Road Bikes

A perfect Road Bike for Short to Medium Sized People

If you are 5’6″ or shorter, Tui bikes are designed specifically for you. The Tui Road bikes are designed to fit smaller riders from 4’8″ to 5’6″ and we even have some larger sizes for riders up to 6 feet tall. Other bike manufacturers focus their bike designs on the most average size people since they account for the majority of the population. Tui bikes are designed for people outside of that average. If you are looking for the best road bike for short riders, you have found it.

Common issues faced by cyclists under 5’5″

• Pedal/toe overlap
• Insufficient standover clearance
• Inappropriate crank length
• Poor handling performance

When other brands attempt to design a road bike for short people, they simply scale a bigger frame down by shortening the top tube, seat tube, and head tube. This is not the answer to making a high-performing, comfortable gravel bike for short riders. While it might allow the saddle and handlebar to be positioned to fit the rider, it introduces pedal toe overlap. These larger bike brands then lengthen the frame and install very short stems to remove toe overlap, which results in ill-fitting bikes that are cumbersome to handle. Riding a bike with a longer top tube combined with a short stem results in very twitchy handling, something you will never experience on a Tui Road Bike.

No Toe Overlap

Tui gravel bikes not only come in smaller sizes than those of big brands, but a Tui bike will also have cranks and wheels that are in better proportion to the rider’s leg length. The XXS, XS, and S Tui road bikes fit up to 650 X 45B or 700 X 30C tires, rather than the 700 X 42C or 700 X 45C max tire size common on most gravel bikes these days, and they come standard with 140-165mm cranks. The combination of the shorter crank and smaller wheel means that the bike’s “front center” dimension—the distance from the center of the crank to the center of the front hub—doesn’t need to be nearly as long to avoid toe overlap with the front tire when turning as it would with standard 170mm cranks and 700C gravel tires. That allows me to design Tui frames with shorter top tubes than the smallest sizes from the big brands, which is a big part of designing the best road bikes for short riders without compromising handling.

Tui Titanium Bikes was born from our goal to make sure that everyone can get a great bike that truly fits their unique body and riding style. At Zinn Cycles, we have been building custom bikes for short people including small women and men for over 40 years. We understand that a custom bike is not something that everyone can afford. Tui Gravel bikes bring the quality of a high end custom bike to a more affordable price. Our gravel bikes are available in sizes from XXS through Large fitting riders from 4'8" and up. We design our Titanium gravel bikes to be proportional to the rider including a proportional crank length, handlebar, frame, and wheels. 

Major bike brands tend to focus their efforts to make bikes for the average sized person, since that demographic is going to offer the largest number of potential customers. That range is from about 5’7″ to 6’2″. The further you are outside of that range, the fewer options there are for you. That is where small companies like us can develop great bikes and components to help fit riders who can’t simply walk into a bike shop and find a perfect fitting bike.

When a small rider gets on a Tui titanium road bike sized to them, they immediately express amazement at how comfortable and natural their body feels pedaling it and how effortlessly and intuitively it handles, giving them a feeling of great confidence when cornering. This is no accident; it is the result of my careful and studied understanding of what the human body in general and a small body in particular requires to be properly supported on a bike for optimal pedaling efficiency, comfort, and control. All of my years of experience help me to truly understand what it takes to build bikes for short people and every other size person out there.