While all the bikes OP listed are great vehicles, none of them fit the brief. If the brief is “Lighter, more roadish, with drop bars…” for someone 5’ in height, I would look for used Georgina Terry bikes. Terry is an accomplished and innovative bicycle designer and frame builder. She builds custom bicycles now and has offered many production models in the past. Many of her designs utilize two different wheel sizes (24” front, 700c rear) to allow for the top tube length and stand over height to match the needs of short stature riders.
She also offered bicycles with 650c (571) and later, 26” (559) wheels. Her 26” (559) bikes tend to be designed around Rene Herse Elk Pass 26x1.25 tires. The flea bay has beautiful blue Waterford built Terry Gale Force road frame for 559 wheels. I messages OP directly with this suggestion. Another used bicycle option is searching for 650c bikes. We know from list member Patrick M. that 571x23 and 559x32 work on the same frames. Elk Pass tires tend to run a little narrow at 29-30mm so width is usually not an issue either. A discerning eye can separate the old time trial bikes from the small wheel road bicycles. Also on the flea bay is a nice steel Davidson, though the top tube might be too long for this use. There are many current options using this 650c route on the bay, including a super inexpensive Terry size 50x50cm square. Which is too large for OP’s spouse but would be a nice bike for someone in the 5’2” range. JL from SF -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/3D88B289-2725-4898-B271-FAA076EF5ED5%40gmail.com.
