Some bent cylinders are better than others.
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I wouldn’t worry about dents in steel because of it’s malleability compared to aluminum. If they have hard creases I would watch them but if they are soft dents then 
Fill with golden Bondo. The Japenese call this ‘Kabo-Wabo’
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$580 - $650
buy the frame and use it enough to put two more dents in it
this is one of a few things Grant is right about, dgaf and be proud of the lil’ bike that could
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Let’s see:
https://www.canyon.com/en-au/road/ultimate/2018/ultimate-cf-slx-disc-9-0-team-csr-wmn.html
Hmm
Any developments in the past two years on bikes for short folks?
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Or has everyone else just gotten taller?
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The bike industry seems to think people have gotten taller. It looks like Jamis and Norco trimmed the smallest sizes from some of the Renegade and Search XR variants, respectively. It’s probably an effort to minimize risk and maximize production to churn out lots of frames that will definitely sell in the pandemic bike boom.
I don’t think anything recent has jumped out at me in terms of brand new models with good tiny versions.
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Surly still makes truly tiny bikes. Crust also has done a good job designing bikes for small people instead of designing big bikes they compromised on to fit small people.
Nothing else has really jumped out at me
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The VO Polyvalent and Pass Hunter are also legit tiny (reach <365mm seems like a reasonable threshold for <5’3" riders).
So there are a variety of non-planing steel options for tiny riders. For spririted riding, Canyon’s Endurace and Ultimate in XXXS 650b remain the best bet.
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Time to dust off the tiny bike thread for a combined bike comparison/build writeup/ride report/new bike review.
A couple years ago, my wife got a Jamis Renegade bike for gravel/rain riding. It’s a pretty cool bike, the geometry in tiny sizes is pretty good and designed around 36ish-584 tires and it’s very versatile with plenty of fender/rack/cage mounts. But it was heavy and fell into the gravel bike trap of not being fun either on or off road (one might even say it was a horrible compromise). She strugged to keep up with me when riding it. I noticed the stock wheelset was really heavy (like 2kg), so built up a silly-light dynamo wheelset, complete with TAF rainbow spoke nipples and @Orc’s favorite tires. Better, but still no kind words for the bike.
This spring after more griping and after I, yet again, got coated with road grime riding behind her on a wet ride when she insisted on her road bike rather than the Jamis, we decided it was time to figure out something better. We were contemplating custom builders when I took a closer look at the Norco Search XR Carbon geometry and specs. For some reason the first time I’d seen the bike, I’d worried that it wouldn’t fit, but a comparison to her road bike on bikeinsights showed it was nearly identical, modulo stem length. @EndpointBraden’s reviews of the Norco were also encouraging.
With bike supplies being what they are in 2021, it took some effort to wrangle a frame. Norco stopped making the tiny sizes in 2021 and most places showed the 2020 45.5 cm out-of-stock. One shop on Vancouver Island showed it in-stock, but when we called they said they didn’t have it and it might be a glitch in their dealer inventory but to try Norco. My wife emailed Norco, and they said there was one frame remaining. With item number in hand, we called our local Norco dealer (JRA), but they didn’t see it in the manufacturer inventory. JRA called their rep, who tracked it down, then JRA got it heading our way with BB installed (PF86 that I don’t have the tools for). Apparently it was one of three frames remaining in the Norco warehouse. I guess this review may not help anyone, since no more of these exist.
I moved the parts over from the Jamis. In the process, I weighted the framesets (with BB and headset installed on each, so subtract 150 g or so?):
- Jamis: 3057 g (fork: 585 g, including TA)
- Norco: 1683 g (fork: 380 g, I think?)
Chainstays are 14mm shorter on the Norco. Front-end geometry is similar on the Jamis and Norco. Once the Jamis was stripped down, my sense from the balance of the frame is that the chainstays and seatstays are really overbuilt.
Building up the Norco went remarkably smoothly. The rear brake and shifter internal routing was frustrating, but I think I figured out tricks that will make it less painful if I have to redo it in the future. I’ve finally got the hang of filling/bleeding hydraulic disc brakes, or at least got lucky. We concluded that the biggest risk cutting the fork was getting the length wrong and that I was better off measuring and cutting than measuring and handing it off to a shop. I left it on the long side, just in case, but managed to cut it where I intended to.
Predecessor for comparison:
We went for a ride today with a couple dirt stretches and the verdict was “Whee!” There was a bit of fussing with seat position and FD adjustment, but otherwise my wife is really happy with it. It’s only 1.6 lbs heavier than her Canyon Endurace, feels like a road bike on the road, and rides really well on rough stuff.
The primary complaint is that the green-brown fade paint is rather understated by my wife’s standards. The wheelset helps make up for that.
I haven’t installed fenders yet. It looks like there’s plenty of clearance and the mounting points are reasonable except for the silly add-on seat stay bridge.
I rigged up a light mount, but will probably replace it with a BarFly with GoPro mount with some sort of extension that the light bolts to. I’m looking at the Lupine GoPro adapter, but open to suggestions.
And I just realized I could probably snake rear light wiring through the frame holes intended for a dropper post, so there’s more dithering to do!
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Awesome! I have not done it, but you can remove the aluminum heat sink from the Cyo and drill/tap it for a hanging mount style.
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Ooh. I actually have a Cyo with a busted mount. I should try modifying it into a hanging mount. Excellent dither suggestion!
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HY for her
If you’re looking for something to clean up the dyno wire routing, Shimano Di2 wire cover tape works really well for that.
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small cheap possibly horrible bike:
local pickup only
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Buddy just sent me this
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Good discussion of tiny bike fit, featuring Emma Pooley.
