You are reading a single comment by @Foreigner65 and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
@Foreigner65
This is a view of one of the retro chaps...enjoy reading it.
Great questions.
First of all, very few cyclists know a darned thing about bike fit. Almost 99% of the road bikes on the road are ridden 99% of the time from the hoods. The cyclists that own the bikes can't actually comfortably reach their drops, even to win a bet. Most cyclists couldn't actually ride five consecutive miles in their drops on a fifty mile ride. Yet, they'll all tell you how to fit a bike. Take everything with a grain of salt.
I'd direct you to read the following:
https://www.peterwhitecycles.com/fitting.htm
https://www.rivbike.com/kb_results.asp?cat=23
Both Peter and Grant would have you end up on a boat anchor steel "art bike" but that's a different conversation. They do know what they are talking about in terms of fit.
The three critical factors to fit:
You can't really compensate for TT length. Changing stem lengths completely transforms the handling of the bike. There really is a sweet spot in terms of TT length. Which is why cyclists in the know won't deviate to buy a bike if the TT is more than +/- 1cm, even if they love the bike.
Standover has nothing to do with bike fit. For all but the most aggressive racers, you want the bars as high as possible. The only way to raise the bars on a classic horizontal top tube bike is to go with a larger frame size, unless you're willing to put a frankenstem on the bike. A larger frame size (if you can reasonably control TT length in the process) resultingly raises the handlebars, relatively speaking. Where your "junk" rests at standover has no bearing on fit. You don't ride a bike by standing at a stop sign. Back in the day guys that were 5'10" were riding on 27" frames (68.5cm) commonly. They liked the fit of the upright bars. They couldn't safely come to a stop, necessarily. However, how often do you really stop and stand on every ride?
Most everyone that you know who is a cyclist, who will be advising you on fit, is riding a bike that is 4-6cm too small for them, but has the right size TT/stem combo for riding on the hoods. Everyone wants small triangle compact geometry bikes nowadays that look racy and like the Pro peloton. However, the average joe can't come near the saddle to handlebar drop that Pro tour riders are fit to. Nor would you want to because that aerodynamic aggressive position isn't comfortable. Middle age wannabes might still have a very aggressive position, but most retired pro riders don't continue to ride with anything nearly that aggressive of a saddle to bar drop. It just isn't comfortable. Racing isn't about comfort. The point here is whatever people recommend as "fitting" you, consider that to be 4-6cm too small, as a rule.
That chart is off by the same amount. I'm 6'7" with about a 100cm cycling inseam. That absurd chart would suggest a 64cm frame. Not even close. A 63cm or 64cm frame is for someone 6'1" to 6'3" depending on the proportionality of their leg to torso length. If tall cyclists really could ride a 63/64 Zinn would be out of business. I ride on vintage Cannondale ST touring frames that are 27" or 68.5cm. A tad bit too long in the TT (most tall people are leggier than they are proportionate) and I have to slam the saddle all the way forward. My knees aren't close to KOPS position, especially with the custom 205mm cranks. In a perfect world I'd ride a 68cm with a tall head tube to get more upright, the bike would have an intelligent seat tube angle, not what works for someone five foot nothin'.