fatguy_ona_bike

Glad to hear it went well. Enjoy the bike when it comes in!

sreten

Hi,

No you are, implying people are saying things they are not.

Standover : (minumum recommended)
1" for a road bike
2" for a hybrid
3" for a MTB

Does not imply on its own a bike will fit you well.

rgds, sreten.

ThermionicScott 

You quoted one post and then responded to a different one. Which is it? Do your "minumum recommended" numbers come from any research, or did you just pull them out of the air? I personally think that if you're going to stop in a way that you fly off the saddle with knees bent and not supporting your weight, you're going to hit the top tube anyway, so you might as well have less distance to fall before you do. After you get some riding experience under your belt, this scenario becomes less and less likely, making it a moot point.

The OP came in with a bike she loved to ride (had no apparent problems with fit while riding), and everyone told her she had the wrong size frame based on the standover. It's a non-sequitur.

DX-MAN

Wow...you spoiling for a FIGHT, or what? Accusations? REALLY? Your first paragraph HERE, I mostly agree with; what we DISAGREE on is the significance of standover -- you think it's worthless, I think it has SOME worth, and just because I disagree with you, you wanna act like I'm an advocate for "STANDOVER IS ALL."

Standover is a STARTING point; nothing more. It's a RARE rider that gets well fit to a bike when he/she can't straddle the bike AT ALL, or when he/she has enough room for some delicate attention from an S.O.

I have my doubts that you could better fit a rider to a bike than I can, so (cue the DX Chop).

The MYTH is what you're pushing, that standover is useless; if YOU find it useless, all well and good. It HAS helped multitudes, and WILL help multitudes more. (And, in truth, most of the 'momentum' stuff came from Eddie B., so take it up with him -- let me know how that works out for you.)

I'm not interested in a flame war; you believe what you want, I believe what my experience has taught me is right for a LOT of people.

sreten

Hi,

Anyone who is normally proportioned and buys a new bike
with no standover because it allegedly fits is being misled.

rgds, sreten.

StanSeven

Good. I'm sure you will be much happier. As others said, it's not so much the standover height as just good overall fit and comfort that matters. The small size will feel better. There's nothing worse in my opinion than trying to push a bike that's too big around on rides whether it's cornering and handling, climbing, or just riding along the flats.

ThermionicScott 

Easy, tiger -- if I'd accused you of believing in myths, spreading cynicism, or not understanding anything, you might have taken offense as well.

Just to clarify, I have nothing against using X" of standover as a starting point when trying out bikes in the store and then setting them up to fit, I just don't think that measurement has any worth once you're out riding a bike that is set up well for you. (Unless you're MTBing and regularly falling off your saddle.)

DX-MAN

Why does everyone try to tell me to take it easy, when I already AM? As far as getting offended, well...for the subjects you listed, I'd likely LOL. Calling me racist, a thief, a child molester, a pathological liar -- THOSE offend me.

For example, about spreading myths -- that would just spur me, with a smile, into an enjoyable "Yo Momma" type of exchange of barbed comments...FUN! Cynicism? One of my favorite jokes from 30 years ago:

An OPTIMIST is a father who will let his teenager borrow the car;
A PESSIMIST is a father who won't;
A CYNIC is a father who DID.

Lack of understanding? I have more levels of understanding than Dante's Inferno has levels. It's the result of a 'deviant' mind....

And, just for the record, about your clarification: if that's what you MEANT, then that's what you should have SAID. Kinda the cornerstone of communication, y'know.....

iflabs

Glad they were willing to work it out, like any reputable shop should.

I was in the same exact position when I bought my bike. I have a really short inseam for someone of my height so I was overwhelmingly worried about stand over clearance. The sales person I talked with suggested a 49cm over a 46cm for me. So I bit and bought the 49cm, but for whatever reason the lack of stand over clearance was gnawing me inside out. I went to swap it for a 46cm and after a week realized I felt 'scrunched up' on the bike; my knees were almost touching the handlebar and foot was grinding the wheel on turns. I apologized to the shop and they were willing to swap it back again.

I will gladly take a bike that rides comfortably over stand over clearance after the whole experience.

Six jours

The story of standover height, for anyone who cares...

For most of the history of cycling it was ignored. If you look at pictures of racers prior to about 1960 you'll see that they rode much bigger bikes than we do now, often with just a few cm. of seatpost showing. This was because they used much higher handlebar positions than we do now. A side effect of that was to reduce standover to less than zero. That didn't matter because nobody in their right mind would ever have hopped off a bike and planted both feet flat on the ground while straddling the top tube.

Enter the American bike boom, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission. I don't know if we had a lot of newly-minted American cycling enthusiasts who weren't in their right minds, or if the CPSC just worried that we might, but it was decided that crotch clearance was necessary, so it was enshrined in the law.

Bike shops responded by having folks stand over the top tube with both feet on the floor and lifting up the handlebars. What started as an attempt to comply with the law ended up a de facto fitting system: "Yup, about an inch of clearance. The bike fits!" The first bike boom fizzled, of course, and with it, most of the things Americans learned about bicycles. Then came the resurgence in popularity started by LeMond and redoubled by Armstrong, and now we have a huge body of cyclists who know damn near nothing about bicycling. Hence "If you ride a bike without crotch clearance you'll die!!!"

Short version: Crotch clearance means nothing when it comes to bike fit. If you prefer a long and/or upright position on a traditionally-styled frame, you may well find that your frame size pushes the top tube well up into your goodies when you straddle it with both feet flat on the ground. At the other end of the scale, a racer on a compact frame, using the smallest size he can get away with, may be perfectly fitted yet have a foot of crotch clearance.

Even shorter version: if you find it necessary to straddle your bike with both feet flat on the ground, you'll want some crotch clearance. If you scratch your head and wonder why anyone would ever feel the need to stand over a bicycle with both feet flat on the ground, you can ignore crotch clearance completely.

DX-MAN

Ladies and gentlemen. . . Grant Peterson's evil twin has spoken.

eofelis 

Glad they were able to get you a better sized bike!
I am about your size and I have found that it's very hard for me to find a bike that is *too* small, but most will be too large! I see many riders my size on frames that are too large.
You will probably always want to look at a Small (or Extra Small) size frame. Make sure you look at the actual measurement numbers of the frame, not just the size that the bike maker says it is.
I have bikes that are size labeled 41cm, 42cm, 44cm, 50cm, 13" and 13.5", but they all pretty much the same dimensions size-wise.

eofelis 

A couple of weeks ago I rode in a small group ride with some riders I never met before. One of the riders had a brand new LHT Deluxe (S&S couplers) built up beautifully ($$$) by a local LBS. I oohed and ahhed over it. Then when she got on it I didn't have the heart to tell her that it was waaaayyyyy too big for her. She had almost no extra seatpost showing and was reaching down for the pedal at the downstroke. It's a damn shame that the LBS let her out the door on a frame that I thought was about 2 sizes too big. (I have had 3 Surly bikes and I know they run large.)

zandoval 

Perfect...

Allot of the small frames I have seen have sacrificed some of the standard bicycle geometry to accommodate the shortened tubes - Your medium frame should be just fine...

BUT - Please post a pic so wee can see your Vita Sport seat and handlebar position**********

sreten

Hi,

Your post is mostly utter nonsense. Once the safety cycle was invented
and bike fit wasn't two things were required of a typical bike, standover
clearance and one foot on the ground from the saddle for most people.
Next to no seatpost was because saddles were set well below optimum.
(Which meant kids could easily ride adult sized bicycles ...)

Racers of course didn't care about standover, why should they ?

Meanwhile in most of the real world for a quality bike for a typical
person, for a long time the right standover meant the right fit *.
The longer legged short torso going for more standover,
the short legged long torso going for less or none at all.
(Or a bespoke non-standard frame.)

Nowadays nobody needs to buy a bike with no standover for
it to fit properly and you can't just use standover to judge fit.

Still peoples proportions haven't changed and for many ranges
of (good) bikes a standover of ~ 1" for a road bike, ~ 2" for a
hybrid and ~ 3" for a MTB should equate to a bike that fits you.

rgds, sreten.

* Of course only for bike designs where standover is an issue.

Six jours

You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about and should not even be allowed on the subforum.

Regards, etc.

Road Fan

It's also a matter of rider tolerance. With over 40 years experience on bicycles, I have tolerance for a standover height that gives me just a cm or so of clearance when standing in my cycling shoes. I also have a very well-trained habit of not landing flat-footed on the ground after a panic stop. I'm really only worried about contact bone to top tube. Some others could not abide a bike with this sizing. But I agree, the SOH means essentially nothing in determining if a bike will be a good for the rider, or will allow the rider's contact point requirements to be satisfied.

However if it's a worry bead for the customer, the bike shop should respect it while not neglecting the other factors in cycle fitting. It's not an easy out.

sreten

Hi,

That just implies compared to average your on the somewhat shorter legged
longer torso side and prefer to compromise stand over for the sort of fit you
like with frames built in sizes for the "average" person.

Cynical manipulation of standover without proper sizing did and still does occur,
especially for extreme bike sizes, tall bikes are too short, short bikes too long.

I would assume you prefer bikes sized on your height, not inseam/standover.

rgds, sreten.

Standover can be meaningless, but most of the time now its very meaningful.