Full disclosure: I'm not a woman nor do I wanna start some huge thread about bike industry choices in regards to women's specific bike design.
So I was hard pressed to find a good quality fat bike under 1000, and even then I had the intention of swapping the stock bars out for Jones bars since I really hate traditional flat bars, so that addition would have added on to the price. I found an eBay listing for a size large Specialized Hellga and I received a counteroffer for $825, so the price seemed competitive however since it was marketed as women’s specific I decided to research the bike and compare it to similar bikes in its class and bikes that I have ridden.
What I found is that the Hellga (L) has a similar stack height and a 14mm longer effective top tube than my drop bar Giant Toughroad GX. It also has 175mm cranks which are actually longer than the 172.5mm cranks that I run. I’m not sure how long the stem is but I was lucky enough to find this exact size at my LBS and they were actually cool with me trying out the bike.
As I expected, the reach to the handlebars felt short, however all the signs that I previously mentioned point to this bike being a potential candidate for a drop bar conversion. Luckily I have a spare set of drop bars that would work as well as brakes that are compatible with road brake levers. All that I would need are SRAM 2x10 road levers that work with the SRAM X5 derailleur that the bike comes with, and some handlebar tape.
I think that I may have struck out with this and I am super interested to see how this ends up working out for me.
EDIT: So a few things happened and I think it's safe to say that I will be going forward with this drop-bar fat bike project. From what I saw from the large Hellga at my LBS the stem that comes with the bike is 70mm long, while my Toughroad has an 80mm stem. The bars that I originally put on my Toughroad were the Adventure Gear Hover bar which has a 70mm reach compared to the bars that come with my Toughroad (which I put back on) at 75mm. The shorter stem and shorter reach bars means that the 14mm longer top tube on the Hellga should pair well with drop bars, at least for me.
I also acquired some 2x10 SRAM Rival shifters for ~$110 so now all I would need is proper cabling, bar tape, and disc brake calipers that are compatible with road levers. Now it's time to wait...
Update: So the bike came in on the 14th (Happy Valentine’s Day to me) but it wasn’t until yesterday that I took it out for a test ride. Admittedly I neglected to dial in the bike completely so shifting and brake run was apparent, however I did some post ride maintenance and got that dialed in and I cannot wait to hop back on this bike.
I also got my SRAM Rival 2x10 shifters used for a little over $100 and set them up on my Spec. Hover Flare bars, and the brake calipers for my road bars should be in tomorrow. However I do plan on riding this bike as is to get a better overall feel of the bike.
