Women's bikes vs Mens bikes

The benefit to a "women's specific" bike:

-narrower and more compact handle bars
-wider saddle
-often smaller frame sizes available

The last item doesn't pertain to you, and the first two can easily be modified on any bike. Part of the fitting process should be determining the correct handle bar for you taking into account your shoulder width and hand size.

Saddle choice is very individual, and very critical to correct positioning on the bike.

scott

Height won't make much of a difference when looking at women's and men's bikes.  MOST of it is the length of your torso.  I have a long torso, so I don't fit on most women's bikes.  Also, I have broad shoulders, and most women's bikes come with more narrow handlebars, so it was a ton easier to buy a men's bike.  These are all generalizations, though!  You need to try everything and see what fits best.

I'm riding a Gary Fisher AR Super road bike, and it's a great entry level bike.  I tried a LOT of bikes, and this one was the best bang for the buck, but Gary Fisher is now Trek, which is obviously always solid.  A lot of it depends on your price range, too.

Hope this helps a little!

I have a WSD bike and a unisex bike (they aren't really mens bikes) and both fit me perfectly.  Both happen to be Trek.  Saddle would for sure be a huge concern, but most people seem to want to switch their seats out anyways.  I happend to luck out on both my bikes though.

I ride a men's bike (well, a non-WSD bike, I guess), and it is a much better fit for me than any women's bike I've tried.  It all depends on your specific proportions.  I have a really long torso, am tall, and have relatively broader shoulders than most women, so it made sense to get a larger frame which happened to be a men's frame.  We customized my bike with handlebars that were just the right size/shape for me, and I spent some time finding the saddle that worked best as well.  

I think often times you can find a better deal on non-WSD bikes, if you're shopping around.  And you can always alter the geometry of any bike to better suit your specific shape. 

Scott, 'yaqui', above makes some good points.

I have bought quite a few bikes over the last few years probably 6. I'm a tad under 5'6"

For same size frame, reach for women's bike is shorter than man's bike. My last road bike is women's specific Orbea that replaced a Specialized Tarmac that was to long for me even after changing the stem. The more you can ride the bike as designed without making signficant changes to bike like big change to stem, I think you are better off.

Go to the Specialized website and look at the difference in geometry between the Ruby and the Roubaix. Here is what I found. They are signficantly different in geometry with top tube length being one of the big differences.

Ruby has 515 top tube length on a size 51
Roubaix has 532 top tube length in a size 52, and 518 in size 49.

The Roubaix has 17 mm longer top tube is similar size and in a 49 is it still 3 mm longer.

For me a Ruby fits what would be an ideal bike for me much better than a Roubaix does. Sure on the Roubaix you could put on a 20 mm shorter stem but then you are riding a bike not as it is designed which is not ideal.

Get a bike fit to see what bike fits your body. If you are typical women with longer legs realtive to your torso wsd probably would be better.

Example: My husband is 5 inches taller than me but I have same length legs so he has longer torso so he needs longer top tube than I do.

Here's a little info on the subject

Cervelo: Bikes for Women

Thanks everyone for all the great info. I knew this was the right place to ask

I'm going to keep looking, do some test rides, get fitted and I should be on my way.
Thanks,
Johanne 

bottom line: ENJOY your new ride!
(you're gonna FLY!!)

Yes, I have a K2 T-Nine Jestream tri bike (women's specific - http://www.thundervalley04.com/cycling/k2-tnine-jetstream-womens-triathlon/) and a Quintana Roo Lucero (men's - http://www.ibikedb.net/bikes/6226-quintana-roo-lucero) and am equally comfortable on both.  I raced on the Jetstream for 3 years before DH bought me the Lucero this spring, at which point he transformed the Jetsream into my commuter bike.

Because the size of the components gets smaller as the size of the bike gets smaller, unless you are very narrow in the shoulders (and most handlebars can be adjusted for this anyway), I think you would be fine with a unisex or "men's" bike.  A bike mechanic we know told me that "woman-specific" just means pink.

That said, the "women's" bikes typically come with a compact crank and a wider seat.  Personally, I don't like a wider seat - the stock seat on my K2 lasted for exactly 1 ride but I think that is typical of most stock seats.  On the cranks, I prefer the standard crank on the Lucero.  A compact crank definitely makes climbing easier, but the standard crank almost never spins out and the deraileur is much more stable than the compact on my K2.

Good luck finding your new bike!

So, that is a lot of blah blah to say that I don't think you need a women's bike, especially if you are just buying the frame.  You can tailor your headset, seat and cranks to your shape so you shouldn't need to pay a pink premium to do so.

I just finished my shopping for a TT bike and discovered that like others have mentioned there is NO difference between WSD and standard.  Color and possibly components/saddle...that's it.  Plus, most TT bike manufacturers make very small versions of the bike, so it was a much more enjoyable shopping experience for me (as a short woman with a long torso).

When shopping for road bikes, a WSD bike will be quite a bit different from the mens version.  The geometry of a WSD bike is considerably different from a stock men's bike and this varies in magnitude from brand to brand.  Your height has nothing to do with it, either.  Torso length, shoulder width, flexiblity, hand size, etc are all factors to consider.  The Ruby and the Roubaix are as close to a womans version and a mens version of the same bike that you are going to find...so if you have a shop that has both in stock in your size to compare, you'll be able to learn a lot very quickly.  Ride them both.  Keep in mind that a good shop will switch out saddles and handlebars with little to no charge to you, too.