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I took one of my road bikes up North to let my brother have a go on it, as I had offered to sell it to him.
Now, some people (molgrips) have commented that it is strange that the frame size looks quite large - and especially so for me. It is, in fact, a 56cm Pinarello, and I am 179 cms tall. Those same people have said, though, that when I ride it, it doesn't look too big, and indeed that is my experience. I feel very comfortable on it.
My brother, on the other hand, who is 185 cms tall, felt immediately that he was too hunched over (even after adjusting the seat significantly), and there was no way he could get comfortable on it. And I could completely see what he was talking about. Granted, I could have put on the longer stem for him, but that would have been to extend the bike beyond what is 'normal'.
In any case, I was just interested to see how varied people's experience of a frame could be - especially when it should have (at least ostensibly) fit both of us (with me at the shorter end of the range, and him at the upper end). I had never really seen it as starkly as this before.
Is bike sizing always as variable as this? If so, how can they sell bikes online? Have I just been really lucky with fit?
Road bike sizing is massively variable.
No idea why they still insist on sizing by the most easy to adjust dimension.
On road bikes fit is a very personal thing and rather difficult to get right. Arm length, for one. I know a bloke a few inches shorter than me but with long arms - so I could hardly ride his road bike.
Your overall height is only part of the story - arm, leg and torso are all important. I've been through a fair few stems and bars on my road bike, and I even bought another one the other day 9 years after buying the bike. Because time spent on other bikes changed how I felt about the road bike.
Road bike bars are a minefield too - more variables, and more things to position.
185cm tall on a 56cm framed bike should be fine. If he felt too hunched over then a longer/lower stem and pushing the saddle back on the seatpost would probably have sorted that.
I used to have a 56cm (top tube) bike; I'm 190cm tall. It wasn't ideal, but it rode well enough. I've also used my mates bike with a 60cm (top tube) that was also fine to ride. THe fact they were both the wrong size only became noticeable, or at least only bothered me, when going quickly downhill.
You've gotta start somewhere and you're not gonna get a perfect fit first time. Probably best to buy two bikes a size apart and then work it out from there 😉
I'm 187cm and my three road bikes are 56, 59, and 60cm sizes. But I've got them set up so the bar, seat, bb, pedal relationships are all the same and surprisingly, the stems aren't much different in length on them.
Strictly speaking the 56cm one should be a 58 going by the charts but it's my CX bike, and the standover of the 58 was stupidly high.