Short female looking for bike recommendations

If you have a long torso, a WSD bike may not be what you need. I have the opposite problem, reg legs and a short torso and the WSD bikes fit me good.

If you can spend around the $ for this bike, you are going to find lots of options out there. If your legs are short, though, you are going to be looking at a 46-48 cm bike. A kids bike may even be necessary. I am just under 5'4" (5 3.875" HA!) and ride a 48 cm road bike.

This is a good time of the year to get a bike- lots of bike shops are clearing out the 2008 models. You need to call around and see what the smallest bike they have in stock is- if it's less than 50 cm, you probably need to go and try it out. The one that will be right will be the one that fits you. Trek, Specialized, Felt, Giant all make great bikes and offer one in the price point you linked to.

Oh, and at that price point, you are going to want at min Shimano 105 groupset. I got a Felt that was 1499 and got a 105/Ultegra mix. Shimano Sora and Tiagra are usually on bikes that are around $700.

I'm your height and similarly built with a long torso. I used to work at a bike shop, so I've ridden a lot of bikes... Depending on how long your torso is, you may find bikes that fit perfectly but you might not have standover clearance. Don't discount a bike that you do not have standover clearance for if you can manage to tip toe over it and not take your private parts out.

If you can, find out your optimal top tube length when you're test riding bikes, rather than the bike size. This will help tremendously when you're comparing bikes. Mine is 50.5cm, and I ride a 44cm bike that I can barely stand over... though I've also ridden 48cm bikes with the same TT length. It doesn't matter if it's women's specific or not, though having narrower handlebars does help if you've got narrow shoulders, and the short-reach brake levers help if you have small hands.

well... you're taller than me!  I am 5'0" on a good day, and I also have a proportionally long torso and shorter legs.  Actually, I have a feeling I might be 4'11" but I am not entirely ready to admit this yet.  You actually have a lot of options, especially if you want a road bike.  My road bike is a Specialized Dolce 44cm frame, and my tri bike is a Quintana Roo Tequilo 46cm with 650c wheels.

For road bikes, I could have also fit on a Trek WSD 47cm or a Giant XXS frame.  There was a Cannondale that would have fit, but it was out of my price range. 

When I was trying tri bikes, my options were pretty much the Quintana Roo, a Kestrel Airfoil that was too expensive, and then Guru could also make bikes in my size.  I spoke with an Aegis rep at a race, and he was very helpful, but their short chick tri bike was a little odd... something like a cross between a road and tri bike.  One thing I really wanted was a tri bike with 650c wheels (if you can find the "tri bikes for short folks" articles on slowtwitch.com, that was the basis for my reasoning), so I limited myself a little more by going this route.

Also, about the WSD thing... I physically cannot reach regular brake levers. I had to get them swapped out on my tri bike. Personally, I would go for a WSD bike over anything else, because not needing to swap the handlebars and brakes/shifters will save you money.

 Audiojan, the Orbea Dama Race is my dream bike.  WANT IT!  WANT IT NOW!