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ive got a singlespeed gryphon, medium with flared ragly luxy drops. bout perfect size for me.
as some of you may know im looking for a steel, geared hardtail too, with pre-CEN twang. ive been offered a nice looking bike, been given the geometry and when i looked at it i thought ahh thats a shame, its too small, looks to be 17". im definitely a medium/18".
i thought id just go into the garage and compare tho, and to my surprise my gryphon looks to be 17" too. certainly 17" centre to top of seat tube.
but, im aware that the gryphons built for drops i think, the geometry will be tweaked for this reason, so a 17" gryphon may equate to a 'normal' 18" bike.
anyone care to give me their thoughts on this? is the 17" bike with normal risers likely to be too small for me as feared?
btw im 5'10".
thanks
Seatpost length is largely irrelevant, isn't it? As long as you can fit a post long enough.
Reach or ETT is probably a better indicator. The difference between the Gryphon vs a "normal" mtb will be longer headtube and shorter reach/ETT.
Medium Swift is 17" seat tube with 600mm ETT and 100mm head tube, I think.
sorry im absolutely hopeless with geometry.....
this is the geometry ive been sent, would you know how that stacks up against a medium gryphon?
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cheers
The Gryphon is designed for drop bars as you said, so is MUCH shorter than a flat bared mountain bike.
A medium Gryphon would be like a small mountainbike.
That was Singulars reason for dropping it, there was no particulalry good reason to keep it when those people could buy a size smaller Swift instead.
I though a nominal 18” frame was typically large in MTB terms.
For example, my old Orange Alpine was badged 18” and sold as a large. I used to ride a large Gryphon and a large Pegasus in Singular sizing.
Do you want it to be exactly like your Gryphon though, or are you going to run flat bars?
Medium Gryphon has an ETT of 566mm vs the 585mm up there. For comparison, my medium Pegasus is 600mm.
That Enigma looks like a proper old-skool xc frame, which I think is what you want?
I though a nominal 18” frame was typically large in MTB terms.
For example, my old Orange Alpine was badged 18” and sold as a large. I used to ride a large Gryphon and a large Pegasus in Singular sizing.
Depends on the bike, I had a 'large' 4x bike that was 14"!
I think most XC bikes tended to be 19" or 20" in large. 16" being small and 18" being medium. Obviously thats all shrunk now that bikes are more commonly being sold based on reach and shorter seatubes are actually desireable to allow longer dropper posts.
Do you want it to be exactly like your Gryphon though, or are you going to run flat bars?
no, not like the gryphon. different, but would still fit me, thats what im trying to work out. would 17" be too small for me?
id almost certainly use risers of some sort.
That Enigma looks like a proper old-skool xc frame, which I think is what you want?
yep. i started off looking for a mk1 soul, had no joy and been offered this. im guessing a mk1 medium soul would be 18"?
Depends on the bike, I had a ‘large’ 4x bike that was 14″!
Agreed. Though I don’t think I could find an 18” measurement anywhere on my nominally 18” Alpine.
reading back through my email conversation, theres probably one comment thats most telling actually......
this is a custom made frame and hes 5'8". unfortunately then i think that means itll be just a tad too small. ive tried fighting sizes before (longer/shorter stems, saddle as far back/forward as possible) and it never ends well, in the end i have to admit defeat......