I just built up a Giant Cypher, woman specific 5" travel bike, and it looks good:
This particular one is an Extra Small, Giant suggests that is fits gals from 5'2" to 5'4".
This is the same basic frame as the Trance X, and on both models Giant has made some very nice upgrades for 2011, such as: Post mount rear brake
And press fit BB96 Bottom bracket
And tapered 1.5 to 1.125 headset and steerer tube:
Giant didn't seem to hype up the changes they made to the Trance/Cypher much for 2011, but they are nice changes and the bikes look great.
We also have this model in size small showing up in the next couple of days.
Yesterday Danny and I (Lucero) participated in the Day of The Tread century, on our new tandem. I was on the back. The bike is a bit small for a 6 foot tall stoker, so I had a face full of Danny's bony back for the entire 100 miles... at least we have a good looking jersey.
We approached the ride with some trepidation, having both raced ourselves into the ground on Saturday's cross races, and also due to the fact that we had logged about 30 minutes on the bike so far. But everything went better than we could have hoped for, the weather was great, we had a big tailwind on the long climb up to Placitas, and the bike worked flawlessly.
The bike we rode is a San Rensho tandem, a beautiful and rare bicycle that received many complements along the ride. It was the first time I had spend more than a couple of minutes on the back of a tandem, and although the experience was intense at times, I'm happy to have done it, and I'm sure we'll be out terrorizing another century sooner than later.
The ride took us four and a half hours. We rode the whole time with our friends John and Brad, who were also on a tandem, and looking suave with matching Bikeworks jerseys (thanks guys).
Beyond that, we've just been knee deep in Cross season. Getting out to as many of the New Mexico Cross series races as we can. The races have been an absolute blast, well organized, fun courses, great atmosphere, what more can you ask for (except maybe free beer at the finish, but that probably won't happen until Bikeworks organizes a cross race). I encourage everybody to come and check it out.
I leave you with this, which was obviously written about our dear Swinton:
