Endurance road bike geometry advice

ivostoel

Hi all,

Now that I am getting a older I am unfortunately also getting less flexible. That - combined with a lot of desk work - means sore neck and shoulders, and lower back pain, when riding my oldie road bike (a 15 year old Giant Defy), that didn't give me any issues in my 20s...

Therefore I have decided to upgrade to a more comfortable - read: as comfortable as possible - endurance bike. I ride purely for recreation so speed/aerodynamics is no consideration. I do want to keep the feel of a road bike, so no touring bikes etc.

I have narrowed it down to the Fuji Sportif Disc 1.1 and the Triban RC 520.

Looking at the reach/stack ratio, the Fuji looks like the most relaxed geometry road bike on the market. I like the Triban, given that is seems to have a very good price/quality offering.

In my size (L), stack is similar-ish between the two at about 600 mm, reach is about 1 cm longer on the Triban (385 vs. 376 mm).

Find a comparision of the exact measurements for both at this briliant little website:

https://bikeinsights.com/compare?geometries=5db2589fa6a22b0017087ccb,5d413fc42d7ba100176abcca

My question: would I feel this 1 cm difference in reach in terms of comfort? Or is this difference negligible?

Also: I was thinking about getting a shorter stem (around 70 mm) anyway, so I feel I don't have any room left to play there...

Any advice welcome!
Thanks!

Ivo

arlowood

I am a bit puzzled. You mention that the Stack is identical between the two bikes but the the Reach on the Triban is 10mm linger than the Fuji. Then you mention getting a 70mm stem.

When I look at the build details further down the link above, it states that the stem on the Fuji is 90mm and that on the Triban is 110mm. If that is indeed the case, you would only need to fit a 100mm stem to the Triban to match the Reach of the Fuji. You could go shorter, if need be, to say a 90 or 80mm stem if you needed to shorten the reach even more. However I'd be wary of dropping down to a 70mm stem. The handling could get really twitchy with a very short stem

ivostoel

.

ivostoel

arlowood said:

I am a bit puzzled. You mention that the Stack is identical between the two bikes but the the Reach on the Triban is 10mm linger than the Fuji. Then you mention getting a 70mm stem.

When I look at the build details further down the link above, it states that the stem on the Fuji is 90mm and that on the Triban is 110mm. If that is indeed the case, you would only need to fit a 100mm stem to the Triban to match the Reach of the Fuji. You could go shorter, if need be, to say a 90 or 80mm stem if you needed to shorten the reach even more.

Arlowood, thanks.

I always understood that reach is measured to the top of the headtube, so I thought that the stem a bike comes with does not affect the reach as reported in the geometry chart...

arlowood

ivostoel said:

arlowood said:

I am a bit puzzled. You mention that the Stack is identical between the two bikes but the the Reach on the Triban is 10mm linger than the Fuji. Then you mention getting a 70mm stem.

When I look at the build details further down the link above, it states that the stem on the Fuji is 90mm and that on the Triban is 110mm. If that is indeed the case, you would only need to fit a 100mm stem to the Triban to match the Reach of the Fuji. You could go shorter, if need be, to say a 90 or 80mm stem if you needed to shorten the reach even more.

Arlowood, thanks.

I always understood that reach is measured to the top of the headtube, so I thought that the stem a bike comes with does not affect the reach as reported in the geometry chart...

Yes you are correct that the reach is normally defined as the horizontal distance from the centre of the crank (bottom bracket) to the centre of the headtube. However your overall position on the bike is also defined by the stem and handlebars. So if you're worried about one frame having a 10mm longer reach you can easily compensate by adjusting the stem length accordingly

N0bodyOfTheGoat

If you can cope with the lower stack (573mm for med frame with 385mm reach), I'd add https://www.halfords.com/bikes/adventure-bikes/boardman-adv-8.9-mens-adventure-bike-2021---s-m-l-xl-frames-389606.html to your shortlist, even though it's an "adventure bike."

Geometry https://www.boardmanbikes.com/gb_en/products/2332-adv-8.9-2021.html

British Cycling membership gives you 10% off Halfords bikes (making it £900) and I'd take its proper hydraulic brakes over the RC520 hybrid hydraulics, plus it has more tyre clearance, if you fancied wider tyres.

ivostoel

arlowood said:

ivostoel said:

arlowood said:

I am a bit puzzled. You mention that the Stack is identical between the two bikes but the the Reach on the Triban is 10mm linger than the Fuji. Then you mention getting a 70mm stem.

When I look at the build details further down the link above, it states that the stem on the Fuji is 90mm and that on the Triban is 110mm. If that is indeed the case, you would only need to fit a 100mm stem to the Triban to match the Reach of the Fuji. You could go shorter, if need be, to say a 90 or 80mm stem if you needed to shorten the reach even more.

Arlowood, thanks.

I always understood that reach is measured to the top of the headtube, so I thought that the stem a bike comes with does not affect the reach as reported in the geometry chart...

Yes you are correct that the reach is normally defined as the horizontal distance from the centre of the crank (bottom bracket) to the centre of the headtube. However your overall position on the bike is also defined by the stem and handlebars. So if you're worried about one frame having a 10mm longer reach you can easily compensate by adjusting the stem length accordingly

So, assuming that I would want to make reach as short as possible to reduce stress on my shoulders and neck, and I would install a 80 mm stem on the Fuji, and/or a 80 mm stem on the Triban. Then, the Triban would end up with a 10 mm longer reach then the Fuji with the same stack.

My question: would I feel this difference of 10 mm in reach? Is this a significant difference?

Thanks!

ivostoel

@ Arlowood:

So, saying that I would want to make the reach as short as possible on either bike to reduce stress on shoulders and neck, so I would install a 80 mm stem on either the Fuji or the Triban. Then, this would mean that the reach on the Triban would be 10 mm longer than on the Fuji, with a similar stack.

My question: Is this a significant difference in reach; would I feel this difference?

ivostoel

N0bodyOfTheGoat said:

If you can cope with the lower stack (573mm for med frame with 385mm reach), I'd add https://www.halfords.com/bikes/adventure-bikes/boardman-adv-8.9-mens-adventure-bike-2021---s-m-l-xl-frames-389606.html to your shortlist, even though it's an "adventure bike."

Geometry https://www.boardmanbikes.com/gb_en/products/2332-adv-8.9-2021.html

British Cycling membership gives you 10% off Halfords bikes (making it £900) and I'd take its proper hydraulic brakes over the RC520 hybrid hydraulics, plus it has more tyre clearance, if you fancied wider tyres.

Unfortunately, I am in NL, can't get halfords bikes here .