About to Order - right Choice i hope, not sure about size

psenior1

After a few weeks of looking at various bikes (and some good advice here :P ), I'm about to place my order thorugh Halfords (Bike 2work scheme). Decided in the end to go for a Trek 08 6500 Disc, rather than all the other options, means I will have to wait for a bit while they source the bike but worth it I hope. Good choice for XC and light downhill?

Not sure about frame size - I'm 6ft 5 with 37" inside leg - I'm assuming the 21.5 frame would be better than the 19.5?

cheers

Edit! - Make that 35" iside leg not 37" !

Shadowduck

psenior1 wrote:

Not sure about frame size - I'm 6ft 5 with 37" inside leg - I'm assuming the 21.5 frame would be better than the 19.5?

To be honest, I'm not sure even the 21.5 will be big enough! Gilbert-by-proxy is around your sort of dimensions, I'll ask him what size frame he has - I wouldn't order anything without a test ride though.

dave_hill

Rule of thumb - the fram size should be your inside leg measurement less 14".

Example - my inside leg is 32", therefore my ideal frame size (for a hardtail at any rate) would be 18". But I prefer a slightly smaller frame anyway so i tend to go for 17".

At 37" inside leg, your ideal frame size would be 23" but in reality it's very difficult to get "off the shelf" MTB frames that big. 21,5" would be OK for you but make sure that the seatpost is long enough!

Also, make sure that the reach of the bike is OK - that is to say, when you are sitting in the saddle make sure that you can reach the bars comfortably and that you aren't hunched up or too stretched out. This can be adjusted by fore/aft adjustment of the saddle and by changing the length of the handlebar stem.