From Trail-Ripping Gravel Rides to Reliable Work Commuters, These Are the Best Bicycles For Women

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Let’s be clear on one thing. If you’re a woman shopping for a bike, your choices aren’t limited to only women’s models. (Even some women’s bikes are a better fit for men!) The point is: If you love a bike, you love a bike. Simple. If it fits, it’s comfortable, and it makes you happy, you’ll ride it more often than one that doesn’t.

While some women benefit from the geometry and tuning characteristics of women’s bikes, others might not. Our list includes women-specific bikes and unisex models we love, tested, and highly recommend. Find the perfect ride to make you feel like a champion woman.

Gear up for your next ride. Check out our picks for the best women's shorts, bike saddles, and spin shoes.

Best Women’s Bikes

What to Consider

Then and Now

Few bike categories have seen bigger shifts in the past dozen years than women’s bikes. When first introduced, the “shrink it and pink it” mentality reigned supreme, and “women’s bikes” often simply meant smaller frames with stereotypical paint jobs and a lower level of components than their unisex counterparts. Then women-specific geometry took over. Bike companies started cranking out frames with shorter top tubes to better accommodate the average female body’s tendency toward longer legs and shorter torsos.

While some companies like Liv have stuck to that philosophy, others like Trek, Specialized, and Santa Cruz instead favor using the same frame for their men’s and women’s bikes and adjusting some parts—primarily touch points like the bar, grips, and saddle—for the intended gender. Most women’s mountain bikes also come with a fork and shock tuned for lighter riders. And city bikes are often offered as step-over and step-through models, with the latter aimed at women.

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Know Your Fit

For city and mountain bikes, which generally run from XS or S to M or L, it’s easy to estimate the size needed based on your height. Road bike size can get a bit trickier. If you don’t know your bike size, getting measured at a bike shop—or even getting a professional fitter to assess you—can make an enormous difference in helping you choose a road bike that’s comfortable for you. Just remember, you can get a good fit on a women’s frame or a unisex one; it just depends on your body and riding preferences.

Frames

With so many different options these days, it’s a great time to be a woman on a bike. In addition to choosing from bike style and fit, you also have frame material: carbon, aluminum, and steel. All are strong options, though carbon is generally the lightest and most expensive, and steel is generally the heaviest and most durable.

Brakes

You also want to choose between rim brakes and disc brakes, which cost a little more but offer better stopping power. Discs are pretty standard on mountain bikes and are becoming more common on road bikes that cost more than $1,000. Rim brakes are still popular on city bikes, but discs are gaining popularity there as well, because they offer more control and consistent stopping power in wet conditions.

How We Tested

Every bike on this list has been ridden and loved by women on our staff. We research the market, survey user reviews, speak with product managers and engineers, and use our own experience riding these bikes to determine the best options. Our team of experienced test editors spent many hours and miles using these bikes for their intended purpose—from road races and trail rides to gravel adventures, commutes, and beach cruises. Then we evaluated them on performance, price, comfort, handling, value, fun, and—yes—looks (because the mere sight of your bike should get you excited, too).

While other brands on this list have shifted to gender-neutral geometry, Liv is one of the only ones still manufacturing women’s-specific sizing. Instead of strapping a cushier saddle and a pink colorway to deem a bike feminine, Liv produces in-house stems, handlebars, saddles, and seat posts to accommodate the female body better.

The Avail AR 3 is a gravel bike that can handle dirt and trails, and smooth pavement. It’s got sturdy aluminum Giant S-R2 Disc wheels, a D-shaped seatpost that dampens bumps, a carbon fork for extra absorption, a Shimano Sora drivetrain, and internal cables that make it stylish and sleek. Although its Tektro disc brakes feel a bit gummy, this ride does well on bumpy roads, steep climbs, and uneven terrain. This is an excellent option for commuters doing light off-roading, and anyone looking for a bike packing workhorse.

Read our review

This class-3 e-bike will spin you up to 28mph through pedal assist or you can use the throttle and hit a max speed of 20 miles per hour. Those speeds sound fast for newer riders, but the bike has strong brakes and a balanced ride. The battery is housed cleanly in the downtube and provides 672 watt hours of power. The controls are easy to use, the dip in the frame’s top tuber makes getting on and off a snap, and the price is hard to beat for everything this e-bike fantastic city and commuting bike delivers.

It’s hard to beat a cruiser’s simple, functional, stylish appeal. Made for boardwalks or rolling around town like it’s is a beach day in July, this one is full of summertime vibes.

The Electra Cruiser has high wide bars for a relaxed riding position, and Electra’s Flat Foot technology, which places the seat further behind the pedals, so you can ride with it lower, making it easy to keep you feet on the ground when you stop. A single-coaster brake helps control your speed and a single gear means no fussing with shifts or keeping your derailleurs in tune—but also means that this one is best enjoyed on flat roads and sandy boardwalks.

The $1,000 price level is where e-bikes can get sketchy: Lithium-ion battery technology is still pricey, so corners must be cut elsewhere to keep costs down. At $1,199, the Aventon Pace 350.2 is one such bike, but our test revealed it’s not too cheap to be quality. The Class 2 e-bike tops out at 20 mph, whether you get there by pedal assist or a throttle. There’s a 7-speed Shimano Tourney drivetrain and five levels of e-assist, giving you various pedaling options. You don’t get lights or fenders, but the Pace 350.2 feels viable for daily commuting.

Read our review

Co-op Cycle’s ADV line of adventure bikes has impressed us for years, whether we’ve tested their lower-cost paved-path models or ones equipped for more ambitious rides like this one. The 2.2 is made for gravel and dirt roads but handles itself well on paved paths and city streets, too. You get Shimano’s excellent 1x10 GRX drivetrain, 40mm tires, a dropper seatpost, and a carbon fork to keep weight low and take some buzz out of bad roads. Plus, there are plenty of mounts for racks, bags, and other adventure gear should your trips extend into the next zip code.

Rad Power Bikes has become one of the most popular e-bike brands based on its great pricing, reliable customer service, and, more recently, having products to buy. One of the brand’s latest offerings, the RadCity 5 Plus, comes in a traditional frame or this step-through model. Both are excellent options for spinning around the city, running errands, cruising on bike paths, or getting from point A to point B as blissfully as possible.

This model comes with a hub-mounted 750-watt motor, which saves cost over mid-drive options, hydraulic brakes, puncture-resistant tires, and a rear rack with a 59.5-pound capacity—enough for hauling groceries or a kid.

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In the world of e-commuter bikes, the Adventure Neo 4 hits a happy medium between a traditional townie and a larger, more cumbersome cargo model. With an excellent Bosch motor that assists you up to 20 miles per hour and wide, cushy tires, the Adventure is ideal for cruising along bumpy streets and bike paths. The alloy frame keeps weight modest, and the step-through frame makes it easy for anyone to hop on and start spinning. There are Shimano hydraulic disc brakes to slow you safely, and the 60-plus-mile range means you can ride for hours before recharging.

Cervélo, the sponsor of one of the most dominant women's teams in professional cycling, Jumbo-Visma, makes one of the best road bikes available. The R5 Force eTap AXS is a carbon-framed beast with carbon wheels to match. It's built with highly component components that make it light for climbs and stable on descents. Its Full SRAM Force eTap AXS 12-speed drivetrain gives it power, and according to our tester Tara Seplavy, the longer you ride it, the more comfortable it feels.

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Our tester liked this aluminum version of the RLT bike even more than the acclaimed steel model. The RLT 9 is burly enough (and has the gearing) to put up with whatever challenge you could sling into its path. The bike is stiff, agile, and responsive no matter how much weight you pack. With what Niner calls “fire road geometry”—longer chainstays, a lowered bottom bracket, and a slacker head-tube angle—the RLT 9 was comfortable enough to ride on gravel all day. Rack and fork mounts make multiple touring and commuting configurations possible, and the tire clearance of up to 42mm allows you to take it as far off the grid as you want. A carbon fork, disc brakes, and dual thru axles complete the package.

This hardtail 29er has a semi-slack setup and a 130mm RockShox Recon RL fork, making it a capable and maneuverable little ride. Adding to its ability to take on rowdier trails is the smooth-operating TranzX dropper post and the well-knobbed 2.6-inch tires. The grippy, wide tires are not quite plus-size (the frame accommodates 27.5+ tires and wheels, too), but they deliver handfuls of traction on rock, snow, and slick clay. On climbs, the combination of the steep seat angle and longer reach help keep the rear wheel driving you forward and the front wheel tracking where you want it to go.

For the price, this bike has a huge range of capabilities and features, including hydraulic disc brakes, a 12-speed SRAM SX Eagle 1x drivetrain, and a 750mm-wide handlebar (780mm on sizes medium and up), which slows steering for a more stable ride. Whether you’re new to mountain biking or a vet, the fun-loving Fuse can turn every ride into a party.

We love the versatility of this lightweight bike from Cannondale. It’s got a little suspension, excellent brakes, cushy tires with lots of traction in sketchy conditions, and great parts from Shimano. The 1x12 drivetrain eliminates the finicky front derailleur and gives you 12 gears to shift through—enough to keep up on fast bike path sprints or to spin up the town’s tallest hill. It’s made for fun, but with all the features you need to be a practical city or town bike capable of paved and dirt adventures.

What started as a dedicated ’cross race bike has turned into a ’cross, gravel, and bikepacking beast that is one of the liveliest and most versatile “gravel bikes” we’ve ridden. On the spectrum between ’cross and gravel geometry (the former prizes agility and the latter tends to prize stability), the Quincy remains ’cross-biased—Santa Cruz wanted this to be a bike you could race in between your gravel adventures. It rides like a road bike on pavement and a gravel bike on dirt, and when it hits mellow singletrack, it transforms into a mini mountain bike.

With its endless grip on long, fast, swooping fire-road descents and over gravel sections, the Quincy will encourage you to dive into turns faster, brake less, and test the traction of the 2.0-inch tires in corners. But its light weight and shorter wheelbase keep it agile enough to dodge or hop over obstacles and washouts.

Juliana sells two versions of the bike—this one and another with SRAM’s Force AXS electronic group and 650b wheels. Both use frames with the company’s premium CC carbon and accept 650b or 700c wheels.

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