Erick12

So I'm looking to buy a bike and this height issue is giving me some problems and I am getting some conflicting advice about what I need. I was wondering what other guys around my size have gotten to work for them. My inseam is about 37", if it helps.

About every bike store I've gone into has said what they have off the rack won't fit. I've had a 64cm Fuji Roubaix suggested to me by one guy salesguy, then 2 other people at the same store said it was too small, and while it would sort of work, it wouldn't be a good idea. One store wanted to special order me a 66cm cannondale frame (for a lot more than I wanted to spend) and another wanted to do an in-depth sizing to see if one of the 64cm bikes they could special order might work, but they weren't that hopeful. But I also have people telling me that a lot of adjustments can be done with extra long seatposts and other parts, and the frame doens't need to fit me that well off the rack. I originally wanted to spend around $1000.

I've also recently discovered custom bikes aren't quite as much as I thought they were ($2500 for cyclocross and $3300 for road/tri from Guru). But that's still more expensive than what I'm okay with spending (though that number that keeps going up every time I go looking and get frustrated at the lack of options).

I've been looking on craigslist and ebay for large used bikes but haven't found anything yet.

Why I want the bike: After having a lot of fun getting into running and making a lot of progress, me and my running buddy have decided we want to eventually do triathlons. I've also wanted a bike for a while just for riding around on some of the nice bike paths DC has, and perhaps for occasional commuting when the weather is better.

Thanks

bretgross

I feel your pain, brother.
I'm a short guy (only 6'4") and even I know how difficult it is to find anything that fits correctly.

I could be mistaken (having only my own experience to go by) but just about anything that you buy 'off the rack' is going to be money down the drain compared to buying a bike actually built for you. You'll save money up front (IF you can find something that can be 'adapted' for you) but later you'll wish that you had just waited a little longer and made only one purchase.
And you'll have a REALLY hard time finding a buyer for your used 'off the rack' bike -- as you know from trying to find one!

The major manufactures don't want to invest money building a few bikes for the 1-2% of the population that doesn't fit on what they do build.

Which brings us to the ultimate solution: a custom built bike based upon your measurements. Yes, it costs more up front. But it's likely to be the only bike you'll ever buy and... you'll enjoy riding it!

Here's a sample:

https://zinncycles.wordpress.com/

Good luck in your search.

Sassonian

Hi Erik.

I'm the guy in the blog article above.

I rode for a quite a few years on old steel bikes before finally deciding to go with a custom build. Wish I'd done it a while back. It's a revelation having a bike that fits properly and can handle my size and weight. As an example - I've been having to practice getting out of the saddle and sprinting as I was reluctant to do that on my old bikes that used to flex a lot.

Honestly - I was very nervous about spending that sort of money on a bike I'd never seen in the flesh - and one that employed so many "un standard" ideas. It was a bit of a leap of faith - but I'm extremely happy with the result.

Retrospectively the price is easy to justify

There's a few more photos of my bike here...

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...taniums/page51


Cheers


Adrian.

rschleicher

I'm only in the 6'4" to 6'5" range, and my inseam (for pants) is either 34" or 36", depending on the pants type/maker. (Measured from crotch to floor, for bike-sizing purposes, it is 37.5".) I recently bought a new bike, and in my shopping around I noticed that Trek makes some models in a 64 cm size, whereas other of their models top out at 62 cm. I ended up buying a 61 cm Scott (their XXL size), but in comparing dimensions to the Trek models, it seemed somewhere between a Trek 62 cm, and a Trek 64 cm. So it MAY be that Trek's 64 cm size will be large enough to work for you. In their geometry specs, Trek also lists a min and max seat height dimension for each frame size, which I believe is measured from the bottom bracket center to the top surface of the seat (along a line that is parallel to the seat tube). At least that is how I interpreted it.

(Trek's "64 cm" frame has an actual seat tube length of 61.3 cm (center of BB to top of seat tube), and min/max "seat height" of 78.5 to 88.5 cm.)

As mentioned above, my measured inseam for bicycle-sizing purposes (crotch to floor) was 37.5", or about 95 cm. Multiplying by .65 (some use .67) gave a rough frame size (seat tube length) of 62 cm. Multiplying my inseam by .88 gave a rough seat height (as described above) of 84 cm, which put me in the middle of the seat height range for a 64cm Trek frame. If your measured inseam to the floor is less than 100 cm (39 inches or so), the max. seat height for a Trek 64 cm frame may be enough for you. (My experience was that finding a 64 cm frame in stock at a trek dealer was pretty rare, though...)

On a side note, has anyone seen the bikes made by Rivendell, that have two top tubes? In order to support a really long head tube, and really long seat tube, they actually use two top tubes, separated by 8" or more. Sort of a trapezoid on top of the main triangle. They're pretty crazy looking, but presumably allow some very large frames for very tall people.

Antelope 70cm

I'm 6'9" and like mentioned above, custom maybe the only way to go. I don't think you will regret it if you do. The days of big factory bikes are gone. Years ago, 20+ I would guess, I had a 27" Univega {still have it} and a 28" Panasonic. Having a bike made for your measurements will make it easier for you to enjoy riding.

Mazama

I'm like 6' 12" w/ 38" inseam and I crammed myself into a stock 25" Trek hybrid for a 2.5 years/7,500 miles. I bit the bullet a couple of years ago and got a custom bike from Co-Motion cycles. Great personal service! No regrets and absolutely no problems with the bike. I've got about 5,000 miles on it thus far.

Homeyba

6'12"? isnt' that almost 7'???

To the OP, I'd look at a custom. The last thing you want is to be scrunched into a bike that is too small.

DCTILLER

im 6'4" 36 inch inseam, ride a 62 cm cannondale caad4 and love it. i think cannondale goes up to 64cm also. the important thing is to get an lbs that will give you a fitting. i would suggest either a trek or a cannondale dealer. obviously custom would be awesome but everybody cant afford that.
good luck

LarDasse74

Find a shop that does custom fitting and pay to get measured, then use the results from that measurement to shop for stock bikes or, if nothing comes close, go custom. It is more expensive, but spending even $5 on a bike that does not fit is a waste of $5.

bretgross

Bingo!

This is one of those cases where (for the reasons I mentioned in my first reply) your worst enemy could be "good enough".

MilitantPotato

6'8" 101cm floor to pubic bone here. Bought a trek 7.3fx 25" bike due to the longer top tube length. Rode that around for a year, it works well enough for shorter rides of <15 miles, then everything starts hurting. I shopped around for a custom build, decided to go with a Rodriguez Custom. Out of all the custom builders, they offered one of the best prices for a frame/fork. Deposit to frame being boxed for shipping took less than a month. Would of been less time, but they had started building bikes for the 09' season just before I submitted my order.

No extra stuff on the frame like pump braze ons, fancy head badges, spoke holders come standard though. They do weld on a beer opener, I love that thing.

The build quality, welding, paint, and customer service is amazing.
They were more than willing to build the bike as I wanted, with clearance for 210mm cranks, clearance for 32C tires, and a long chain stay.
A rim was bent during shipping, they rebuilt it and it was back at my house in less than a week, no charge. Their wheel builds are top notch, haven't needed a retruing after a year of hauling my 230lbs around.

Co-Motion is another popular custom builder, and they have some decent prices.
If you want to avoid the custom route, Rivendell has some very nice frames in XXL sizes. https://www.rivbike.com/ But they cost as much, or more than a custom build by Rod Cycles and a few others though.

PlatyPius

I don't see a post by Mike yet, but I'm sure he'll be here soon to extol the virtues of BikesDirect.com and the vast number of sizes they stock....

escii_35

I've seen a few low end stock 27" 70's to mid 80's Japanese bikes otherwise you are in custom land. Don't buy a good enough bike.

Erick12

Going custom seems to be developing into something of a consensus...

While I don't doubt that custom is money better spent, at some point its just not really possible to spend certain amounts of money. And at lower amounts, isn't that smart, even if possible. Who are the absolute lowest cost builders? One guy suggested I get a custom frame, then buy a bike from a store, swap out everything onto my frame, and then sell that frame, and that would be considerably cheaper than getting the complete custom bike from the builder.

Sassonian, it seems like Zinn is a little pricier than most. While someone who specializes in tall bikes may be better than a regular custom, it looks like the cheapest bike is something like $5000? That's definitely out of my price range, I'm really stretching it if I purchase something around $3000. Do you think you got a lot more from Zinn that you wouldn't have got from another custom builder? Maybe I could get the frame from him and put in cheaper parts and gradually replace them with higher quality and tall guy parts?

Guess I should find out my inseam to the floor, more of a helpful number. I think one of the stores I was in thought a 64cm Trek might work, but didn't have one in store, though they could special order it. They wanted to do a custom fitting before bothering to order it, so...


I guess I'll go get that fitting.

Sassonian

Yep it was a bit of a gulp moment for me when I figured out the price. And I take an extra hit when I convert it to New Zealand dollars.

Without having had a bike from another custom builder - I can't honestly answer your question. Sounds like people with other bikes are satisfied also. What I can do, is vouch for the fact that his ideas work in the real world (and this was something that I was very worried about when ordering). The jump in performance and comfort has been amazing. The reason that I went with him was that as far as I know, he's the only one that specialises in bikes for tall riders and he has himself as a test pilot for all his ideas. So he knows intimately the issues for taller riders and what's worked for him.

Don't forget that the Titanium isn't the only option from Zinn - they do Magnesium and steel frames which are cheaper - Ti is an expensive material. I just had a look on their site and they do a custom Project Big Stelvio Cromoly frame for just over $2000. You could probably stay within your budget for a full build on one of these.

Adrian.

jaxgtr

Go dog Go

You don't need to spend 3-5K for a custom. Tsunami Bikes will build you a frame for $600. $350 for an Alpha Q fork with 400mm tube from Zinn and you'll be rolling a stiff custom frame/fork for 1K.

I'm 6' 9" 250# and I'm getting one...for $600 how can you go wrong?

https://www.tsunamibikes.com/Tsunami_Bikes/Road.html

schnee

The Gunnar Sport is an off-the-peg bike that's available in up to a 68cm.
https://www.gunnarbikes.com/sportspecs.php

Full frameset is a grand. Custom is 1250 or so. This is basically Waterford, owned by a dude named Schwinn. Yeah, that Schwinn.

These are the people that built Yao Min's custom bike, they know their stuff for tall people too.

jimblairo

I'm 6'61/2" with a 37" inseam (99 cm stand over) and I ride a 64 Specialized Roubaix. The Roubaix is extremely confortable but I had to use a seat post with a set back to get knee over pedal as I have very long femurs. The stem is stock.

Great bike and I'm sure it could be fitted to your size.

Go dog Go

The 68 on the Gunnar frames is the seat mast which has become a popular way on measuering ST lenght these days. That makes a 68 cm frame much shorter then when measured ctr. BB to ctr. TT.

The difference? You end up with a short head tube if you're buying it as a "68 cm frame"

Tall guy + short head tube for the size = stack spacers or big positive angle stem for many.

Guess it all depends on what someone's going to do with the bike....

sixate

I'm also 6'8", and I ride a 61cm Fuji Roubaix. I wear a 36" inseam on most of my jeans, but I also have some jeans with a 34" inseam. I feel like my bike fits great. When I was testing bikes out I almost bought a Cannondale CAAD9 5 63cm, but I got a better deal on the Fuji, and the fit felt the same as the Cannondale. I also tried out a 64cm Trek, but it was waaay too big for me so if a 61-63cm fram feels too small then you need to find a shop that has a 64cm Trek.

My Bike.-------> https://www.flickr.com/photos/32253363@N07/4247918451/

Go dog Go

You have a side shot of you on that bike you could post? I'm just really curious to see how it looks. I'm only an inch taller, with a longer inseam and ride a custom 71.5 cm frame, 64 cm TT with a 130 mm stem

Here's a current pic of me on that 71.5 cm frame. I can't possibly conceive of someone 6' 7"+ on a 61 cm frame.....That's a 4" shorter ST.

umpire54

Guys...I have a seriously killer tall bike (36" standover ) I can't use. It is an 81' Raleigh Competition GS with Campagnolo Gran Sport components. Dia Compe brakes. It is nice. I would like $450.00 for the bike plus shipping which should be approx. $65.00. See pic through my Flickr link below: (mind you...the flash and the silver paint did not show the actual color of silver well)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/umpire5...7622110491209/

The bike is in fantastic shape and is one fine ride. I have new burgandy wine colored bar tape for it. I left the original tape on it so far because I love the vintage look to it...but am covering it with the burgandy tape soon. I don't have the heart to take off the old tape...I would let the final owner do that. The paint scrape on the front fork is about the worst place on it and I will touch it up before selling. I have this thing about history...and like to relish in originality until I finally decide to clean up a bike. You can see my other sets on Flickr and tell that this is true.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/umpire54/sets/

I am 5'10" and got so excited when I found it on CL because I had been reading about Raleighs and did not have a Campy component bike at the time...it was my first and rides like the wind.

I have been torn on selling it until I read this thread. I want it to go to a good home. I have enjoyed riding this bike so much...once I am on it(somebody's gonna get hurt...and that's me!). Starting...stopping just isn't a good idea to keep riding it when it is 4 1/2" too tall for me. I have since learned that "FIT" is the key to fun biking. I see tall guys have a tough time finding the right fit too. Maybe this bike is for you. I am in no hurry to sell. If any one is interested IM me and I will get back with you. Thanks!

LarDasse74

It is hard to tell from the photos, but is it possible the fork is bent a bit from a head-on collision? In both the full-side-profile shot and the fork crown detail shot it certainly looks like the fork is slightly bent backwards. Very hard to tell for certain from the photos, tho.

thsevlie

I'm 6' 7" with a 36" inseam and I've been happy riding 62cm-64cm frames. I took a (used) 1998 63cm Bianchi Eros cross-country last summer and didn't have any trouble until I cracked the seat tube above the BB weld...oops. The frame fit great with a tall seatpost and I enjoyed riding it.

If I ever go custom steel I'll have it fully lugged, though.