Please help regarding sizing, first time buyer of road bike

tomaz26

Dear all,

I have a dilemma. Currently riding Cube Cross hybrid bike with front suspension. At 38 years I finally decided to buy my first road bike. Now the problem is of course sizing. I do not have any chance to try those bikes in person so I have to buy on-line. I am 5.10 (177 cm) with long legs and short torso. My inseam is 86 cm, even 87 if I really push it in my crotch
I would like sportive bike with more relaxed position, because I would probably use this bike for 6 miles commute to work too (for 9 out of 12 months anyway..).


The first one which I like Cube Attain GTC PRO disc 2017, which is discounted for 40 %. Problem is, only size 58 and 60 left. According to Cube table 58 should be ok for my height, although on the top of the range. So 56 to 58.. I think with my long legs and short torso I should lean towards lower number right, so 56?

Second queston is, how about female bike? I found a lot of great deals and I do not see why for example I could not buy Rose bike, female version. The only difference I could find is seat (which I would replace anyway). On Rose bikes frame geometry looks the same. If anything what I found out is that female frames have shorter reach as women tend to have shorter arms. So this would then actually benefit me right? I have long legs and short torso so women geometry I think would be fine. I found one bike which I like and which has almost the same specifics as Cube attain mentioned above has in size 56..

I also found Eddy MerckX Montreal 74 for crazy bargain price, but on this one I am not so sure. Everything else looks good in size L, but seat tube is failry short. Like 4 cm shorter than on other bikes with same geometry.. This is not good right? It would mean I have to put seat very high, which would then make me lean on handlebars and made my position very low and racy, which I want to avoid.. I think handlebar cannot be raise that much higher and shorter stem would not help much either here.

thanks for advice guys.

Tomaz

Pooter

Yes most people your height would get the 56 cube

Women's Rose - have you checked everything? All the frame lengths and angles, and the crank length, handlebar drop and width, stem length (which all may be reduced for the female version) .

Eddy seat tube - a short seat tube is irrelevant as long as everthing else important that determines reach and handlebar height is the same as your preferred set-up.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

My Cube is a 58cm frame, I'm a similar height, but my leg/torso proportions are the opposite.

I'm 178cm with ~83cm cycling inseam (measured barefoot, feet ~30cm apart with my back to a wall, a hardback ~1.5" thick firmly wedged "up there" to a pressure as if sitting on a saddle... Pencil mark on wall a few times to be sure). When buying trousers, I'm looking for ~30" inseam.

From the centre of a loose clenched fist, to the bony bit where my arm meets my shoulder (above the arm socket) is ~63cm. My "ape index" is slightly negative, very roughly my span is ~172cm.

I'm still tweaking my saddle and bars positions, but recently I've been quite happy with middle of saddle rails and 20mm of spacers above the negative angled stem. BB to saddle top is ~73cm, saddle nose tip to middle of bars is ~53.5cm, bars are ~1.5cm lower than saddle.

There's very little between the 56 and 58 frames, reach extends by 3mm, while the stack gets a boost of 19mm.
https://www.cube.eu/uk/2017/road-triath ... reen-2017/

tomaz26

NitrousOxide:

so 58 cm will be too much for me right? Legs will be ok, but because I have short torso the reach will be too much for me?
I am new at this so I do not quite understand what different proportions means for bike size. Like you say stack gets almost 2 cm boost while reach stays almost the same. What does this mean, I can go for 58 and it wont make big difference to 56 frame, or vice versa?

thanks

Tomaz

N0bodyOfTheGoat

It means that if a 56cm is a good fit with a negative stem angle, a 58cm would fit by simply flipping the stem to a positive angle, because it would reduce the reach by 7mm plus you the larger frame would give a lower saddle-bar drop!

The stem has a stack of 40mm and the uncut fork steerer on my 58cm has 35mm of spacers I can move above or below the stem. By putting 20mm of spacers above the stem, while keeping a negative stem angle (-6 degrees IIRC), I've increased the reach by ~6mm compared to keeping the traditional minimum of a 5mm spacer under the topcap.

http://yojimg.net/bike/web_tools/stem.php

Have you measured your cycling inseam reasonably accurately using the "book method?"
What is your "ape index?"
What is the stack and reach of your Cube hybrid?

I don't have stack and reach figures to hand for my Voodoo, but it's the 18" frame. It came with an 80mm, 7 degree stem, which I replaced with my old Specialized Tricross 110mm multi-position stem in +17 degree mode last summer to increase the reach and more importantly for me raise the stack to ease pressure on my lower back.
http://www.halfords.com/wcsstore/librar ... _Wazoo.pdf

tangerineowl

178.5 cm height / 87.5cm inseam here. Seat height at 76cm.

My arms are a little on the short side at 64cm.

After sometime riding a road bike, my ideal frame is one with around a 360mm reach.
(Generally a 52cm frame with a decent stack height).

As the OP mentioned women's frames and Eddy Merckx, I'll suggest the Milano72 in size L.


Inseam: 87.5
Trunk: 63.3
Forearm: 33.5
Arm: 64
Thigh 63
Lower leg: 55

kingrollo

56 in stock here......at a price...

https://www.damianharriscycles.co.uk/pr ... gIRXfD_BwE

Just keep checking that web site maybe it will come down

As general rule though - don't buy a bargain that might be to big.

Edit ....cheaper here

https://www.leisurewheels.co.uk/m10b123 ... gK88vD_BwE

tomaz26

Thank you all for help. Will monitor is the price drops on those two websites. It is hard to pay 300 GBP more when Rutland offers it for 1060 GBP