I’ve been road riding for 15 years now and one thing I’ve noticed is the change in women’s road cycling gear that is marketed specifically for women. Not long after I started riding and buying women’s road cycling gear, I noted the efforts of some of the larger manufacturers like Specialized, Trek and Giant in attracting women to buy women’s specific bikes and gear.
I’m sure if you went back 20 years there was almost no women’s specific road riding bikes or gear, and the products that were offered were made in various shades of pink. Thankfully by the time I came along they had moved past that ‘shrink it and pink it’ era and appeared to be going all in with women’s gear.
However, in the past five years, most of the manufacturers that created all these wonderful women’s specific products have abandoned that idea and moved back to ‘unisex’ products. Specialized and Trek have both made a hasty retreat from their women’s specific bikes, saddles, helmets, shoes, and more. Specialized says that their many years of bike fit data has made them realise that there are fewer differences between the sexes and that the real differences are amongst people in general.
Perhaps they are right,…
