Originally Posted by
Doug64
A lot of good advice in the previous posts, but IMO this is probably the most important consideration when buying a touring bike. LHTs have a long top tube, and can be a poor fit for someone with a short torso and long legs. The plus side for truckers is that they come with uncut steerer tubes, which allows more flexibility for dialing in the fit.
I use a moderately-forward riding position so when I bought the Disc Trucker I was surprised that it fit best by leaving ~2.5" of steerer tube. Roadies & MTBers have so many available models that adjusting the fit is fairly easy...but with so fewer touring bikes they should have the option to adjust steerer tube length. Locally I see 20 Truckers for every 520. I'm 5'11", I rather like the motorcycle look of the 559mm/26" wheels with 50mm tires. Trucker seems the obvious choice if using studded tires & fenders.