Ever bought a road bike then decided it's too small?

Definitely remove a few spacers if you're flexible enough. With lower bars it won't feel as short

How tall are you and what top tube length is it? 

I did once, but bought it off eBay unseen which is always a risk. Cotic RoadRat. Small was actually good in that I really liked a small, quick handling frame but the toe-overlap became a big issue which I couldn't really live with. swapped for a medium Escapade and I'm really happy with that 

Only advice is test ride, but difficult if you can't find one to ride...

~20mm difference in HT and ST length, 0.5 degree less STA - looks like you'd be better off on the L judging from your saddle height there. Unless those stem spacers were there just-because on a demo bike and you want 120-odd mm bar drop. How high is that saddle, 800mm maybe more? You're well over 6' I'm guessing?

There's only 5mm of reach between the sizes and that's within STI position on the bars sort of difference, it's not a difference I'd be bothered by either way. So there's maybe 12mm of saddle to bar reach inc the STA change (edit - 15mm of ETT according to the chart). I'd say that's a fairly small (or normal) gap between 2 sizes. 20mm on the ST isn't that much either, 20mm stack gap is normal. 

110mm isnt long for a road stem. Try a 120mm or a 130mm. Even 140mm would be fine. 

It's worth looking at the bars. The depth of the bar can vary between bikes, a different bar could be used to adjust the position a little.

Can you not get a Large and just run a shorter stem?  I think my road bike has a 75mm RaceFace MTB stem on it and it rides as nice as the longer one that came with it. 

Personally I prefer a road bigger road bike with less seat post sticking out and a shorter stem to get the same measurements as I don’t care as much about standover on a road bike as less likely to have to quickly hop off and smash my nuts (compared to an MTB). 

But then maybe I’m just a bit odd. 

Or if you’re between sizes then it might be worth looking at a completely different bike/brand altogether 

Longer stem. Probably a pain to swap on the bike but that’s cable integration for you. I prefer a smaller frame and longer stem as more weight is over the front wheel improving the handling. Pros. Ride the same often for lower stack. I did one winter ride a bike two sizes too small with a 140 stem, just to see, and it was fine. 

I've done this and decided it was too small.  Replaced with next size up.  Was a mistake, should've stuck with the original and a bit longer stem.

Or the alternate, which is another brand. They don’t all have the same size-for-geometry and some brands will be dead on and other not so close. All will fit though. If in doubt go smaller. 

BTW I am absolutely a medium Giant.  My perfect size. 55.5 top tube and 73 degrees parallel. I tested M/L and found it too large. I ride with a 120 stem on my Propel and a 130 on my Defy (54.5 top tube and slacker head angle).  The Defy feels nicer and more planted. 

I had a Giant TCR in S with a long stem, it was a liability descending cols. I put it down to the combination of fork offset, head tube angle and weight distribution. I sold it and bought another TCR but in M - I'm back up to normal confidence and speed down mountains. Small bikes often have slacker head angles but the same fork offset as the bigger sizes and they don't steer as well IME.

Yes, replaced my stolen much cheaper Giant Defy with a contend. Got a large, I’m only 6‘1 but on giants with their geo i should have got the XL. Keep seeing larges nowadays on merida’s etc and look so much more what I need.

i race TT on it too but the seat is to the moon and is just all wrong… good excuse for new bike time anyway! 

I was right in the middle of L and XL frames when I got my Giant TCR, which had quite a bit of size overlap. I ended up choosing the L size as the XL head tube was much longer and the bike looked awful.🫣

I suspect I made a mistake doing that as, similar to Edukator, mine can be a liability on certain fast descents....but having said that, I've still got it five years later...

I'm mostly interested in all day comfort - which current bike provides - but hoping to inject a bit more speed.

I'm not convinced that you'll get comfort out of a too small bike made bigger, but I'm an inflexible 60+yrs.

I'd look at something else, ideally without the unique "features" like cable routing that make problems of their own.

I've never bought on C2W, preferring the end-of-year sales bargains. You can sell them on without so much of the feeling of great loss 🙂 

Yeah, bought a discounted Genesis Aether about 10 years ago - beautiful bike but in hindsight small was never going to work with my long torso.

Been on mediums since, but I've found that some brands make a slightly longer medium and those are the ones that suit me best.

Anyway, I'm packing road riding in now - so forgive the not-so-stealth ad, but drop me a line if you'd be interested in a barely used high-mod carbon framed Boardman with Ultegra disc groupset for well under a grand 🙂

I'm currently looking for a road/gravel bike but this is a concern of mine as at 5'8ish I usually sit between a small and medium on size charts. Currently on a 54cm Langster which is too long as I've had to fit a shorter stem, could probably still go shorter maybe down to 70mm, but feels wrong to do that on a road bike! Conventional wisdom seems to be go for the bigger size as my torso is longer than my legs, but that'd probably put me on something similar to the 54cm Langster again.

I've ridden a 54 langster (currently in bits in the garage) and I am three inches taller than you, with a 120 stem. Top tube is 55 cm so I am not surprised you need a shorter stem. look for frames with an effective top tube of 53-54 and they will fit better. Gravel bikes have shallower head angles, and one degree more slack is a centimetre difference in top tube. So 71.5 head angle and a medium (54) will fit you better.

Well I decided to go for the Medium on Monday, but other than a 10min spin on some local streets I've yet to try it out since bringing it home.

2 things helped plump for that decision:

• The measured seatpost to head tube and seatpost to bar measurements were both 10mm longer than my current setup
• The shop had conveniently taken delivery of a fully built size Large that morning, so I was able to try both side-by-side.  The large definitely felt too stretched.  Albeit we didn't try slamming the saddle fully forward, and it had a layback post on it compare to straight on the size M

I've since discovered one of the differences to current bike is something I'd completely overlooked: My old bike has a more traditional 90mm reach bar, whilst the new one is a more modern 75mm shallow drop.  So I should only be about 5mm away from something familiar.  Waiting on some 1 1/4" headset spacers to allow me to test dropping the bar, and still need to play with saddle position. Will experiment with an old post with some a slight setback and see if that's preferable.

Just seen this, hope the new bike feels good. 

Last summer I bought the Orca 53cm, I'm about 1.80m. I think it's too small on paper, but it feels right, I've always preferred a smaller frame.The saddle is right back in the clamp and the stem is slammed but still the 100mm that came with the bike.

Being in Euskadi, a few mates ride Orcas and I've tried a 55cm, and that felt about right too. But I'm not the most perceptive of riders, you could put one 160 and one 175 crank on my bike and I doubt I'd notice 😉

I might have preferred the 55cm for long rides, maybe? But 90% of my rides are under 4 hours. End of the day I've done 16,000km on it according to Strava, and haven't been tempted to change. Good luck!

Interestingly the Orca was the first bike I spent ages tracking down in both sizes, and ended up ruling it out as I felt like I fell between both.

From some very brief trials the 53 seemed broadly right, but I found it a bit hard get over the on-paper low stack, and the recommendation of a 55 for my measurements on the Orbea site. Yet the 55 definitely felt too long and unweildy.