I bought a bike off Craigslist, the "Performance exclusive" version of the Fuji Sportif, the 1.0 LE. The guy said it was a Medium (54 according to Fuji size chart). I'm 5'9" so I figured I'd be good. I rode the bike around the block and it felt fine, but the thing is, I literally have not been on a road bike since my brother's Univega in the 1980s.
When I got home, I pulled up the various online fitting guides to start tweaking and quickly discovered the bike is a small (52), not a medium. The store had set the guy up with maximum spacers and also an adjustable 120mm stem setup with like a 30deg rise-- my guess is this was their last size left and they wanted to get rid of it and told him it would be fine.
Looking at the Fuji size chart, the difference between "effective top tube" for the 52 vs the 54 is only 1.4cm (530mm vs 544mm). So I figured I should be able to make it work with stem/saddle adjustments. The seat is nowhere near all the way up.
I'm 5'9"+ (176.8cm) with about a 33" inseam (83.6cm).
I took it out for a 35 mile rolling ride, which was not only my first real ride on a road bike ever, but my longest road ride in at least 5 years (I ride my MTB on the road with slick 100psi tires). Groin/butt felt fine. Shoulders were fine. Neck had a bit of soreness toward the end (it was a 2hr ride). My lower back hurt pretty much the whole time. And the numbness in my right hand was off the charts. I feel like at the very least I need to adjust the hood position and the brake reach -- I have to bend my wrist to reach them in the drops and my tiny baby hands can barely reach the brakes from there. I did feel like my weight was too much on my hands, but at the same time I kind of felt like I was stretching too far to reach -- is that just a lack of flexibility, i.e. not lowering my back enough to get closer to the bars?
Again, I don't know how much is poor setup, how much is the bike being too small, and how much is just being totally unused to a road bike.
I did the Competitive Cyclist bike calculator, and the effective top tube it recommends matches the 54 (so about 1.5cm longer than I have). What's weird is that my "tip of saddle to near edge of handlebar" is way less than CC recommends, despite my e.t.t. being only 1.5cm short and my saddle setback and stem length being actually 3cm greater than CC's table.
I'd like to make this bike work. I am planning on getting a Diverge in the fall when the new year comes out, and then I'll do the full LBS fitting. So this is basically just a temporary summer bike to get in shape and take advantage of the summer weather, but I'd rather it not cripple me.
Pics:
Handlebar is about 1cm below saddle in the pics.
And measurements:
inseam 32.93in - 83.6cm
trunk 27.5in - 69.9cm
forearm 13in - 33cm
arm 24.25in - 61.6cm
thigh 22.75in - 57.8cm
lower leg 21in - 53.3cm
height 69.625in - 176.8cm
sternal notch 58in - 147.3cm