How much clearance do you need and where is it measured?

extra_ice

How much clearance do you need from the cross bar? And at what point should that be measured? A smaller frame feels a bit odd to me with lots of clearance, but another slightly larger one felt ok but I only had clearance just forward of the saddle (about 2 inches). As the bar slopes up, and towards the handle bars I'm as good as sitting on the bar. It's not pushing up, but probably exactly level. Is that good or bad or purely a question of comfort for the individual?

jayson

I always try and get atleast 3" of clearance for the crown jewells when im standing over the bike, some people say a minimum of 2" is passable but my personal preference is for a bit more and a slightly smaller frame feels better handling wise.

dave_hill

Assuming that you're a bloke, the answer is "as much as possible"!

Imagine riding your favourite trail. For whatever reason, you have to stop suddenly and need to slide off the front of the saddle. But oh no! You're riding a frame which is too big and CLANG! You have a bicycle/crown jewels interface compatibility problem. Cue that horrible sick feeling, gasping for air, clutching your groin and rolling about on the floor howling like a baby!

Another consideration is that the smaller the frame, the easier it is to handle.

If you're buying a hardtail, the rule of thumb is to subtract 14" from your inside leg measurement - that will give you a base-line frame size. So if you have a 32" inside leg, an 18" frame MTB woul dbe probably about right.

But having said that, the only sure-fire way is to go and try a few.

stumpyjon

As the others say as much as possible without compromising the comfort of the ride (don't want the distance between saddle and bars too short or the bike will feel cramped). Don't forget that when you come off the chances of the ground underneath you being level is not guaranteed, so even if when stood over the bike at home you've got clearance you need to consider what would happen if one foot ends up lower than the other :shock: :oops: .