Ribble Audax Winter Frame Sizing

zoid
zoid Posts: 101
edited November 2010 in Road buying advice
I recently received my Ribble 7005 Audax / Winter bike with a Campag Veloce groupset, overall for the money I’m fairly pleased with it however I’m a little dubious on the frame sizing and I’m considering getting the frame size up and was hoping for some advice…

Although the sizing guide on the Ribble website recommended a 54cm (inside leg x .69, which for me at 5’6” and an inside leg of 79cm equals 54.51) I opted instead to go for a 52cm frame. Mainly because I thought the top tube length at 55cm on the 54cm frame was too long and also because the Ribble sales staff incorrectly told the head tube height was 130mm on the 52cm frame.

However after receiving the bike and measuring the head tube I find that it’s actually 110mm, and (short of flipping the stem) even with all the spacers in place my handlebar height is just over 2cm lower than it should be (according a recent bike fit that I had) and currently with the saddle at it’s correct height I have a drop of over 9cm from the top of the saddle to the top of the bars where my bike fit suggested a 7cm drop.

Ribble have been pretty good, I’ve been in regular email contact with them and they have acknowledged that they provided me with incorrect measurements and have offered to collect the bike and rebuild the parts onto a 54cm frame instead.

Now bear in mind I’ve only ridden the bike once over the weekend and only for a couple of hours and although it seemed ok I won’t really know if the drop is too much as I only tend to get tired in the neck when I’ve been riding for 3.5-4 hours.

The other couple of minor annoyances are that I get some toe overlap (although this is probably only due to the mud guards) and hard to remove (seat tube mounted) water bottle due to the low top tube.

The 52cm frame is fitted with 100mm stem and this seems to be giving me the right distance from the rear of the saddle to the centre of the bars. However would I better off going for the 54cm frame with a 90mm stem and I am I correctly assuming the 54cm frame will give me an extra 2cm in bar height?

Please bear in mind I’m relatively inexperienced so welcome any advice!

NB the frames are measured centre to top, so the 52cm frame I currently have measures 48cm c-c