frame size.

shouldgetoutmore

Hi ,
i'm looking to buy a decent 2nd hand road bike from ebay for riding to work.
I'm 5'9" with an inside leg of 30" (yes before you say it, long body short legs!).
I know sizing can be difficult for various reasons, but would i be right in saying a 54cm frame size would be ok for me?
As i'm looking on ebay i may not be able to get to test anything. I've seen a 54cm bianchi locally to me that might be worth a look.
Any advice would be welcome.

Monty Dog

As well as seat-tube dimension, the more critical dimension is actually toptube length - you want to know the horizontal or 'virtual' dimension for compact frames and expect you're looking at something in the region of 54cm or even 55cm given your stature.

kfinlay

I'm 5'9.5" (176cm) and 30.5" (78cm) and size 9 feet (this makes a difference too).
My frame spec is:-
51cm C-T seat tube
53cm top tube (horizontal)
Head tube 14cm (with external headset cups 16cm)
head and seat tube angle of 72.5
110mm stem
my current bars are 100mm reach with 150mm drop.
my bars are 5.5cm lower than my saddle.

check the actual sizes for any given frame - just because it says its a 54 doesn't mean the seat tube is 54 cm long and many measure differently hence Monty's comments about the top tube being important. and while it's easy to put your saddle up or down it's more hassle (and expensive) to be trying different length stems to get your reach right.
I can ride this 100 miles and be comfortable.

I am looking to get a canyon in a 52 - see geometry on this page
http://www.canyon.com/_uk/roadbikes/bike.html?b=2114
but would use a 90mm stem for this geometry (higher seat tube angle means the saddle would be approx 20mm more setback giving saddle or head tube reach of 553mm (533+20) then 90mm for the stem so total virtual) reach to tops of bars 643mm (existing bike is 530mm top tube and 110mm stem so overall 640mm virtual reach)

HTH

AndyI

I've been recommending this a lot lately, but no relation, honest. Try http://www.competitivecyclist.com/za/CC ... ATOR_INTRO if you input your measurements it will give you three options for fit, and you can work out what size frame you'll need.

shouldgetoutmore

Thanks for the advice gents. Ebay is now out and i've just been down to my local Evans cycles to sit on a few. I can now see how important it is to get the correct size, i wouldn't wear shoes to big or small so the same goes for my next ride. Thanks again.