enjoy. I’ve done it and I can tell you exactly how to make it more tolerable but these days, you might not want to. There are incredible options for staying fit and having fun riding a bike that doesn’t move. I’ve already shared the foundation in our , but there’s more to it.

I’ve seen a number of cyclists get a nice smart trainer then barely use it. Many people will tell you that indoor cycling is awful but I think it’s a matter of finding what works. Indoor cycling can actually be fun with only a few small changes. I’ve spent tens of thousands of miles going nowhere over the years and I regularly sit for 3-8 hours at a time on a trainer during the winter. This is how I do it. These are my tips, tricks, and accessories to make indoor cycling fun.

1. Start with a Goal

Spoiler, there’s going to be things to buy in this article. We aren’t making any money on it but there are accessories that will help. Still, instead of starting there, I want to start with something that’s simple and free. Before you buy anything, first start with a goal and make sure it’s something other than merely existing for a period of time on a bike. That won’t be enough.

The primary indoor riding software options include, , and with each offering different goals. Of those, TrainerRoad and Wahoo Systm are more straightforward. The goal is to improve fitness and when you log in both offer a workout for the day that reflects your recent riding. TrainerRoad describes it as “Get faster with a structured workout. These selections are automatically chosen just for you, based on your recent training history.”

If that sounds like it works for you, perfect. You can adjust the time you want those workouts to last and both software platforms will offer you something with a beginning, a middle, and an end that pushes towards a short time goal of finishing and a long term goal of getting faster.

It’s a very viable way to train and more or less the way cyclists always trained. Both platforms also have small tricks, like the progressions that Trainerroad shows after each workout, to help keep you motivated in the short term.

The only problem is not everyone thrives on structured training and intervals. For some people riding a bike isn’t about trying to be as fast as possible and the inherent suffering of a hard interval doesn’t feel like much fun. I’ve played with lately, which is a free game that disguises intervals, but for most people that’s where options like , , and Zwift come into play.

Of those, Zwift is the most popular so it’s often the one that people have trouble with. New riders get dropped into a Zwift world where they start riding with no particular aim. The clock is ever present and the plan is to try and outlast the time you’ve given yourself for a workout. It’s torture.

Focusing on the clock is the most difficult thing you can do. There’s an element of that in an interval workout but at least then there’s a coming rest block to look forward to.

Instead, make your goal on Zwift about completing something. I’ll talk about things with other people down below but if you are by yourself, pick a route and ride until you finish. If you ride faster you can finish faster, and when you finish you’ll get a badge. This alone makes a huge difference and you won’t run out of options soon. Zwift knows this works so even if you are a long time user, there’s always a new challenge.

You can also ride a route using most bike computers paired with a smart trainer. I’ve done that to prepare for an event and I’ve done it to give myself something to do. There’s something sort of interesting about picking a famous route and completing it even if you don’t have much in the way of visuals. I once duplicated a 120 mile, cutty, local ride indoors basically because someone said I couldn’t. Motivations are fickle but finishing something is powerful.

Speaking of visuals, I should also mention that you can distract yourself with a podcast or video of some kind. It works well enough but I find it hard to find new content on a regular basis. If that works for you, it’s a big component of Systm so Wahoo might be a good platform to dive into.

2. Treat Indoor Rides like Outdoor Rides

This is another one that’s free and it’s something even experienced riders tend to miss. There’s a lot of talk about how you absolutely must have movement in your trainer. I cover that in the buyers guide but I personally don’t need it.

I ride a and one of the things I love about it is how rock solid it feels. Over the years I’ve had it I’ve shied away from telling people this but it’s true. I like it because there’s no movement, not in spite of it. It works for me because I treat indoor rides like outdoor rides and I move.

Indoors it’s possible to stay almost completely motionless, aside from your legs, for as long as you are able. Nothing external will ever happen that causes you to move. Pretty soon that will feel like torture. It’s also unnatural, do you ever ride outside like that?

Given that intervals tend to last for less time, and are difficult enough that standing is more common, this is mostly an issue for simulation software options. Simply stated, if you are riding on something like Zwift you have to take breaks.

Just like outside, when you get to the top of the hill step off your bike. You can decide if it’s cheating to do that while your bike is coasting downhill but step off anyway. Stretch, go to the bathroom, check out the virtual scenery. This is also an excellent time to eat.

Remember, nutrition is an important part of how you need to treat indoor rides like outdoors. It’s also an important part of how you can make indoor cycling fun or quickly turn it into torture. Over and over I’ve seen experienced riders, who know how to fuel outdoor rides, suddenly decide it doesn’t matter inside. I’ve been that person myself. Don’t be that person.

You won’t find yourself hours from home when you bonk but you will still bonk. When it happens on a trainer you’ll simply step off and be done. You will still feel terrible and it’s actually more difficult to overcome ending your ride when you don’t have to get home. Instead of facing that dilemma, make sure you eat and drink on the trainer.

3. Ride with a Group

While you are treating your indoor ride like an outside ride, you might consider riding with people. One of the things that makes Zwift dominate in the indoor ride space is the community.

The obvious aspect of this is racing. Zwift racing is incredible and one of my favorite things to do. When there’s longer races I always take advantage and even an hour flys by if you are racing against real people. I once did a team TT race with an ear piece and it was the most pro I’ve ever felt. There’s a lot more to community than racing though.

Discord, Reddit, and Facebook all have active communities of people from all over the world that ride together indoors. You can also just find rides through the Zwift companion app that aren’t races. There’s many I join and we chat via text while riding. It’s great but there’s another aspect too. What’s especially great about indoor riding in this respect is that it’s not like riding outdoors.

If you want to ride with people, you don’t need to be in the same place in the world or doing the same thing. I ride with a local group but they are just a bit too far for connecting in person. I’ve never met them in real life even though we ride together often.

I also don’t always do the same thing as them. Sometimes they ride in Zwift while I do intervals on TrainerRoad. It doesn’t matter as long as you meet up and get online at the same time. We use Discord to talk.

Protect Your Bike

This is a tangent but it’s important to say. Your sweat will destroy whatever bike you have on a trainer. It’s one of the reasons an old bike, or an indoor bike, are good ideas but even then you need to think about it.

The first thing you will want is a simple frame sweat protector. These stretch between your seat post and your handle bars. I happen to use the but if you are shopping something that goes a bit higher, over the steerer tube bolt, might be worth searching out.

These aren’t enough on their own though. You also want to spray something on the frame. I’ve heard WD40 works but that costs about the same. Might as well go with the dedicated option and spray it over the headtube and downtube in all the little crevices. If you are using a bike with the front wheel on I also like to put a towel over the front wheel making sure to cover the brake if it’s a rim brake bike. Don’t forget to remove this towel after every ride.

4. You Need Fans. Lots of Fans.

At this point we’ve arrived at the part of the article where I really start telling you things to buy. I won’t deny that but I’ve got options and this is what I actually use.

For fans, I use two. The primary fan is a smart fan called the . This is hardly brand new, we talked about the back in 2022, and most people at this point know it costs $350 and competes with the .

I’ve used both the Wahoo and now the Elite but the Elite works better for me because of the packaging. The area where I ride indoors is ridiculously tight so there’s not much room between the front of the bike and the wall. The Elite Aria is a more compact form factor and it rotates up. That lets me shove it right up against the wall, on top of a highly decorative paint can, and still get the air at my face. The filter seems kind of nice too since it reduces dust.

That still leaves the question of a super expensive smart fan. On that front, it works for me because my trainer space is cold in the winter. The Elite Aria connects to a Core temperature sensor, power meter, or heart rate monitor (plus a few other things) and that lets me adjust when it blows.

At this point I’ve settled on HR for controlling the fan. I get on and at low HR it doesn’t do much. When I start working hard it ramps up. As temperatures have gone down, I’ve adjusted the range so it starts later and ramps up slower.

Still, as powerful as this fan is, I’ve found it isn’t enough. I think it would work on its own if I had the room to get it centered in front of me but I don’t. It’s on the paint can off to the side instead leaving my right hand to sweat far too much.

To solve this I have a on the opposite side. It’s not the cheapest out there, but it’s powerful enough on its own (if you don’t want/need a smart fan) and I’ve had it for 6 or 7 years with no issues. At some point a few years ago I further upgraded it.

The upgrade I added was a smart plug. I then called that smart plug “The Pain” so that when I’m racing, or doing a hard interval, I can say “Hey Google, turn on The Pain.” Now we both get to enjoy my clever joke… or not but it does work well.

Whatever you end up doing for airflow, just know it’s important. Even in a cold room when there’s no airflow, it’s miserable. You need powerful fans and probably more than one.

5. Get a Pair of Good Headphones

You might be doing the math on this and realizing I recommended talking to people while also recommending a bunch of fans pointed at your face. This isn’t a good combination for being heard and a solution has taken a lot of testing.

şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř I always recommend bone conduction headphones. It’s not the point of this article but I’ve been testing the (12 hour battery and a standard USBC charge port), I wrote about the in my , and I often ride with the . All are good options outside for listening to music and staying safe. Unfortunately none of them keep you intelligible when trying to ride and talk indoors or outdoors.

I’ve also tested the which is an interesting option with the inclusion of temp and HR tracking. They also sound good and are quite usable in a wide variety of situations (unlike bone conduction). I couldn’t use the tempo sensor to connect to the Aria though and they aren’t amazing at being heard over a fan either.

Out of all the headphones I’ve tested, and there’s way more not worth mentioning, I landed on three that do the job. I used to always recommend the as they were the first pair of headphones that really worked with fans pointed at my head. People could hear me clearly and it was a revelation. Unfortunately, despite shining in a lot of situations, they do get a little slippery from sweat when riding indoors.

Which leaves me with my current recommendations. If you are an Apple user then the is my suggestion and if you are an Android user then the . Neither will work while you ride outside at full speed, or with the Aria at full blast, but indoors you can have fans pointed at your face and remain understandable.

I know it seems cliche to recommend these two but they are the best I’ve tested for this use.

6. Computers or Tablets Are Mandatory

This is another weird category where I’ve done a ton of testing to find something that works. Whatever software you decide to use, you’ve got to see it while riding and there are some considerations. Depending on your software there are also some differences.

Bottom line, interval software doesn’t take much. You need something to look at and most things will work. For that use, I’ve settled on a .

I’m not here to tell you this is the best tablet on the market but it solves a particular set of needs and I think that might be true even for Apple users. The reason it works so well for indoor riding is that it’s a multifunction product. I mentioned earlier I yell at my smart fan to turn it on and now I do that with the Pixel tablet instead of a tablet and a Google Home.

The Pixel tablet also has an excellent speaker, when paired with the stand, that always stays connected and keeps the tablet charged. If you want to listen to music without headphones you can yell at it to start something and you can hear it over the fans. The angle is perfect for visibility and sweat hitting the front (it happens) won’t bother it. You can also split screen it for YouTube/Netflix next to your intervals. What it does not do well is handle Zwift.

Running Zwift on the Pixel tablet is possible but not ideal. The graphics leave a lot to be desired. I actually still use it for Zwift but it’s off to the side playing music or videos.

For Zwift I recommend a computer with a dedicated graphics card. I use a relatively inexpensive Asus ROG (gaming) laptop with a 17-inch screen but there’s a lot of ways you could go about solving that equation. If I had a bunch of space I’d probably try to connect something to a small-ish TV. Whatever you decide on though, you need decent graphics hardware.

Zwift is actually quite beautiful and it loses a lot when the graphics are at the lower settings. The other bonus of running Zwift on a computer is that you’ll get new features first.

7. So Is Furniture

For a few of these categories I’ve gone the expensive route. This time I’m going cheap and DIY. Wahoo, Saris, and Elite all have trainer desks that are well made and thoughtfully designed. They also aren’t quite right for me and might not be for you either.

The problem with all of those options is that they sit over the front wheel and are too high. I like to keep my trainer matched to my outside bike position so I don’t get soft over the winter (only half kidding). That means I like something nice and low to look at.

I used to have a computer on a desk and it was perfect. The front wheel touched the desk and the viewing angle was great for an aggressive bike fit. These days I don’t have that much room so I built a shelf on the wall. It’s far from pretty but it dodges the pipes coming out of the wall and it’s as low as workable in the space I have. Doesn’t hurt that it was basically free.

Whatever you end up doing, my suggestion is consider your bike fit. If you are on a mountain bike with an upright fit, one of the fancy desks might be great. For road cyclists you might consider a little below eye level.

What about the Elite Rizer, Wahoo Climb, or the Zwift Play? 

I love all of these. The is better than the but it’s also more expensive. Both options do help with more natural movement, if that’s something you still want, and it feels very immersive to go up and down as you ride. I’m not using either currently only because the Garmin bike doesn’t allow it.

In terms of the controllers, I do use them. I have the system strapped to the handlebars on the Garmin bike and I use it to interact with Zwift. It adds a lot to the experience of racing and it’s useful for interacting with the HUD too.

All of these products are tough in this article. They do fit the “make indoor cycling fun” brief but they don’t make it easier to ride longer inside. That leaves it up to you. All three of these will make your experience in Zwift more immersive and more fun. I don’t find that they make it easier for me to ride five hours but they might for you.

It’s okay to make the choice to ride inside

There’s a big part of the cycling world that loves to shame people for riding inside. There’s no bad weather, just bad clothes. Or something along those lines mixed with how terrible indoor riding is.

I’m telling you, forget this. Indoor riding is a blast and there’s no badge of honor for riding outside. Seven to nine hours in rain just above freezing is doable. I’ve done it and I can tell you how. It won’t be cheap and it’s more survivable than enjoyable.

If type 2 fun is your jam, have a blast. That’s a very valid way to spend time on a bike but it’s not the only way.

For anyone else, there’s nothing wrong with choosing to ride indoors when the weather is bad. Have you seen the prices of cycling jackets? Even if you buy a fancy indoor setup it might be cheaper. I’ve also had frostbite and mild hypothermia. Maybe avoid that with an inside ride?

There’s also nothing wrong with choosing to ride indoors when you want to. Even when the weather is nice your workout can be so highly focused that many choose to do intervals inside throughout the year. Parents can stay fit without leaving kids alone no matter the weather. There’s no cars in Zwift, the sun never goes down, etc. This list continues and no one should feel bad about riding a bike. Riding outside is fun and it’s possible to make indoor cycling fun as well. Enjoy.

The post 7 Tips to Make Indoor Cycling Actually Fun appeared first on şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Online.