Bike setup for a female XCO racing snake

[RoadMountie]

I have a junior female racer in the house (XCO & XCM) who keeps me on my toes—and I take some delight in slowly bankrupting her sponsor!

We're currently exploring a few setup tweaks: possibly shortening her flat handlebars (from 730 mm to around 690 mm) and swapping out her standard 175 mm cranks for a 165 mm set.

Would anyone be able to share any guidelines or insights, particularly regarding handlebar width recommendations for female riders? And while I’ve seen some discussion around shorter crank lengths on MTB forums, I suspect the benefits could be even more pronounced for smaller-framed riders—she’s 155 cm tall.

Any thoughts or shared experience would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

[Daniel Christensen]

Measure biacromial width (distance between the outer edges of the shoulders) and add 20–40 mm on either side to estimate bar width.

For her length a bar width of 660mm -690mm would be optimal. 

Especially with small female riders they have more control over their bikes with shorter cranks. 

[tygerbergmtb]

Shorter cranks have been a game changer for me (170mm) and no amount of persistence can help me adapt to 175's. Not much about control but more about better mechanics with shorter legs and less power than men. Small bikes generally come with 170 but mediums come with 175 and it doesn't make sense that a <1.7m rider should have the same length cranks as a >1.8m

That said, not everybody is biomechanically the same so I'd suggest trying out.

Samara Maxwell, 1.68m 165mm

Jenny Rissveds 1.64m 170mm

Kate Courtney 1.62m 170mm

Puk Pieterse 1.69m 175mm

Alessandra Keller 1.75m 170mm