Mercian frame sizes

i've been looking at a nice mercian, but the seat is 59cm (23 1/2") and top is 56.5 cm (22 1/2"). my bianchi pista is a 55cm by 54cm and my in seam is around 34-35" and i'm 6ft O". the thing is the frame looks smaller than a 59, are mercian frames a little tighter??

Binachi measures their bikes slightly differently to everyone else.... this means that they come up a little small. so u are probably riding a 54.5cm now. I'd say that the Mercian is way too big. Your height has no bearing on the size of frame you ride. I know very tall people who ride 54cm frames and also people who are tall and ride 62cm frames. If u are comfortable with the Pista now, then stick at that size.

^what does have bearing on the size then? i am around 6'1" with 32 inside leg. currently riding 59 steamroller which i thought was perfect but tried a few mates smaller bikes and now think its too big

leg and upper-body length in relation to each other.... leg length in relation to the seat-tube measurement, upper-body measurement in relation to top-tube length.

Hippy knows about this sort of stuff.

Who? Me? Nah.. I keep buying the wrong size frames.. don't ask me for advice! :)
Sheldon goes into loads more detail: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/frame-sizing.html

Depending on the frame design, intended use and your body you can vary sizing quite a bit. e.g. compare a road bike with the same persons tt bike or tourer.
I'm really can't string sentences together now so I'm gonna leave it a while.. ride what feels right after "trying" lots of different options ("trying" isn't "looking at").

I've not used this, so I don't know how it compares to my own trial'n'error fitting but you might wanna give it a crack for a rough idea.. or at least a starting point for frame sizing.

http://www.competitivecyclist.com/za/CCY?PAGE=FIT_CALCULATOR_INTRO

yeah, but it's hard when it's online for a decent price ;)

Barry W assesses frame size on a track frame (ie with a higher BB) as yer inside leg measurement less ten inches.

Top tube then varies with reach.

Geometry then adjusted to suit.

If it helps, I'm 5'11" with a 30 1/2" inside leg.

My frame is 20 1/2" seat tube, 22 1/2" tt.

74 deg seat, 73 deg head,

Or it will be.

Soon...

dogsballs yeah, but it's hard when it's online for a decent price ;)

Buy it. If you don't like it or it doesn't fit, ebay it.

nah, just bought this little puppy for £165, columbus tubing and new campag bb/headset, woohoo!

Looks like this one:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Bottecchia-Hand-Made-Frameset-Columbus-Tubing_W0QQitemZ130149794884QQihZ003QQcategoryZ22679QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Are you going to fix yours or build a road bike?

fix and sell bianchi

You gonna grind the roadie bits off and respray or keep the red?

Dale, does that mean that u don't want my little green Dawes? Sorry it took me so long to get back to u

dogsballs nah, just bought this little puppy for £165, columbus tubing and new campag bb/headset, woohoo!

That's identical to the frame I built up as a road bike and then swapped for my Colnago track bike. I had got it off E-bay a couple of years ago for £40, though the stem and seat post were stuck fast at the time. It rides really well.

hippy You gonna grind the roadie bits off and respray or keep the red?

been thinking, probably leave it on, might even make a road bike. Jon as i said, i'm still interested.

cheers platini, good to know, might try to sell it to my roadie mate.

yuo'll be wanting a nice new shiny miche supertype seatpost to go with that,

what's that i hear you cry, only £40!

: ]

it accepts 27.2 though :( , plus i'm heamorhaging £££ atm. BLB are selling them for £37 anyway ;)

A bit bling, but its new owner seems happy enough.....

Is that a Polo ball behind the front wheel???

Dog's squeaky ball - try taking that and she'd chew your tyres off....

did you ever find one dale?

dale had an OTP pista?!?

and was looking at a dawes

and bought a vintage Holdsworth path frame :)