Originally Posted by
cmoran1357
Just wanted to pass along a quick update...
Got decals off of vintagecannondale. Also found a very odd 1993 Raleigh touring bike built for LL Bean (which I can't find anything on the internet about, but without any corroboration I am guessing it is this bike:
1993 Raleigh RT 300 - New and Used Bike Value) for $35 at a yard sale. It gave me a blackburn rack, RX100 DT 7sp friction/SIS and a RX100 triple crank. I'd put it all on the Cannondale, but for the fact that the Cannondale is a 23'' and the raleigh is a 21''. I can stand over the raleigh (with no daylight) and can't even put the cannondale upright under my short legs. I've been riding on both just fine, but I'm not too keen on feeling like I'm mounting a horse, and I am slightly worried about what a emergency stop would look like. Probably should have realized this earlier, but I was too excited about what I had. Perhaps I'll check out the frame pass-around forum to see if anyone has a 21'' ST.
Two weeks ago I thought bikes may as well be diesel trucks, but after some vociferous internet reading and some admonishment for my intellectual failings from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle maintenance, I've drunk the kool aid and love tinkering. Thanks again for the continuing help; I've got a long way to go!
Bike fit has NOTHING to do with stand over.
Two things are important with bike fit, top-tube length and the relative proportion of saddle height to handlebar height. The reason you typically want a bigger frame is that it gives you a more comfortable handlebar position. For most of us on the forums, handlebars at a neutral position of saddle height and even higher is most appropriate. There are many in the forums that have lost fitness, flexibility, and can't reach anything but the hoods on their bikes because they are now too small. If you can't comfortably ride in the drops on your bars for at least 50% of your mileage, your bike doesn't fit, plain and simple.
A couple things to read about bike fit:
How to Fit a Bicycle
https://www.rivbike.com/kb_results.asp?cat=23
and to a lesser degree:
Revisionist Theory of Bicycle Sizing
You don't ride a bicycle by standing over it, you ride ON it.