advice for tall,heavy rider

jay-b

I am 6'7 and 20 stone. And would like to buy a road bike. Could anyone recommend a bike for around £400 - £500 that is big enough and strong enough? or will i need to spend much more than that? I have had varied advice from from bike shop assistants. some told me that even the cheapest bike's they sold (£100 bikes) where strong enough and some shops tried to sell me £1000 bike's. So i am very confused! advice from people of similar size would be great.
Thanks.

CrookedCucumber

In my experience, even a relatively inexpensive bike will handle a very heavy rider -- but perhaps not for as long as a rider or more modest weight I would think that for £500 quid you should be able to get a bike that will handle your weight perfectly well.

But I think you're going to have a heck of a job finding _anything_ off-the-peg that will comfortably fit your height. I'm not as tall as you (6'5") and I struggled to find a road bike with a long enough top tube. Currently I have a Specialized TriCross in XL size and it handles both my weight (about 16st) and my height OK. It does sound a bit stressed when I really heave the pedals around, however.

If you can't get a long enough frame, you might be able to get stem extenders that put the handlebars further forwards. It's not ideal, but it's better than being cramped. Until I got the TriCross, I _always_ had to use a stem extender.

meagain

Probably worth watching ebay. Very large, custom-built, frames/bikes come up now and again and with a limited market often go for very reasonable prices.

Oh and welcome!

CrookedCucumber

meagain wrote:

Probably worth watching ebay. Very large, custom-built, frames/bikes come up now and again and with a limited market often go for very reasonable prices.

Good point. I got a Scott hybrid with a _massive_ frame on eBay for £150. It's so tall that, even though I'm 6'5", I can't stand over the crossbar without it touching my whatnots.

But even then I still need to extend the handlebar stem forwards because, sadly, tall does not always equal long.

It occurs to me that a person who's 6'7" tall but who is predominantly long in the inseam will probably be able to get a bike to fit more easily than someone who is less tall but long in the spine (like me). It's relatively easy to make a bike taller, by using long posts and stems. It's a bit of a drag to make a bike longer.

HungryCol

I recommend Cannondale. They have a good selection of sizes of frames and go quite big. Their CAAD5 (aluminium) is their entry level road bike that's around £750. I'm sure cheaper would be recommened here that would be perfectly fine too. I would concentrate on making sure your get strong wheels.

PostieJohn

See if Martin Johnson wants to off load a bike now he's going to be a little busy, with the RFU.
I would say ride what he does, but I doubt it'll be a £500 off the peg job.