Ridley Helium 1419am

roubaixtom

Im looking to buy a Ridley Helium second hand. Its a 2014 model with ultegra in size Medium. Im just under 5ft9 and ride a 54cm roubaix at the moment. Will a Medium Ridley Helium be too big?





Cheers

FransJacques

It could be.

I was looking at a Medium and I'm 183 cm with a 88 cm inseam and a 79 cm seat height. I rented a Fenix Medium for 3 days and the saddle certainly looked high but the front end was perfect for me. So to buy one, I'd go for a Medium.

For your size, if you want a higher front end then a Med is good. You could also fit a Small but it all depends on your stem height. One approach I use is to measure the vertical distance from the GAP between the fork and the head tube on your current bike to the Bottom of the stem.

Take this number and subtract 14.5 cm from it (i.e. the size of the Small frame's head tube.). If the result is greater than 6 cm then go for the Med. The reason is you'll have too many spacers (assuming the Ridley comes with a 1.5cm tall conical headset cap. For matters of looks, flexiness, steering feedback and precision etc. I would advise you to avoid having the top cap plus 2+ cm of spacers.

There is a new service out there that can help people zero in on their frame sizes:

http://www.fitandfind.com/smartfit-fram ... search.htm

All you need is an (accurate!) height and inseam.